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Was
"A moving lament for lost childhoods and an eloquent tribute to the enduring power of art."—The New York Times
A haunting novel exploring the lives of characters intertwined with The Wizard of Oz: the "real" Dorothy Gale; Judy Garland's unhappy fame; and Jonathan, a dying actor, and his therapist, whose work at an asylum unwittingly intersects with the Yellow Brick Road.
Geoff Ryman is the author of The King's Last Song, Air, The Child Garden, The Unconquered Country, and Paradise Tales. He has lived in Cambodia and Brazil, and now teaches at the University of Manchester, England.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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2838 people want to read
About the author
Geoff Ryman
97 books207 followersGeoffrey Charles Ryman (born 1951) is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and slipstream fiction. He was born in Canada, and has lived most of his life in England.
His science fiction and fantasy works include The Warrior Who Carried Life (1985), the novella The Unconquered Country (1986) (winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the World Fantasy Award), and The Child Garden (1989) (winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Campbell Award). Subsequent fiction works include Was (1992), Lust (2001), and Air (2005) (winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and on the short list for the Nebula Award).
His science fiction and fantasy works include The Warrior Who Carried Life (1985), the novella The Unconquered Country (1986) (winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the World Fantasy Award), and The Child Garden (1989) (winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Campbell Award). Subsequent fiction works include Was (1992), Lust (2001), and Air (2005) (winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and on the short list for the Nebula Award).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 270 reviews
December 5, 2024
There's no place like home. There's no place like home. - Dorothy GaleIs that necessarily a bad thing?
We have all had the experience, as kids usually, of seeing something that inspired us. Whether it was to hit a baseball, run faster than anyone else, jump higher, shoot straighter, sing with power and feeling, dance like Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers, or Michael Jackson. Maybe our jaws went slack at a film, a piece of music, a book, and we might have though to ourselves, "I want to do that someday." You might be forgiven, on reading Was, to find your lower jaw losing contact with it's upper, and a desire creeping up your throat, a wish to emulate the wonderful story-telling power Geoff Ryman demonstrates in this book.
Geoff Ryman - image from Slate
Ryman weaves his tale around Wizard of Oz themes. The Dorothy here is an orphan who arrives in Manhattan, Kansas in 1875, with Toto to live with the impoverished Aunt Em and her less than friendly mate, Uncle Henry, who will eventually abuse her. Dorothy is miserable. Her family is believed to have died of “the Dip”, diphtheria. Her father left the family before that. She befriends a teenager, a boy who longs to get away. He does, but by hanging himself. Dorothy despises Em, but is resigned to her fate, changing from sweet to dangerous in the process. Frank Baum shows up in a cameo as an inspirational substitute teacher. Dorothy is later shown as an old woman, who piques the interest of Bill, a football hero teenager soon to join the military. He becomes another thread, altering totally, finding an interest in psychology. He later becomes a shrink.
Jonathan is a gay actor, shown as a troubled child, then as a dying AIDS victim. He is the reincarnation of the real Dorothy’s suicidal friend. He connects to Bill, who is his shrink, and goes to Kansas to search for the locale of the real Oz story.
Another thread is of Judy Garland, her early upbringing as the youngest in a vaudevillian family, one in which dad is really gay and hooks up with the local boys until he is discovered and run out of town. Mom, ignored by dad, takes on local guys as well, but eventually leaves Dad to keep from being constantly on the run. Judy is portrayed kindly, as a nice, talented girl.
This is a very moving, if depressing tale, a very interesting interweaving of various views on a central theme. Jonathan, mirroring the film, has color-blindness issues. It is a masterwork that made me want to weep for the sadness of the characters, but also sag at knowing that, as many times as I might click my heels together, I will never be able to fashion such a magnificent tale. Sometimes the mountain is just too high, and our road takes us around it instead of up and over. Was is simply one of the best books I have ever read.
Published 1993
Link to Ryman's Twitter feed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 13, 2016
This is a very unusual story that jumps back and forth in time and between a variety of characters, all connected by “The Wizard of Oz”. There was Dorothy Gael, a poor and abused child, growing up in Kansas during the 1880s. Another story introduces Jonathan, an actor dying of AIDS whose love of Oz helped him cope with an unhappy childhood. Then there is the story of Jonathan’s therapist, who discovered early on a talent for helping people and making money. And let’s not forget the young and troubled Frances Gumm, who later became Judy Garland.
This story started off a little slow and I got frustrated bouncing back and forth between characters. Shortly after, I got absorbed by the lives, history and struggles of the characters. Their stories started to flow and intersect. I loved the mix of reality and fantasy, how the characters' lives all connected, and the way they coped with difficult and unhappy lives. At times this was bleak, but it was also a beautiful, imaginative and heartbreaking story.
This story started off a little slow and I got frustrated bouncing back and forth between characters. Shortly after, I got absorbed by the lives, history and struggles of the characters. Their stories started to flow and intersect. I loved the mix of reality and fantasy, how the characters' lives all connected, and the way they coped with difficult and unhappy lives. At times this was bleak, but it was also a beautiful, imaginative and heartbreaking story.
October 1, 2018
I'm adding a review more than a year after reading the book. This book has really stayed on my mind.
I was away from home and through serendipity, I came across "Was" by Geoff Ryman. I'd never heard of the book or the author, but I started reading it and loved it. It's a very imaginative mishmash of a fictional character, a dying man, on a road trip looking for the "real" Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, plus a fictional L. Frank Baum, fictional speculation about the "real" Judy Garland, oh, and amazing bits about the history of Kansas. It's sad, very grim in places, a bit bleak, but a very moving story of characters, "real" and imaginary, in different times and places, all trying to marshal enough brains, heart, and courage to find a way home or at least someplace like home.
I was away from home and through serendipity, I came across "Was" by Geoff Ryman. I'd never heard of the book or the author, but I started reading it and loved it. It's a very imaginative mishmash of a fictional character, a dying man, on a road trip looking for the "real" Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, plus a fictional L. Frank Baum, fictional speculation about the "real" Judy Garland, oh, and amazing bits about the history of Kansas. It's sad, very grim in places, a bit bleak, but a very moving story of characters, "real" and imaginary, in different times and places, all trying to marshal enough brains, heart, and courage to find a way home or at least someplace like home.
February 17, 2009
his was, by far, one of the best books I have read this year. It is basically a mediation on life through the lens of The Wizard Of Oz. The novel consists of a number of intertwined stories, all centered in some way on the Oz phenomenon. The story touches on Jonathan, an actor dying of AIDS who has loved the Oz story since he was a child. It touches on Judy Garland, her life, and the making of the movie version of The Wizard of Oz. Most movingly, it also posits the existence of an actual girl, named Dorothy Gael, who lived in middle of nowhere Kansas during the late nineteenth century. Accordingly to this (actually totally made up) version of the story, Baum briefly acted as a substitute teacher, where he met Dorothy, and was so touched by her life (which, as imagined by Ryman is pretty tragic and grim), that he created the life she should have had. The whole book is fascinating - Ryman is particularly apt at capturing the various voices and points of view that people it, but the section where Baum meets Gael is absolutely remarkable, and totally heartbreaking. I was reading it on the airplane and I was crying like a fool.
I love books that play with other famous stories (I always said that if I ever was an English professor that would be the class I'd teach - read Hamlet and then Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead or Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea - although I don't really like Jean Rhys, etc.), and Was manages to be meta and human at the same time. Furthermore, he used the story to mediate really seriously on the nature of home and what it means to be home and feel safe. And how we always seek for home over our lives - something I have been grappling with recently myself. In sum, this is a great book. I just loved it.
I love books that play with other famous stories (I always said that if I ever was an English professor that would be the class I'd teach - read Hamlet and then Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead or Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea - although I don't really like Jean Rhys, etc.), and Was manages to be meta and human at the same time. Furthermore, he used the story to mediate really seriously on the nature of home and what it means to be home and feel safe. And how we always seek for home over our lives - something I have been grappling with recently myself. In sum, this is a great book. I just loved it.
January 26, 2011
This is one of the few books to which I wish I could give a negative star rating. It is ever so loosely based on events and contexts having to do with the Wizard of Oz. When I say loosely, I mean loosely. I think some folks who picked this up were expecting something along the lines of the brilliant "Wicked." Not even close to that.
There are three story lines: the depressing story of Judy Garland and her dysfunctional family and ultimate self-destruction through alcohol and drugs, Dorothy, an orphan, and her dysfunctional, despicable, abusive aunt and uncle, and Jonothan who has AIDs related dementia and who is dying. Do I have your attention yet? Are you ready to jump out of your chair and run out to buy this thing.
Reading each paragraph in this book was like poking a shard of glass into my eye.
How do I hate it? Let me count the ways. First, there is not a single character in this book that is likeable -- except perhaps for Toto, who is knocked off by Aunt Em about 1/3 of the way into the book. Second, it is so UNRELENTINGLY dark and depressing, that you want to have someone pass you a noose or razor blade after reading this "Rymanview" of the world. I am not sure what his intention in writing this wallow in human dysfunction and misery was (no pun intended) but if it was to create a total bleak downer with no redeeming glimpses of the goodness in humanity, then he succeeded.
Third, it is not all that well written. No, let me backtrack on that statement a bit. Perhaps it is well written to have evoked such a negatively visceral reaction from me.
This was chosen by our book club and I truly hope that whoever nominated and voted for it is there at the meeting to defend it because I'd like to hear a justification for nominating this misanthropic skreed.I can see why it's out of print!
There are three story lines: the depressing story of Judy Garland and her dysfunctional family and ultimate self-destruction through alcohol and drugs, Dorothy, an orphan, and her dysfunctional, despicable, abusive aunt and uncle, and Jonothan who has AIDs related dementia and who is dying. Do I have your attention yet? Are you ready to jump out of your chair and run out to buy this thing.
Reading each paragraph in this book was like poking a shard of glass into my eye.
How do I hate it? Let me count the ways. First, there is not a single character in this book that is likeable -- except perhaps for Toto, who is knocked off by Aunt Em about 1/3 of the way into the book. Second, it is so UNRELENTINGLY dark and depressing, that you want to have someone pass you a noose or razor blade after reading this "Rymanview" of the world. I am not sure what his intention in writing this wallow in human dysfunction and misery was (no pun intended) but if it was to create a total bleak downer with no redeeming glimpses of the goodness in humanity, then he succeeded.
Third, it is not all that well written. No, let me backtrack on that statement a bit. Perhaps it is well written to have evoked such a negatively visceral reaction from me.
This was chosen by our book club and I truly hope that whoever nominated and voted for it is there at the meeting to defend it because I'd like to hear a justification for nominating this misanthropic skreed.I can see why it's out of print!
April 26, 2020
Was came out in 1992 when an HIV/AIDS diagnosis meant imminent death. The book's hero, Jonathan, is a veteran character actor whose two greatest passions
are historical site preservation and L. Frank Baum's Oz. Jonathan's also good company: imaginative, empathetic, generous and philosophical.
And when Jonathan says he is dying, readers in 1992 knew to believe him. The novel requires readers to understand his timeline's urgency. In his critical final stages, Jonathan slips away from his friends and his husband. He's on a solo quest. Call it the Search for the Historical Dorothy.
The rest of the book is oddly satisfying. Chapters alternate among multiple characters, all related in ways that are not immediately obvious. For example, we move from a chapter where strangers respond compassionately to the visibly ill Jonathan to a frontier Kansas scene where Auntie Em scrubs Dorothy Gael raw following the child's exposure to diphtheria.
Ryman captures all the different historical ages beautifully, and he trusts us to keep up.
It's a book that feels true all the way through.
are historical site preservation and L. Frank Baum's Oz. Jonathan's also good company: imaginative, empathetic, generous and philosophical.
And when Jonathan says he is dying, readers in 1992 knew to believe him. The novel requires readers to understand his timeline's urgency. In his critical final stages, Jonathan slips away from his friends and his husband. He's on a solo quest. Call it the Search for the Historical Dorothy.
The rest of the book is oddly satisfying. Chapters alternate among multiple characters, all related in ways that are not immediately obvious. For example, we move from a chapter where strangers respond compassionately to the visibly ill Jonathan to a frontier Kansas scene where Auntie Em scrubs Dorothy Gael raw following the child's exposure to diphtheria.
Ryman captures all the different historical ages beautifully, and he trusts us to keep up.
It's a book that feels true all the way through.
July 30, 2008
For whatever reason, I've been struggling to get a review for Was done. Maybe cause I finished it on vacation, and upon my return, had to give it back to the library and so my copy's gone and I've not read a page of it in two weeks. Or maybe it's just so good as to be unreviewable. Or more likely, it's because there's so many different things going on in this book that my brain got frazzled trying to pick a place to begin. In such cases it's best to apply okkam’s razor. The simpler you are, the less blood gets spilled. Something like that. It’s a shaving metaphor, right?
Was is a novel by Geoff Ryman, a very tall, very somewhat well-known fantasy writer who had won many an award for his early fantastic novels (fantastic here being used as both a generic term and superlative) before falling prey to the allure of reality. His previous tales were generally concerned with magic and evil and the occasional snake demon or genetically engineered life-form. Was falls in the same basic category, except instead of magic there's schizophrenia, and instead of demonic evil there's just your run of the mill molestation.
Sounds cheery, no?
But what's it about, you say? Aren't reviews meant to tell us what a story's about? There's usually one of those little summary sections, right?
Okay. Here.
Was is a story made up of many stories featuring many characters in multiple times, all of them connected by some relationship to another story, The Wizard of Oz (or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz if you want to be bookish about it). We have a story of the 'real' Dorothy Gale (well, Gael), a young girl who leaves her home in St. Louis for the Kansas frontier after her mother dies. She moves in with her Aunt and Uncle. This is 1875. She grows up. Horrible things happen to her. She doesn't ever get back home. A substitute teacher visits her town though, a bookish playful sort of man who smokes in the classroom and tells them that in Turkish, Oz means home. He becomes so inspired by Dorothy and her story, he decides to give her what gift he can—a fantasy about going home.
Then there's the story of a man a hundred years later, a briefly famous actor named Jonathan who's dying of AIDS and spends the majority of his time searching out the remnants of times before he was born, the ruins of the land of Was. As a child the movie The Wizard of Oz had a profound impact on his imagination. The characters came to life and followed him around. He feared he was crazy. Before he dies, he would very much like to find the real Dorothy, the real Oz.
There are other stories here, too. We visit the set of the movie as it was being made. We touch base with Judy Garner as a child and again at the time she played Dorothy. And then there's Bill, who, as a counselor, ends up with the unenviable task of trying to navigate the twisting paths between reality and fantasy that make up so much of this book. Also, L. Frank Baum shows up, but I already mentioned him.
There’s your summary.
Maybe it sounds like a mess, but if so, that's only cause I'm describing it in a messy way. Reading Ryman's story may feel a bit like being caught in a whirlwind (and I was so trying to avoid any cyclonic puns), but its destruction is not random. Ryman knows what he's doing. In many ways the trajectory of each and everyone one of these stories is down. People grow up; they get sick; they go crazy. Fantasy gets stripped away. In his afterword, Ryman admits he’s a fantasy writer who’s fallen in love with realism. Such star-crossed, doomed love lives in most of the inhabitants of Was. Each of them spends varying amounts of time in different dream worlds made up of the past or the future, of the never was or will be. All of them struggle as Ryman struggles, trying to find a way to marry the lands of reality and make-believe.
The story ends up being an elegy of sorts, a sad song sung for all the things we lose along the way: our childhood, our wonder, and of course, our home, whatever and wherever and however imaginary it may be. But somewhere in the midst of all this reality, underneath the mud and molestation, beyond the sad actress having to pretend there's no place like home, a bit of magic still exists. A man disappears in a cornfield. Angels appear in the snow. Hope, it seems, is not entirely abandoned. Reality, for all its faults, is all we have, but, at least in Ryman’s imagining of it, it can still surprise us, if we’re brave enough, or crazy enough, to go looking.
Was is a novel by Geoff Ryman, a very tall, very somewhat well-known fantasy writer who had won many an award for his early fantastic novels (fantastic here being used as both a generic term and superlative) before falling prey to the allure of reality. His previous tales were generally concerned with magic and evil and the occasional snake demon or genetically engineered life-form. Was falls in the same basic category, except instead of magic there's schizophrenia, and instead of demonic evil there's just your run of the mill molestation.
Sounds cheery, no?
But what's it about, you say? Aren't reviews meant to tell us what a story's about? There's usually one of those little summary sections, right?
Okay. Here.
Was is a story made up of many stories featuring many characters in multiple times, all of them connected by some relationship to another story, The Wizard of Oz (or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz if you want to be bookish about it). We have a story of the 'real' Dorothy Gale (well, Gael), a young girl who leaves her home in St. Louis for the Kansas frontier after her mother dies. She moves in with her Aunt and Uncle. This is 1875. She grows up. Horrible things happen to her. She doesn't ever get back home. A substitute teacher visits her town though, a bookish playful sort of man who smokes in the classroom and tells them that in Turkish, Oz means home. He becomes so inspired by Dorothy and her story, he decides to give her what gift he can—a fantasy about going home.
Then there's the story of a man a hundred years later, a briefly famous actor named Jonathan who's dying of AIDS and spends the majority of his time searching out the remnants of times before he was born, the ruins of the land of Was. As a child the movie The Wizard of Oz had a profound impact on his imagination. The characters came to life and followed him around. He feared he was crazy. Before he dies, he would very much like to find the real Dorothy, the real Oz.
There are other stories here, too. We visit the set of the movie as it was being made. We touch base with Judy Garner as a child and again at the time she played Dorothy. And then there's Bill, who, as a counselor, ends up with the unenviable task of trying to navigate the twisting paths between reality and fantasy that make up so much of this book. Also, L. Frank Baum shows up, but I already mentioned him.
There’s your summary.
Maybe it sounds like a mess, but if so, that's only cause I'm describing it in a messy way. Reading Ryman's story may feel a bit like being caught in a whirlwind (and I was so trying to avoid any cyclonic puns), but its destruction is not random. Ryman knows what he's doing. In many ways the trajectory of each and everyone one of these stories is down. People grow up; they get sick; they go crazy. Fantasy gets stripped away. In his afterword, Ryman admits he’s a fantasy writer who’s fallen in love with realism. Such star-crossed, doomed love lives in most of the inhabitants of Was. Each of them spends varying amounts of time in different dream worlds made up of the past or the future, of the never was or will be. All of them struggle as Ryman struggles, trying to find a way to marry the lands of reality and make-believe.
The story ends up being an elegy of sorts, a sad song sung for all the things we lose along the way: our childhood, our wonder, and of course, our home, whatever and wherever and however imaginary it may be. But somewhere in the midst of all this reality, underneath the mud and molestation, beyond the sad actress having to pretend there's no place like home, a bit of magic still exists. A man disappears in a cornfield. Angels appear in the snow. Hope, it seems, is not entirely abandoned. Reality, for all its faults, is all we have, but, at least in Ryman’s imagining of it, it can still surprise us, if we’re brave enough, or crazy enough, to go looking.
November 15, 2024
"Oz is, after all, only a place with flowers and birds and rivers and hills. Everything is alive there, as it is here if we care to see it. Tomorrow, we could all decide to live in a place not much different from Oz. We don't. We continue to make the world an ugly, even murderous place, for reasons we do not understand."
I think this is the type of book that stays with a person. The book looks at a few different lives impacted by the Wizard of Oz, the people feel so incredibly real that I kept thinking this was non-fiction, it isn't Geoff Ryman is just that good!
In this book you get the story of Dorothy Gael, an orphan in 1875 who goes to live with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em on a farm in Kansas. Then there is the story of Jonathan, an actor in the 1980's who is HIV positive. We see how the 1939 Oz film impacted his childhood and watch as it becomes his obsession as an adult. We also get a look at Frances Gumm, better known as Judy Garland. Eventually all these stories intertwine.
The writing is very raw and real and incredibly depressing, definitely not for the faint of heart. Ryman draws a very nice contrast between the bright happy fantasy of the film and the harsh light of reality. Be prepared to cry.
The end lagged just a bit for me and sometimes I was frustrated by the jumping between stories, just because I got so attached.
Overall, a great historical fiction read! I highly recommend for any Oz fan.
"It is necessary to distinguish between history and fantasy wherever possible. And the use them against each other."
I think this is the type of book that stays with a person. The book looks at a few different lives impacted by the Wizard of Oz, the people feel so incredibly real that I kept thinking this was non-fiction, it isn't Geoff Ryman is just that good!
In this book you get the story of Dorothy Gael, an orphan in 1875 who goes to live with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em on a farm in Kansas. Then there is the story of Jonathan, an actor in the 1980's who is HIV positive. We see how the 1939 Oz film impacted his childhood and watch as it becomes his obsession as an adult. We also get a look at Frances Gumm, better known as Judy Garland. Eventually all these stories intertwine.
The writing is very raw and real and incredibly depressing, definitely not for the faint of heart. Ryman draws a very nice contrast between the bright happy fantasy of the film and the harsh light of reality. Be prepared to cry.
The end lagged just a bit for me and sometimes I was frustrated by the jumping between stories, just because I got so attached.
Overall, a great historical fiction read! I highly recommend for any Oz fan.
"It is necessary to distinguish between history and fantasy wherever possible. And the use them against each other."
April 14, 2007
The one where a girl named Dorothy loses her parents in an epidemic and is sent out to the frontier, to Kansas, to live with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. She's abused and driven mad, but not before telling a story to a schoolteacher named Baum. Meanwhile, in the present day, a horror-movie actor named Jonathan is searching for Judy Garland's history while dying of AIDS, and his psychiatrist remembers meeting elderly Dorothy in an asylum.
Memorable, but kind of a mess.
The book begins with Dorothy's story. I found this engrossing, but problematic: Everything hinges on the character of Auntie Em, and you have to both sympathize with her and pity her and believe that she would be capable of raising Dorothy with no love whatsoever. I just couldn't bring those two parts together. (The Uncle Henry plot is just like one more explosion in a Bruckheimer movie.) But details of abolitionist Kansas were fascinating.
When the second part begins going into details about Jonathan's childhood, I began getting bored and annoyed. Another eccentric, special child too sensitive for this world? I have to suffer through another of these childhoods? One wasn't enough?
Six months after reading the book, I don't even really remember how everything ostensibly came together; with Jonathan's childhood, the author lost me and never really got me back.
Memorable, but kind of a mess.
The book begins with Dorothy's story. I found this engrossing, but problematic: Everything hinges on the character of Auntie Em, and you have to both sympathize with her and pity her and believe that she would be capable of raising Dorothy with no love whatsoever. I just couldn't bring those two parts together. (The Uncle Henry plot is just like one more explosion in a Bruckheimer movie.) But details of abolitionist Kansas were fascinating.
When the second part begins going into details about Jonathan's childhood, I began getting bored and annoyed. Another eccentric, special child too sensitive for this world? I have to suffer through another of these childhoods? One wasn't enough?
Six months after reading the book, I don't even really remember how everything ostensibly came together; with Jonathan's childhood, the author lost me and never really got me back.
October 6, 2024
DNF at page 196. Maybe it was just me, but I struggled with the narrative of this book. I love old Hollywood and The Wizard of Oz, yet I couldn’t get immersed in the interlocking stories. Perhap another try at a different time. Happy for those it spoke to.
May 27, 2015
Loosely based on "The Wizard of Oz," this inventive book weaves a delightfully original work.
February 1, 2012
I had a hard time choosing between 2 and 3 stars for this book. I felt very much through the whole thing like this book was trying to Tell Me Something but that I was just too stupid to get it. I don't like books that make me feel stupid. So there you go.
This book was about 15% moments that were mildly interesting, 60% horrifying stuff that made me think the point of the book was that life sucks and then, if you're lucky, you die (if you're unlucky you go crazy and have to have someone else clean up your puke), and 25% complete and utter nonsense. It was just very depressing, and very frustrating as I couldn't seem to quite figure out the point.
Here's what I came up with. I think the primary theme was of childhood vs. adulthood, and how they're really two sides of the same coin. It seemed that both Dorothy and Jonathan lived in the past. They were constantly trying to find their way back to a time in their childhood when they were happy, when everything was right. This I can identify with. Dorothy called it the Was. There were a lot of references of children who looked like adults and adults who looked like children - the munchkins, for example.
There just was not much joy in this book, and it was as dry as the Kansas landscape that was most of its setting. I wanted to like this. I wanted to understand the deeper message. But it was beyond my grasp. And the nonsense - ohhh the nonsense! Dream sequences and hallucinations and delusions, oh my! (See what I did there?) While I'm impressed at Ryman's skill in writing them, because I can't even imagine doing that successfully, I can't stand to read nonsense. I struggled to find any kind of meaning in it, other than that I guess in the end, it seemed to set both Dorothy and Jonathan free. I suppose that was meant to be sort of a silver lining but it just depressed the hell out of me. I want to find happiness in life, not in a complete detachment from reality.
So yeah. I can see that there is substance here and I understand (I guess) why so many people loved it, but it just didn't get me there.
This book was about 15% moments that were mildly interesting, 60% horrifying stuff that made me think the point of the book was that life sucks and then, if you're lucky, you die (if you're unlucky you go crazy and have to have someone else clean up your puke), and 25% complete and utter nonsense. It was just very depressing, and very frustrating as I couldn't seem to quite figure out the point.
Here's what I came up with. I think the primary theme was of childhood vs. adulthood, and how they're really two sides of the same coin. It seemed that both Dorothy and Jonathan lived in the past. They were constantly trying to find their way back to a time in their childhood when they were happy, when everything was right. This I can identify with. Dorothy called it the Was. There were a lot of references of children who looked like adults and adults who looked like children - the munchkins, for example.
There just was not much joy in this book, and it was as dry as the Kansas landscape that was most of its setting. I wanted to like this. I wanted to understand the deeper message. But it was beyond my grasp. And the nonsense - ohhh the nonsense! Dream sequences and hallucinations and delusions, oh my! (See what I did there?) While I'm impressed at Ryman's skill in writing them, because I can't even imagine doing that successfully, I can't stand to read nonsense. I struggled to find any kind of meaning in it, other than that I guess in the end, it seemed to set both Dorothy and Jonathan free. I suppose that was meant to be sort of a silver lining but it just depressed the hell out of me. I want to find happiness in life, not in a complete detachment from reality.
So yeah. I can see that there is substance here and I understand (I guess) why so many people loved it, but it just didn't get me there.
April 9, 2008
Author Ryman is most notably a British sci-fi author and in 1990, he wrote 'Was' for a more mainstream audience. It is an act of brilliant writing for a British author to so clearly describe the brutal Kansas plains of the late 1800s, and with the first few pages, the reader is caught up in the twisted story of a sexually abused Dorothy Gale, the sexually confused childhood of Frances Gumm, and the valiant efforts of a dying actor hoping to make one final stage exit as a Scarecrow.
Although somewhat dated now in its depictions of the AIDS epidemic, the storyline is what makes this a modern masterpiece.
Although somewhat dated now in its depictions of the AIDS epidemic, the storyline is what makes this a modern masterpiece.
February 28, 2007
Ryman threads the life stories of Judy Gumm (Judy Garland before her name was changed), Frank Baum (the author of the Wizard of Oz, and a fictional modern day actor daying of AIDS until the three plots final weave together.
Ryman has a brilliant, fluid imagination. This book still moves me today. I saw a stage adaptation of this book at Victory Gardens in Chicago and was almost as impressed by how the theatre company brought these different worlds of each character so seamlessly together.
Ryman has a brilliant, fluid imagination. This book still moves me today. I saw a stage adaptation of this book at Victory Gardens in Chicago and was almost as impressed by how the theatre company brought these different worlds of each character so seamlessly together.
April 3, 2019
I loved WAS. It's one of my favorite books. I love all Ryman's stuff, but WAS is by far my favorite because of how it uses the WIZARD OF OZ mythology to tell three beautiful, layered stories.
July 16, 2009
This came on several high recommendations from trusted people over on my favorite forum (yes, I'm a nerd). I'd never heard of the novel, nor of the author, but their gushings sent me right to half.com to find a used copy. I sunk my teeth in a little over a week ago, and sped through the first hundred pages; then found myself slowing down; then was interrupted by an apartment-hunting trip in my new city; then hurried to the finish line. I was, needless to say, rather underwhelmed. While I can appreciate what Ryman was doing, and found his idea peculiarly innovative (especially, I suppose, compared to something like Maguire's "Wicked" which works from a pretty simple premise, and which I do, in fact, love), I didn't have the profound emotional connection to the novel that the recommenders proclaimed. The opening chapter with Dorothy Gael pulled me right in--that idea of a child "learning how to hate" was so beautifully and terrifyingly done wrapped me right around its little finger. Ryman's ability to convey all of this confusion and terror from a child's perspective was brilliant.
After this, however, I often found his style either so simple as to be bland, or so in-your-face as to be maudlin. No offense intended, but I've seen incest and rape handled in much more powerful ways--though I'll confess that Dorothy's transformation into a vile monster was a surprising move. Generally, though, the Dorothy chapters proved the most fascinating. What I found challenging, in terms of 'connecting' to the rest of the book, was that so much of it seemed a big mess. Why did we see only the briefest of glimpses into Judy Garland's life? The chapter on her working on the film version of Oz was one of the strongest of the novel; even the chapter with her mother was pretty damn good. Then it's dropped, just like that. Jonathan was a vaguely fascinating character, but we never saw him in his 'prime' so to speak--I didn't latch onto his autistic childhood, nor did I find myself invested in his dying days (though they were interestingly written, perhaps not entirely unlike the way Faulkner might have handled AIDS). I needed to 'know' him at some point where I could 'love' him--and thus be affected much more intensely by the other glimpses into his character. Bill Davison was a prop piece to me--and when Dorothy reappears, he is functional, and I enjoy revisiting her through his lens; beyond that, though, I didn't care about him.
I think the bottom line is that I think this is a good novel, but not a great one. If I had authored it, I would have shifted the frame over just so slightly--and if it were a bit more tightly woven, I think even that might have helped without shifting the frame, so to speak. It's the sort of novel where you want to shriek at the author because of the missed opportunities. The first hundred pages, though, are worth the entry fee. It's a matter of patience as to whether or not you can trudge through the rest--and as I said, it's obvious not everyone feels this way (take a look at the glowing goodreads reviews, for instance!). For me, however, I needed something slightly different from it--for it to move from likable to profound in my mine, I suppose I just wanted something more. Still worth the read, though, if you've got a couple of days to kill.
After this, however, I often found his style either so simple as to be bland, or so in-your-face as to be maudlin. No offense intended, but I've seen incest and rape handled in much more powerful ways--though I'll confess that Dorothy's transformation into a vile monster was a surprising move. Generally, though, the Dorothy chapters proved the most fascinating. What I found challenging, in terms of 'connecting' to the rest of the book, was that so much of it seemed a big mess. Why did we see only the briefest of glimpses into Judy Garland's life? The chapter on her working on the film version of Oz was one of the strongest of the novel; even the chapter with her mother was pretty damn good. Then it's dropped, just like that. Jonathan was a vaguely fascinating character, but we never saw him in his 'prime' so to speak--I didn't latch onto his autistic childhood, nor did I find myself invested in his dying days (though they were interestingly written, perhaps not entirely unlike the way Faulkner might have handled AIDS). I needed to 'know' him at some point where I could 'love' him--and thus be affected much more intensely by the other glimpses into his character. Bill Davison was a prop piece to me--and when Dorothy reappears, he is functional, and I enjoy revisiting her through his lens; beyond that, though, I didn't care about him.
I think the bottom line is that I think this is a good novel, but not a great one. If I had authored it, I would have shifted the frame over just so slightly--and if it were a bit more tightly woven, I think even that might have helped without shifting the frame, so to speak. It's the sort of novel where you want to shriek at the author because of the missed opportunities. The first hundred pages, though, are worth the entry fee. It's a matter of patience as to whether or not you can trudge through the rest--and as I said, it's obvious not everyone feels this way (take a look at the glowing goodreads reviews, for instance!). For me, however, I needed something slightly different from it--for it to move from likable to profound in my mine, I suppose I just wanted something more. Still worth the read, though, if you've got a couple of days to kill.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2020
Poor L. Frank Baum, trapped by the success of his first book, had to crank out an Oz story every year until he died. A good thing for us - it is a wonderful series. And it's spawned several industries worth of spin offs: movies; TV shows; plays; novels for adults; YA; graphic - you get the picture. Oz is a universe as big as Star Wars. Here we have a novel that twines three Oz stories into a new perspective.
Not as creative and fun as Gregory McGuire's Wicked, Ryman's book was still an enjoyable read for an Oz-head like me.
Not as creative and fun as Gregory McGuire's Wicked, Ryman's book was still an enjoyable read for an Oz-head like me.
October 3, 2017
note 1: This is one of those books that doesn't so much make me cry as just fill me with a deep sense of sadness down to my very core. I'm still undecided as to whether I like this sensation or not (I probably do).
note 2: it's kind of a messy book and while lots of it comes together eventually, parts do kind of seem like loose threads and little tangents... either that or I'm spectacularly dense and overlooked their significance (I probably did).
note 2: it's kind of a messy book and while lots of it comes together eventually, parts do kind of seem like loose threads and little tangents... either that or I'm spectacularly dense and overlooked their significance (I probably did).
December 21, 2020
What an odd, occasionally disturbing, always interesting story related to "The Wizard of Oz". Can't really talk about it without giving it away, but really glad I read it.
August 4, 2012
Time Taken To Read - 5 days
Blurb From Goodreads
This haunting, magical, wildly original novel explores the lives of several characters entwined by The Wizard of Oz--both the novel written by L. Frank Baum and the iconic, strangely resonant 1939 film. It is the story of the "real" Dorothy Gale, an orphan living a hardscrabble life with abusive relatives on a Kansas frontier settlement, and of the kindly substitute teacher who decides to write the story of the life she ought to have had. Was is also the story of Judy Garland and her unhappy fame. It's about Jonathan, an actor now dying of AIDS, whose intense attachment to Oz dates back to his troubled childhood. And it's the story of Jonathan's therapist, whose work at an asylum also unwittingly intersects the path of the Yellow Brick Road.
From the Great Plains to glittering Hollywood, Was traverses the American landscape to reveal the whirling funnel cloud at the core of our personal and cultural fantasies. It is a powerful, moving story about survival, and about the power of human imagination to transcend the bleakest circumstances.
My Review
I think it is safe to say this is the first book I have read like this. We all (or most of us) know the story of the wizard of Oz and this is a tale with some of the characters and the basic information as a back drop. The story splits into 3 main parts, that of Dorothy, Judy Garland and Jonathan. The characters and dates split off into different chapters and go back and forth and will paint you a picture that is very different to the Oz we know, or make you think of it in a different way.
I must admit, I loved some of this book and I struggled with some of it. The bits I liked where fabulous and even after a few days since finishing it - I am still thinking about it. The bits I didn't like were mostly things I was confused on and found some of the time changing and so many characters a bit much for my brain to comprehend, at times. However the story is really good and evokes a host of emotions as you follow the characters lives.
I was captured mostly with the Dorothy and Jonathan side of the story and if I am honest there is a few characters I felt I wouldn't have missed had they been dropped out but that said I am biased because I wanted it to be all Dorothy & Jonathan. I think for those coming in with Oz in mind you need to keep an open mind as this is only some of the characters and not the story of Oz and some of it is a fair bit darker.
I loved that at the end the author has taken the time out to shed some light on what parts are real and the where and how he got his information. This cleared a lot up for me and I am sure a lot of other readers will appreciate it too.
I would definitely read more by this author and for a first attempt I am giving a 3/5, it might not be your cup of tea but then again you might just love it!
Blurb From Goodreads
This haunting, magical, wildly original novel explores the lives of several characters entwined by The Wizard of Oz--both the novel written by L. Frank Baum and the iconic, strangely resonant 1939 film. It is the story of the "real" Dorothy Gale, an orphan living a hardscrabble life with abusive relatives on a Kansas frontier settlement, and of the kindly substitute teacher who decides to write the story of the life she ought to have had. Was is also the story of Judy Garland and her unhappy fame. It's about Jonathan, an actor now dying of AIDS, whose intense attachment to Oz dates back to his troubled childhood. And it's the story of Jonathan's therapist, whose work at an asylum also unwittingly intersects the path of the Yellow Brick Road.
From the Great Plains to glittering Hollywood, Was traverses the American landscape to reveal the whirling funnel cloud at the core of our personal and cultural fantasies. It is a powerful, moving story about survival, and about the power of human imagination to transcend the bleakest circumstances.
My Review
I think it is safe to say this is the first book I have read like this. We all (or most of us) know the story of the wizard of Oz and this is a tale with some of the characters and the basic information as a back drop. The story splits into 3 main parts, that of Dorothy, Judy Garland and Jonathan. The characters and dates split off into different chapters and go back and forth and will paint you a picture that is very different to the Oz we know, or make you think of it in a different way.
I must admit, I loved some of this book and I struggled with some of it. The bits I liked where fabulous and even after a few days since finishing it - I am still thinking about it. The bits I didn't like were mostly things I was confused on and found some of the time changing and so many characters a bit much for my brain to comprehend, at times. However the story is really good and evokes a host of emotions as you follow the characters lives.
I was captured mostly with the Dorothy and Jonathan side of the story and if I am honest there is a few characters I felt I wouldn't have missed had they been dropped out but that said I am biased because I wanted it to be all Dorothy & Jonathan. I think for those coming in with Oz in mind you need to keep an open mind as this is only some of the characters and not the story of Oz and some of it is a fair bit darker.
I loved that at the end the author has taken the time out to shed some light on what parts are real and the where and how he got his information. This cleared a lot up for me and I am sure a lot of other readers will appreciate it too.
I would definitely read more by this author and for a first attempt I am giving a 3/5, it might not be your cup of tea but then again you might just love it!
January 19, 2012
In the closing chapter, the author opens with: "I'm a fantasy writer who fell in love with realism." That's an illuminating bit of information that sheds light on where the author was coming from when he wrote this book. This is not itself a fantasy novel but rather a novel about how people use fantasy to escape the drudgery, cruelty and tragedy of their everyday lives.
This is actually several separate but connected stories that the narrative chops and changes between. Separated by time and place but connected around the theme of "The Wizard of Oz", from those who inspired the story, to those that were involved in its coming to the screen, and those that were subsequently affected by it. The author tries to get across what the story is really about.
This is a dark story, full of tragedy, with no offsetting relief. The only escape from the horror of protagonist's lives is a retreat into fantasy. The writing feels belaboured and takes far too long making its point. Too much of the narrative is devoid of narrative tension, filled with slow, plodding story, stifled by cloying sentimentality. The book did have it's moments in which started to engage with the story but the momentum was never maintained and was allowed to dissipate. It all ended with a whimper.
This is actually several separate but connected stories that the narrative chops and changes between. Separated by time and place but connected around the theme of "The Wizard of Oz", from those who inspired the story, to those that were involved in its coming to the screen, and those that were subsequently affected by it. The author tries to get across what the story is really about.
This is a dark story, full of tragedy, with no offsetting relief. The only escape from the horror of protagonist's lives is a retreat into fantasy. The writing feels belaboured and takes far too long making its point. Too much of the narrative is devoid of narrative tension, filled with slow, plodding story, stifled by cloying sentimentality. The book did have it's moments in which started to engage with the story but the momentum was never maintained and was allowed to dissipate. It all ended with a whimper.
June 8, 2012
The premise of Ryman’s novel is that Dorothy, the heroine of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, was a real person, a girl that Baum met when he was a schoolteacher in Kansas in 1882. Instead of being magically transported to Oz, the real Dorothy was an abused child who could escape from her misery only through fantasy.
The novel begins in the present day when Jonathan, a gay Hollywood actor obsessed with Oz, is driven to find out what happened to Dorothy. Plunging between present and past (Jonathan’s story, Dorothy’s, and Judy Garland’s too) this is an extraordinary novel about the gap between reality and fantasy, the meaning of stories, and the origins and growth of a great American myth. Ryman’s writing can seem plain at first, even too plain. But he is one of those writers who can pull off narrative effects so brilliant as to leave you stunned, even shattered. In a Ryman novel, there’s a moment when he suddenly takes off, and all you do is hang on for the ride. There are great moments in Was. The scene in which Dorothy reads out her childish essay in Baum’s class (“I have a little dog called Toto ...”) remains one of the most moving things I have ever read.
The novel begins in the present day when Jonathan, a gay Hollywood actor obsessed with Oz, is driven to find out what happened to Dorothy. Plunging between present and past (Jonathan’s story, Dorothy’s, and Judy Garland’s too) this is an extraordinary novel about the gap between reality and fantasy, the meaning of stories, and the origins and growth of a great American myth. Ryman’s writing can seem plain at first, even too plain. But he is one of those writers who can pull off narrative effects so brilliant as to leave you stunned, even shattered. In a Ryman novel, there’s a moment when he suddenly takes off, and all you do is hang on for the ride. There are great moments in Was. The scene in which Dorothy reads out her childish essay in Baum’s class (“I have a little dog called Toto ...”) remains one of the most moving things I have ever read.
August 13, 2020
9/10
A powerful story, bleak and hopeful in turn, unrelentingly realistic, then suddenly whimsical. The characters are damaged and dysfunctional, yet heroically coping with circumstances beyond their understanding and control, and separated from others by seemingly unbridgeable chasms, yet quixotically making intense connections. Jonathan the actor, Dorothy the orphaned pioneer, and Frances the singer weave the main storylines, supported by key secondary characters who, along with The Wizard of Oz, help tie the threads together. What is past or present? What is history/realty or imagined/fantasy? What is home?
A powerful story, bleak and hopeful in turn, unrelentingly realistic, then suddenly whimsical. The characters are damaged and dysfunctional, yet heroically coping with circumstances beyond their understanding and control, and separated from others by seemingly unbridgeable chasms, yet quixotically making intense connections. Jonathan the actor, Dorothy the orphaned pioneer, and Frances the singer weave the main storylines, supported by key secondary characters who, along with The Wizard of Oz, help tie the threads together. What is past or present? What is history/realty or imagined/fantasy? What is home?
August 7, 2007
This is a retelling of the Oz books with some of the movie mythology thrown in. It reimagines L. Frank Baum himself, Dorothy Gael and her family, Judy Garland, and a host of other familar characters. Ryman doesn't just add background to them, he adds real depth to the whole Oz phenomenon. The stories are moving and skillfully interwoven. I loved this book and it's one of the ones that got me actively seeking out parallel novels.
April 12, 2019
I've never read "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" or even seen the movie all the way through (I think my mother was scared by the Wicked Witch and/or the flying monkeys as a child and so there was no way in hell it was going on in our house) although its so ingrained culturally that you can easily imagine you've experienced it without actually going through the effort of watching it.
But because it is something that is so well known thanks to the movie, writers can easily use Baum's work and our collective memories of the yellow brick road as a jumping off point for what they really want to explore without worrying too much about people not being able to follow along. With that in mind, part of me wonders how younger generations not overly exposed to the source material and having their cultural signposts shifted a few decades down the road would react to this book, partially dependent as it is on knowing there was once a movie starring a girl with fabulous ruby shoes and that the same movie was based on a book. With the span of our pop culture memories apparently compressing (at least judging by an unscientific analysis of anecdotes from my wife's teaching middle school students) its possible books like this wouldn't have the same hold on people as much as it once might have. Or, heaven forbid I use less words, does this kind of stuff become dated?
I guess as with anything you have a mixed answer . . . the book itself isn't about "Oz", but the concept of it, the manufacture of fantasies to give ourselves something to escape into and how necessary that can be and how ineffective that can be ultimately. Maybe the pull is greater if you know who Judy Garland was, but that's not the whole story.
What is the story? Despite touching on skittish felines and straw men, its not a book that takes place in Oz or attempts to rewrite it for the modern age . . . its not "Wicked", where we're seeing a possible version of how the band got together in the fantasy world. This takes place entirely in the "real world" and as it turns out the real world . . . isn't that amazing.
The early stretches are focused on early life of Dorothy Gael, a young girl from St Louis whose mother has died from diphtheria and thus has come to live with her Aunt Emily and Uncle Henry on their farmstead in Kansas in the late 1800s. Interspersed with that story are a few scenes from the early life of Judy Garland, as well as the story of an asylum aide who meets Dorothy at the end of her life and later becomes a psychiatrist who treats a young actor dying of AIDS who's grown up loving Oz. Baum himself makes an extremely poignant appearance depicting Dorothy's life inspiring him to write the book and while he may make the most outwardly action in the novel, the whole book could be seen a series of reactions to other people's circumstances, people with less than ideal lives seeing even worse lives and trying to draw solace in that connection of misery to springboard into something better.
Its not light reading and while not relentlessly grim there are moments that are going to come across as extremely uncomfortable. Dorothy's life in particular is unremitting in its misery at times . . . stuck with two people who barely know how to relate to a child or anything that isn't corn or inside a church, she pines for an idyllic childhood that seems gone too fast and sent too far away too soon. And that's before the sexual abuse starts, which serves to warp what remains of her personality even further into that awful place where a child has been pushed into being an adult while still comprehending the world as a child.
Most of the rest of the cast doesn't do much better, subjected to a world that curdles their childhoods and seemingly any chance for future happiness. Garland only makes a few appearances but the line drawn from her relatively cheerful childhood to the effects of fame and her mother's ambitions is a heartbreaking one, while Jonathan is desperate to claw himself back to a world that he used to understand via imaginary friends even as AIDS starts to tear his mind apart. All his therapist can do is shepherd him from one site to another, getting him closer to an origin point they all share but have never experienced together and probably never will.
Everyone's looking to escape but no one knows quite how or if it will even take them to a better place. Dorothy's life thanks to the book winds up resonating down the years to people she'll never even meet but it never makes her right. Baum's book gives her an alternate version, a life she should have had, but its not a place she can reach. Jonathan tries to find her so he can find a place where he was happy once before but she's already gone and has no advice to give him. Twisters don't take you to a better place, there's only the risk of being torn to pieces or colliding with something that won't yield to you, and leave you altered in the process. Ryman is writing a fantasy but the worlds that are created here aren't panaceas . . . the damage is real and enduring and sometimes lingers long past where the body is capable of feeling the wound.
More than detailing the seemingly infinite ways that people can suffer at their own hands or the hands of others, the book seems to be about the role of fantasy in our lives, both good and bad. The characters use fantasy as an safety valve and a retreat, a way to detach from the rest of the world that would crush them beyond recognition if they allowed themselves to stay in phase. In some ways it makes them worse, estranges them from others but by the time you get to the point where these people are at your primary goal isn't so much cultivating wholesome relationships as pure survival in whatever form you can manage to maintain yourself. Ryman shows us a world where the fantasy can't replace what's real, but that's hardly the point. Its about finding a way to tolerate the world and forcing the world to tolerate you and in the gap that exists is more a stalemate than a bridge then that may be the price that has to be paid for having hope and a necessary tension to remind you how much you want to stay alive.
But because it is something that is so well known thanks to the movie, writers can easily use Baum's work and our collective memories of the yellow brick road as a jumping off point for what they really want to explore without worrying too much about people not being able to follow along. With that in mind, part of me wonders how younger generations not overly exposed to the source material and having their cultural signposts shifted a few decades down the road would react to this book, partially dependent as it is on knowing there was once a movie starring a girl with fabulous ruby shoes and that the same movie was based on a book. With the span of our pop culture memories apparently compressing (at least judging by an unscientific analysis of anecdotes from my wife's teaching middle school students) its possible books like this wouldn't have the same hold on people as much as it once might have. Or, heaven forbid I use less words, does this kind of stuff become dated?
I guess as with anything you have a mixed answer . . . the book itself isn't about "Oz", but the concept of it, the manufacture of fantasies to give ourselves something to escape into and how necessary that can be and how ineffective that can be ultimately. Maybe the pull is greater if you know who Judy Garland was, but that's not the whole story.
What is the story? Despite touching on skittish felines and straw men, its not a book that takes place in Oz or attempts to rewrite it for the modern age . . . its not "Wicked", where we're seeing a possible version of how the band got together in the fantasy world. This takes place entirely in the "real world" and as it turns out the real world . . . isn't that amazing.
The early stretches are focused on early life of Dorothy Gael, a young girl from St Louis whose mother has died from diphtheria and thus has come to live with her Aunt Emily and Uncle Henry on their farmstead in Kansas in the late 1800s. Interspersed with that story are a few scenes from the early life of Judy Garland, as well as the story of an asylum aide who meets Dorothy at the end of her life and later becomes a psychiatrist who treats a young actor dying of AIDS who's grown up loving Oz. Baum himself makes an extremely poignant appearance depicting Dorothy's life inspiring him to write the book and while he may make the most outwardly action in the novel, the whole book could be seen a series of reactions to other people's circumstances, people with less than ideal lives seeing even worse lives and trying to draw solace in that connection of misery to springboard into something better.
Its not light reading and while not relentlessly grim there are moments that are going to come across as extremely uncomfortable. Dorothy's life in particular is unremitting in its misery at times . . . stuck with two people who barely know how to relate to a child or anything that isn't corn or inside a church, she pines for an idyllic childhood that seems gone too fast and sent too far away too soon. And that's before the sexual abuse starts, which serves to warp what remains of her personality even further into that awful place where a child has been pushed into being an adult while still comprehending the world as a child.
Most of the rest of the cast doesn't do much better, subjected to a world that curdles their childhoods and seemingly any chance for future happiness. Garland only makes a few appearances but the line drawn from her relatively cheerful childhood to the effects of fame and her mother's ambitions is a heartbreaking one, while Jonathan is desperate to claw himself back to a world that he used to understand via imaginary friends even as AIDS starts to tear his mind apart. All his therapist can do is shepherd him from one site to another, getting him closer to an origin point they all share but have never experienced together and probably never will.
Everyone's looking to escape but no one knows quite how or if it will even take them to a better place. Dorothy's life thanks to the book winds up resonating down the years to people she'll never even meet but it never makes her right. Baum's book gives her an alternate version, a life she should have had, but its not a place she can reach. Jonathan tries to find her so he can find a place where he was happy once before but she's already gone and has no advice to give him. Twisters don't take you to a better place, there's only the risk of being torn to pieces or colliding with something that won't yield to you, and leave you altered in the process. Ryman is writing a fantasy but the worlds that are created here aren't panaceas . . . the damage is real and enduring and sometimes lingers long past where the body is capable of feeling the wound.
More than detailing the seemingly infinite ways that people can suffer at their own hands or the hands of others, the book seems to be about the role of fantasy in our lives, both good and bad. The characters use fantasy as an safety valve and a retreat, a way to detach from the rest of the world that would crush them beyond recognition if they allowed themselves to stay in phase. In some ways it makes them worse, estranges them from others but by the time you get to the point where these people are at your primary goal isn't so much cultivating wholesome relationships as pure survival in whatever form you can manage to maintain yourself. Ryman shows us a world where the fantasy can't replace what's real, but that's hardly the point. Its about finding a way to tolerate the world and forcing the world to tolerate you and in the gap that exists is more a stalemate than a bridge then that may be the price that has to be paid for having hope and a necessary tension to remind you how much you want to stay alive.
September 1, 2016
Interesting, but also woah intense. Sadder than I kinda wanted it to be. And note, I read it before Wicked. I might should re-read it to see how I feel about it now.
October 22, 2017
This book was just a Whole Lot of Sad tbh
January 1, 2018
This was a book that I picked up in the Castro in San Francisco (amongst many others at my favourite bookstore Dog Eared Books). Drawn to the novel due to its links with the Wizard of Oz - having completed it I am still not quite sure how I feel about it. Certainly Ryman has great ability to write and has gone to great pains to research elements of the original novel, its cast and author to help cement his fantasy in roots of reality. An unusually dark and twisted take on Oz that involves, amongst other things, the Scarecrow dying of AIDS in Santa Monica, Uncle Henry a child abuser in 1800s Kansas and Dorothy grown old and crazy in a nursing home. Undoubtedly this combines a portrayal of child abuse and Wizard of Oz film lore that challenges the reader to recognise that fantasy is sometimes reality and reality is sometimes fantasy. A unique read to end 2017 and kick off 2018.
March 18, 2025
I simply adored this novel about the Wizard of Oz and Dorothy, and Judy Garland that combined both myth, archetypes, fantasy truth and tragedy. It is years since I read this novel but Mr. Ryman's evocation of the little 'real' little girl who became, but never was in reality 'Dorothy' has stayed wit me as has imagining of Judy Garland's mother and father.
Geoff Ryman is, for me, a unique writer that defies easy categorization and definition but he is an immense talent. Idiosyncratic but wonderful. It is too long since I read this novel to critique it properly but a novel that haunts you for over a decade is something special.
Geoff Ryman is, for me, a unique writer that defies easy categorization and definition but he is an immense talent. Idiosyncratic but wonderful. It is too long since I read this novel to critique it properly but a novel that haunts you for over a decade is something special.
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April 10, 2017I'm not sure how to rate this book or shelve it. The fantastical elements are very subtle, and so grounded in realism they almost aren't there. The writing is superb and so enjoyable to read, with compelling characters and a strong clear voice, but I didn't care much for the story itself. The Oz elements and tie-ins are little thrills to stumble over, but I imagined a very different sort of book when I picked this up. I'm refraining from giving this a star rating, because I don't want to mark the book down for not fulfilling my personal tastes and expectations.
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