Gregory Maguire (was: Need some literary advice)

[abigailnus]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Wendy" <hebrideanblack at e...> wrote:

> I will say, though, that I *loved* "Confessions of an Ugly Step-
> sister." ... I'm curious, Abigail . . . what 
> about "Confessions" did you not like?

I liked Confessions a lot more then Wicked, but it still felt half-baked 
to me. I don't think Maguire ever decided if he was rewriting a fairy 
tale, giving it a modern twist, or writing a novel that happened to draw 
on a fairy tale for its plot.  In other words, he couldn't decide where to 
place his emphasis - on the real world elements or the fairy tale ones.  
Also, I didn't care for the ending - Maguire had so many balls up in the 
air - Iris' painting, the mysteries of Clara's past, the romance between 
Iris and Jasper, to name only a few - and he seemed to abandon most 
of them for the sake of the traditional fairy tale wrap up.  Mostly, 
Confessions didn't spark my interest the way other retellings of fairy 
tales do.  It felt not-quite-ready.

> And, does Maguire have other books besides these two?

I've only read Wicked and Confessions, but he has another novel called 
Lost, which I'm told has something to do with Jack the Ripper, and 
there's a new book of his coming out these days called Mirror, Mirror, 
which is, naturally, a retelling of Snow White.  Also, I think before he 
wrote adult books he was writing children's books (picture books, I think).

Abigail