[MrMoonshineMan]

Gregory Maguire has written a few books about popular stories told from different points of view, such as "Wicked" and "Confessions of an ugly stepsister". has anyone read these? what did you think? do you approve of this kind of book writing? it bothers me a little, feels like cheating.

[JamesL]

I guess you could call it cheating in the sense that the source material is already in place. Perhaps lazy would be a better word. Then again, two-thirds of fantasy literature today is just rehashes of old stories, so it's a pretty common thing.

[Yobmod]

I've not heard of Maguire, but Jane Yolen and Robin Mckinley have done retellings of fairytales. I actually like the idea, most fairytales have great stories at their core, but are too dumbed down for the younger audience. So retelling them in a more adult way (in terms of prose and characterisation, not simply graphic sex / violence) is a good thing.

My favourite is Beauty by Sherri Tepper, that has the protagonist taking on roles from a host of fairytales.

Others i would recomend:

Robin McKinley, Beauty
Jane Yolen, Briar Rose
Ellen Kushner , Thomas the Rhymer

[KatG]

It's not a rehash. These types of stories either take a different approach to a legend, use completely different events than the traditional legend or create a story that then is said to have been distorted into the legend. McGuire's "Wicked" presents a world and a main character who have little to do with the story told in "The Wizard of Oz," but has connective threads to Baum's work. Robin McKinley's "Spindle" tells ostensibly the story of Sleeping Beauty, but the events of the story are very different from the familiar fairy tale.

William Shakespeare used Greek myths, historical legends and British and Christian folklore for his plays. Not that I'm comparing McGuire or McKinley to Shakespeare, but when did creatively exploring rich themes become a bad thing?

[Leiali]

There is no need for me to comment on the 'cheating' question as I totally agree with KatG and Yobmod - Beauty is also my favourite interpretation of a fairy story, though don't forget The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter - who can't be called lazy or a cheat, the Little Red Riding Hood story is a marvellous, creative subversion of an innocent seeming tale.

But has anyone actually read Gregory Maguires books? I have seen them in the bookshop, considered buying them due to having a taste for well told fairy tales, but not bought any as I don't know enough about them....

[KatG]

I read "Wicked" which I received as a gift. I was expecting a satirical, more comic take on things, but it really isn't a humorous story at all. Not that this is a bad thing, but I think they haven't packaged it very well. Nonetheless, McGuire has done well in and out of the genre with these types of books, and "Wicked" has somehow been turned into a Broadway play, which seems rather strange.

I enjoyed "Wicked," though I found the length of time he spent on the main characters' school days a bit much. Basically he is inventing a completely alternate world and circumstances that's sort of a skewed mirror to the original fairy tale or literature. "Wicked" explores different kinds of moral cowardice.

[Rob B]

I loved Wicked and I don't think he necessarily built up an alternate world, though there were strong overtones of that. Rather I think he more so filled in details where there was a blank canvas. I don't think he changed the original story of Oz very much at all, just told it from a different perspective.

I also saw the Broadway play and was rather disappointed. Whereas I felt Maguire didn't alter the integrity of the original Oz story/film, the musical really altered the integrity and made grand changes to Maguire's story, and indeed, the story of Oz. If anything, the musical was much more alternate history than the the book, Wicked. I blogged a semi-review (http://blogorob.blogspot.com/2005/03/busy-snowy.html) of the musical after I saw it.

Incidentally, my wife read Confessions and hated it. With some trepidation she decided to read Wicked and really liked it.

[Arterial Spray]

Has anyone read John Gardner's Grendel? It reworks the Beowulf story in a similar manner as Wicked reworks the Oz story.

Using a very different perspective on famous source material is not laziness -- usually the writer is trying to make some point which can only be made by comparing the new take on the material to the older approach... such as how a change in perspective can alter how you see events and people. For example, many writers have reworked the Bible from Satan's perspective...

[FicusFan]

I read Wicked too. I wasn't expecting comedy, so I was ok with the tone of the book.

It is a skewed representation of everything that we know about the characters in Oz. It either filled in or created more of the background details in OZ, which was interesting. I enjoyed it at the start, and thought the idea was cool, and not cheating. I have to say I liked it less and less as the book went on. It ended up dragging, and the convoluted excuses he used to turn the bad characters into the good characters, and the good characters into the bad ones, got tiring eventually. At first they seemed cute and inventive, but then it got old.

I haven't read any of his other stuff, and have no plans to, but I have friends who love his books. You just never know until you try what works for you and what doesn't.

[Yobmod]

I loved John Gardner's Grendel. having not read Beowolf yet I'm not sure how much the story was changed, but it did a great job of protraying the anger caused by progress.

I just finished Was by Ryman. Its not a retelling of the Wizard of Oz, but tells the story of an abused Dorothy who inspired the story, and a man with AIDS who was in turn inspired by the book/film. I think its related to the topic, as it depends heavily of having a least a casual aquantance with Frank Baums books and the film.
I liked it, but its reprinting in the fantasy masterworks series seems a bit spurious. The (very) small amount of fantasy involved can all be as delusions of the 2 mentally ill protagonists.

Q. For the people who like this type of re-telling of old stories, how important do you feel it is to know the original story to enjoy any twists in the retelling?

I always try to read the original first, so Ullyses by Joyce is waiting on my shelf til i've finished the Odyssey/Iliad, and ive not read Dan Simmons' Ilium for the same reason.