A Lion Among Men - Gregory Maguire

★★★★★★★★★★ (4/10)

Wicked. A glorious piece of prose-turned-Broadway musical. A twist on the traditional (albeit Frank L. Baum’s version) belief that the creepy green woman avenging her sister is evil incarnate looking for trouble. Wicked was one of the most interesting books I have ever read, and when I have enough money, I want to try to purchase a first edition. As to Maguire’s other books… I think the word, or guttural comment, that best suits my thoughts so far is “eh.”

I can’t remember if I’ve read Son of a Witch, which probably means that I haven’t, so I can’t pass judgment on it just yet. I did read a non-Wicked novel, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and I was thoroughly repulsed. It was the first book I borrowed from the San Diego County Library, and I think that event deterred me from going back to that particular branch for months afterward. If I find a copy of that, I’ll really say what I thought about it.

A Lion Among Men. I started this book with hope. I loved Wicked, so I thought that, since it was the same story world, this book must have some merit. I wanted to like it. Perhaps I was swayed by remembering that the Lion was not my favorite character. He always seemed to blend into the background of Oz for me, but I wanted to find out what Maguire thought of him. The Lion is one of those characters who doesn’t get much detail. For instance, you wonder: why is he cowardly? Why the ribbons? How does he really fit into the story?

I have no questions about what happened, which is something in Maguire’s favor, yet I feel that something was missing. Every event is well-detailed, vivid, imaginative, but I closed the book wanting more. I’m not sure what I wanted, but I was not particularly satisfied. Part of my grievance has to do with the structure of the book. The majority of it is told in a flashback-ridden interview. Flashbacks are all well and good here and there, but there are not meant to hold up an entire novel. The way that Maguire penned this novel made everything easy to follow and complete, but I was frustrated that the plot was going nowhere fast. The story was moving, but it seemed to take forever for a point to be made, or an episode to conclude.

Overall, I didn’t like the Lion, named Brrr. He was rather annoying, and that’s something I’d never thought about him before. There was a little too much Lion-dwelling-on-the-past. Brrr spends so much time feeling sorry for himself, that it gets a little boring after a while. He has every reason to feel sorry for himself, since Maguire paints him as being doomed to being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people around to see it. I would only ask that some of his self-pity be removed to make way for the important parts of his life. I almost felt that his regret overshadowed the events that led to his continual reputation as cowardly.

I have to admit, though, that I absolutely loved Yackle. She was a character that I was immediately in tune with for some odd reason. She was pitiable, but she would not let you pity her under any circumstance. Yackle is a character who could be some off-target role model in some ways: she brooks no lies, says what she feels is true, and knows what she wants (even if all she wants throughout the novel is to die and be done with it). I never really knew what to expect from her. She was the surprise and excitement that kept me reading until the very last page. The only event that really shocked me about her was how she became blind; Maguire seems content to let me assume that it was old age, so that he can drop a bomb like this one. Her story is just as fascinating, if not more, than the Brrr’s. I would have to say more at this point.

I can’t say that I was entirely disappointed with A Lion Among Men, only that I feel that it could have been better, and it could have been worse. The glass cat was a surprise, but I won’t be in any hurry to read it again, which I will eventually. My last thought is to wonder whether or not there will be another novel to add to the Wicked series, since Maguire seems to have left either obvious and hopeful hints of things to come, or a Lion’s share of promises that won’t be kept.