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rainbowrachel 's review for:
The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz
by L. Frank Baum
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I had somehow managed to get through over 40 years of life without ever having read this book or seen the film adaptation, and I thought it was about time I fixed that. Having now done so, I don't feel as if I was missing out on this. I had several issues with this, some of which were the book's fault and some of which definitely weren't.
To start with, the mitigating factors that are not the book's fault. I am obviously far older than the target audience, so it doesn't matter if I don't like it so long as they do. I had also managed to pick up most of the major plot points over the years through the process of cultural osmosis; is it surprising that I didn't enjoy a book where I knew most of the major plot points before they happened? And finally, I didn't enjoy the narration of the specific audiobook that I listened to, which may be a point against the audiobook but is definitely not the fault of the original text of the book.
I suspect that these three points make up the majority of my apathy for this book, but there were a couple of other minor gripes that I have. This book was, I believe, intended as something of a modern fairy tale. And it probably worked well in that regard when it was written, but over a century later it lands in a bit of a no-man's-land for me. It has neither the weight of tradition of old fairy tales, nor the resonance with modern sensibilities. Maybe that's just me. It also seemed that its structure was deliberately mimic some of the forms from old fairy tales, with a lot of deliberate repetition. However, this didn't really work for me. Since this is a longer story than most old fairy tales, the repetition stopped feeling rhythmic and satisfying and just got tedious and tiresome. Again, maybe just me.
Overall, I don't think this is a bad book, but it wasn't for me.
To start with, the mitigating factors that are not the book's fault. I am obviously far older than the target audience, so it doesn't matter if I don't like it so long as they do. I had also managed to pick up most of the major plot points over the years through the process of cultural osmosis; is it surprising that I didn't enjoy a book where I knew most of the major plot points before they happened? And finally, I didn't enjoy the narration of the specific audiobook that I listened to, which may be a point against the audiobook but is definitely not the fault of the original text of the book.
I suspect that these three points make up the majority of my apathy for this book, but there were a couple of other minor gripes that I have. This book was, I believe, intended as something of a modern fairy tale. And it probably worked well in that regard when it was written, but over a century later it lands in a bit of a no-man's-land for me. It has neither the weight of tradition of old fairy tales, nor the resonance with modern sensibilities. Maybe that's just me. It also seemed that its structure was deliberately mimic some of the forms from old fairy tales, with a lot of deliberate repetition. However, this didn't really work for me. Since this is a longer story than most old fairy tales, the repetition stopped feeling rhythmic and satisfying and just got tedious and tiresome. Again, maybe just me.
Overall, I don't think this is a bad book, but it wasn't for me.