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Monday, February 16, 2009
I'm a big fan of Wicked, and I'm happy to say that A Lion Among Men gets the series back on track after the meandering and unsatisfying Son of a Witch. This time around Gregory Maguire is focusing on Brr, known to us as the Cowardly Lion.
As Oz prepares for war, Brr is sent on a mission from the Emerald City to gather information from an old nun named Yackle. In order to interview the nearly dead maunt Brr must travel to the Cloister of Saint Glinda, a convent that unfortunately lies directly between the approaching army of the Emerald City and the resistance fighters of Munchkinland. Also caught in the middle is the mysterious fortune-telling Clock of the Time Dragon and its' keepers.
Some background: When Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and her sister Nessarose (killed by Dorothy's house) were killed, their half brother Shell became Emperor of Oz. He has taken that mantle (after Glinda and the Scarecrow took a turn) and is now obsessed with bringing the sececed nation of Munchkinland directly under Emerald City control.
Brr is trying to gather information on the whereabouts of Liir, Elphaba's son and rightful heir to the throne, but the reasons why and how he came to be a civil servant to Emerald City is all part of the journey. Like every other Maguire book, it isn't so much about plot as it is about the characters.
This is book 3 in the Wicked series and newcomers will be lost if they have not read the earlier books. While much of the story functions as a stand alone tale about the Lion, the ending can only be appreciated fully by those that have been on the journey from the beginning. Questions are answered, but this in turn reveals other questions. The "action" in A Lion Among Men takes place in one night, making this the most urgent of the series so far. The middle chapter always suffers a bit in an epic, and this one definitely is The Empire Strikes Back of the Wicked books. It starts with things going poorly and ends with a declaration to join forces and find/rescue another character.
If you are already a fan of the Wicked series there is a lot to like here. Brr is a fascinating anti-hero, not so much cowardly as he is opportunistic. While I never grew to positively like the character, by the end I at least understood him. His interactions with Yackle supply the most entertaining sections as the Lion attempts to draw information from the old maunt while she in turn is searching for something from him. The final 30 pages or so pack a lot in and several revelations are unveiled one after the other.
I've liked all of Maguire's re-imaginings of old tales, but the Wicked series is my favorite. Something about taking the structure of The Wizard of Oz, turning the whole narrative on its' ear and keeping the tone deadly serious works for me. When A Lion Among Men ended I was already thinking ahead to the next chapter and who it might focus on next time. I have my suspicions but I'm even more intrigued by one of the final lines of dialogue:
"Don't you understand? She's coming back..."
Looking forward to Book 4 already.
