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The Next Queen of Heaven
With the new millennium approaching, the eccentric town of Thebes grows even stranger. Mrs. Leontina Scales begins speaking in tongues after being clocked by a Catholic statuette. Her daughter, Tabitha, and her sons scheme to save their mother or surrender her to Jesus—whatever comes first. Meanwhile, choir director Jeremy Carr, caught between lust and ambition, fumbles his way toward Y2K. The ancient Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries join with a gay singing group. The Radical Radiants battle the Catholics. A Christmas pageant goes horribly awry. And a child is born.
418 pages
First published January 1, 2009
108 people are currently reading
2790 people want to read
About the author
Gregory Maguire
111 books9,128 followersGregory Maguire is an American author, whose novels are revisionist retellings of children's stories (such as L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into Wicked). He received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979-1985. In 1987 he co-founded Children's Literature New England (a non-profit educational charity).
Maguire has served as artist-in-residence at the Blue Mountain Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Hambidge Center. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 374 reviews
October 8, 2010
This novel is an embarrassment, the equivalent of catching Gregory Maguire picking his nose at a stop light. Too harsh? Hey, he started it. On page 332: "Hogan picked his nose and flicked it at Kirk's bouffant, where it stuck and hung like a little worm." That's pretty much the juvenile tone throughout the book.
You know a book is going to be bad when the author apologizes for it in the Author's Note. "For readers who know me primarily as a writer of fantasy, the setting and subject matter (and the vernacular spoken by characters herein) may come as surprise. Forgive me my trespasses." A surprise? Try major disappointment. And it's almost as if everyone, including the publisher, knows it. It seems this book was first published and distributed FREE to 2500 people by a press that asked recipients to make a donation to a favorite charity in return. Apparently, $40,000 was given to charities, an average of $16 per donation, the cost of a trade paperback. They were lucky. Had the publisher asked each recipient to donate the value of his reading experience, it might have averaged 2 cents.
What's it about? The plot has to do with Y2K and religion and this crazy thing called love, but what's it ABOUT? As in what might be discussed in a book club? I haven't the foggiest. The characters are over-the-top, the situations loony, the conflicts juvenile. Sorry, you guys. I loved WICKED, too. But mostly, this book is just silly, often profane (not that there's anything wrong with that), and at times, gross. Once in a while, Maguire does something Tom Robbins-like with language, and I smiled in spite of myself. But those moments are few and do not save the day.
Next time, when donating to charity, I hope Maguire pulls from his wallet rather than his junior high school locker. Because if you give a publisher a book like this, apologize for it, then tell them they can distribute it for FREE, you're going to lose your reader's respect, and maybe their loyalty, too. Then no amount of blurbs with adjectives like "daring, eccentric, out-of-control, or once-in-a-lifetime" are going to get them back.
You know a book is going to be bad when the author apologizes for it in the Author's Note. "For readers who know me primarily as a writer of fantasy, the setting and subject matter (and the vernacular spoken by characters herein) may come as surprise. Forgive me my trespasses." A surprise? Try major disappointment. And it's almost as if everyone, including the publisher, knows it. It seems this book was first published and distributed FREE to 2500 people by a press that asked recipients to make a donation to a favorite charity in return. Apparently, $40,000 was given to charities, an average of $16 per donation, the cost of a trade paperback. They were lucky. Had the publisher asked each recipient to donate the value of his reading experience, it might have averaged 2 cents.
What's it about? The plot has to do with Y2K and religion and this crazy thing called love, but what's it ABOUT? As in what might be discussed in a book club? I haven't the foggiest. The characters are over-the-top, the situations loony, the conflicts juvenile. Sorry, you guys. I loved WICKED, too. But mostly, this book is just silly, often profane (not that there's anything wrong with that), and at times, gross. Once in a while, Maguire does something Tom Robbins-like with language, and I smiled in spite of myself. But those moments are few and do not save the day.
Next time, when donating to charity, I hope Maguire pulls from his wallet rather than his junior high school locker. Because if you give a publisher a book like this, apologize for it, then tell them they can distribute it for FREE, you're going to lose your reader's respect, and maybe their loyalty, too. Then no amount of blurbs with adjectives like "daring, eccentric, out-of-control, or once-in-a-lifetime" are going to get them back.
April 27, 2018
I must admit, I'm a complete sucker for books that are set in small towns. If I hear about a book or read the blurb on the back cover and it says something along the lines of "A group of characters live in a small town called X and X happens to them..." well chances are the money is already leaving my wallet and the book is coming home with me. Perhaps it's because I grew up in a small town myself, so I'm naturally drawn to these things. Whatever the case with my affinity for these small town books, Gregory Maguire has written perhaps his most understated and ambitious novel since Wicked in The Next Queen of Heaven, and it’s set in - of course - a small town called Thebes in upstate New York. Themes such as heartbreak, faith, and homosexuality are present here, and Maguire doesn’t pull any stops when it comes to displaying modern society and notions of religion in all its passion and irony.
The book has virtually everything you could want in a novel that uses a small town setting - a cast of believable and amusing characters, themes that anyone who grew up in a small town could probably relate to, and to top it all off, the novel is set during the Christmas season. What's not to like about that? This isn't to say the book is perfect - I actually found myself embroiled in an internal debate halfway through of whether I was going to give it two stars or three stars, or even finish it for that matter due to some slower parts in the middle. Thankfully I did finish it, and the ending was complete and satisfying and answered any lingering questions I had regarding the book's ultimate message. Maguire isn't always the clearest about what's going on in his pages, though I suppose that's what comes with his poetic and sometimes indistinct style. Thankfully, Maguire's two protagonists, the high-school-age Tabitha and Jeremy, a lovesick gay twenty-something male, are strong, believable, and relatable. Tabitha is dealing with her own teenage rebellion and hopeless love (lust) for a wild loser while caring for her ailing and addled mother, and Jeremy is facing his own set of internal issues, namely a friend dying of AIDs and an old lover who lives close by and is now married. I won't spoil anything, but there is a chapter of unrequited, tragic love that is particularly well-written and memorable, and the ending of the book is perhaps one of my favorite Maguire endings ever.
There's really not much to not like about The Next Queen of Heaven. It's a fun, festive book that doesn't take itself too seriously while at the same time tackling many, many complicated religious and societal issues. If you like Gregory Maguire or any of the themes I mentioned above, chances are you'll like this one.
The book has virtually everything you could want in a novel that uses a small town setting - a cast of believable and amusing characters, themes that anyone who grew up in a small town could probably relate to, and to top it all off, the novel is set during the Christmas season. What's not to like about that? This isn't to say the book is perfect - I actually found myself embroiled in an internal debate halfway through of whether I was going to give it two stars or three stars, or even finish it for that matter due to some slower parts in the middle. Thankfully I did finish it, and the ending was complete and satisfying and answered any lingering questions I had regarding the book's ultimate message. Maguire isn't always the clearest about what's going on in his pages, though I suppose that's what comes with his poetic and sometimes indistinct style. Thankfully, Maguire's two protagonists, the high-school-age Tabitha and Jeremy, a lovesick gay twenty-something male, are strong, believable, and relatable. Tabitha is dealing with her own teenage rebellion and hopeless love (lust) for a wild loser while caring for her ailing and addled mother, and Jeremy is facing his own set of internal issues, namely a friend dying of AIDs and an old lover who lives close by and is now married. I won't spoil anything, but there is a chapter of unrequited, tragic love that is particularly well-written and memorable, and the ending of the book is perhaps one of my favorite Maguire endings ever.
There's really not much to not like about The Next Queen of Heaven. It's a fun, festive book that doesn't take itself too seriously while at the same time tackling many, many complicated religious and societal issues. If you like Gregory Maguire or any of the themes I mentioned above, chances are you'll like this one.
April 6, 2011
This book was fantastic and is now one of my favourites. I've even gone back to read certain sections again (something I rarely if ever do). It was a joy to read it. I loved the characters, the small town setting, the plots.
This book was very real, with real-life difficulties, which made the characters crystal clear and believable. They also had very believable flaws--which made them human. Painfully so. Yet their perspectives are told with their each unique brand of humor, that what would be a sad book is transformed into something poignant instead.
And also something very, very funny. This book has many laugh-out loud moments. It's the best sort of comedy--its embedded and real life & has bite.
This is a book of deep feeling and introspection. It's not a 'church' book but it is about people's relationship to the spiritual. It does take a critical look at people's hypocrisies. Beneath the rather 'mundane' look at 'ordinary lives' it's philosophical. This is perhaps the greatest comparison I can make between this and the other book I've read by this author (Wicked). Both have this questioning, philosophical base. But this book is 'wickedly funny' and modern, while Wicked was more serious (though no less fabulous) and fantasy based.
It's very character driven. I absolutely adored the character Jeremy. He's got to be the best gay character in straight fiction since Jules Cassidy (Suzanne Brockman's Force of Nature). I loved him and I loved the choice he made at the end.
You know you've read a great book when you think about the characters long after, and wonder what happens to them after the book ends, as if they were real people.
PS. I just read over some of the other reviews and I'm quite baffled at the level of dislike in some of them. I'm usually a pretty good judge of bad writing and bad books. Am I so off the mark here? Or is it because I don't really 'know' his other works so this is something fairly fresh to me and I don't have a lot of comparison? I didn't go into it with a lot of expectation. I don't know. But it is strange at how many people found it tedious or not-funny. Maybe I was just in the right mood for it. Personally, I thought it was great!
This book was very real, with real-life difficulties, which made the characters crystal clear and believable. They also had very believable flaws--which made them human. Painfully so. Yet their perspectives are told with their each unique brand of humor, that what would be a sad book is transformed into something poignant instead.
And also something very, very funny. This book has many laugh-out loud moments. It's the best sort of comedy--its embedded and real life & has bite.
This is a book of deep feeling and introspection. It's not a 'church' book but it is about people's relationship to the spiritual. It does take a critical look at people's hypocrisies. Beneath the rather 'mundane' look at 'ordinary lives' it's philosophical. This is perhaps the greatest comparison I can make between this and the other book I've read by this author (Wicked). Both have this questioning, philosophical base. But this book is 'wickedly funny' and modern, while Wicked was more serious (though no less fabulous) and fantasy based.
It's very character driven. I absolutely adored the character Jeremy. He's got to be the best gay character in straight fiction since Jules Cassidy (Suzanne Brockman's Force of Nature). I loved him and I loved the choice he made at the end.
You know you've read a great book when you think about the characters long after, and wonder what happens to them after the book ends, as if they were real people.
PS. I just read over some of the other reviews and I'm quite baffled at the level of dislike in some of them. I'm usually a pretty good judge of bad writing and bad books. Am I so off the mark here? Or is it because I don't really 'know' his other works so this is something fairly fresh to me and I don't have a lot of comparison? I didn't go into it with a lot of expectation. I don't know. But it is strange at how many people found it tedious or not-funny. Maybe I was just in the right mood for it. Personally, I thought it was great!
January 8, 2012
So who is the next Queen of Heaven? Let's see. I don't know even minutes after finishing this 1999 novel of Gregory Maguire. I loved all his other books - the Wicked series, Lost, Mirror/Mirror, etc. - but this tome is a puzzle. I laughed often and hard, albeit at often crude/lewd/rude comments and characterizations. I loved the Catholics of Our Lady in (sort of) cahoots with members of the Pentecostal Radical Radiants, but my favorites were the 70+ yo nuns, led by Sister Mother Clare; Jeremy, the conflicted gay choir leader and his friend Marty; and Tabitha, the supposed local "slut" (I hate that word) and her newly discovered pregnancy. Tabitha and her brothers have to care for their mother (thrice married)after she's cold conked by a statue of Mary in the Catholic church while stealing milk for Sunday service at the Pentecostal church next door. Mom is returned to reality after being conked again by a creche Jesus during Christmas service.
Writing about this is hard. There are too many characters, too many intersecting plot lines, too much that's crudely funny, too much semi-philosophical questions about Y2K, millenial nutso stuff, AIDS, Catholicism, love between/among folks of all sorts, and escape. Kind of sacred and very profane.
Perhaps a quotation might help me clarify my dogged confusion.
In describing the creche in the 34th chapter, "The Virgin and Joseph knelt a good three feet high. The shepherds and wise men stood smaller - a tautological distinction...(and the) wise men were bracingly multiracial. One of them glared with ovoid eyes, a cross between Krishna and Dracula; another was black and shiny as a Steinway; the third resembled an anthropomorphized aubergine...Jeremy got the feeling that beneath the robes, the shepherds were wearing ceramic pajamas printed all over with Bart Simpson."
Moments reminiscent of Tom Robbins. Moments reminiscent of the better G. Maguire?
I gave it a "4," but only for pieces/moments?
Writing about this is hard. There are too many characters, too many intersecting plot lines, too much that's crudely funny, too much semi-philosophical questions about Y2K, millenial nutso stuff, AIDS, Catholicism, love between/among folks of all sorts, and escape. Kind of sacred and very profane.
Perhaps a quotation might help me clarify my dogged confusion.
In describing the creche in the 34th chapter, "The Virgin and Joseph knelt a good three feet high. The shepherds and wise men stood smaller - a tautological distinction...(and the) wise men were bracingly multiracial. One of them glared with ovoid eyes, a cross between Krishna and Dracula; another was black and shiny as a Steinway; the third resembled an anthropomorphized aubergine...Jeremy got the feeling that beneath the robes, the shepherds were wearing ceramic pajamas printed all over with Bart Simpson."
Moments reminiscent of Tom Robbins. Moments reminiscent of the better G. Maguire?
I gave it a "4," but only for pieces/moments?
January 17, 2011
The only other Maguire novel I've read is his now legendary Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, 20 years ago when I was a callow graduate student at UCLA. I remember liking it more for the subversive revision of the children's classic than for any other reason. I enjoy that kind of literature - Jason & Medeia, The Looking Glass Wars, Gloriana, Or The Unfulfill'd Queen, King Jesus: A Novel, et al.
When I read the blurb for this novel, I expected something along the lines of James Morrow but got Miriam Toews instead.
This isn't a bad thing: I like Ms. Toews. In fact, I like her more than I do Maguire, so I wasn't disappointed - much. There's much to like in this novel but nothing that's particularly great. A lot of the characters are stock "types" you find in novels of this kind and the story can be formulaic. Maguire's worst offense in this regard (IMO) is the plotline involving Jeremy Carr, the gay choir director of the Catholic church, and his friends Sean and Marty. It felt tacked on and passionless. Compared, at any rate, to the story of Tabitha Scales and her family.
Tabitha is the most potentially interesting character in the novel and there are points when you can see what Maguire could have done if he had been more focused on her:
The other potentially interesting group of characters are the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries, a group of geriatric nuns exiled to a near forgotten home outside of Thebes.
By rights, this book falls somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars, so I can't wholeheartedly recommend it but if you like Maguire or this type of fiction, you may enjoy it.
When I read the blurb for this novel, I expected something along the lines of James Morrow but got Miriam Toews instead.
This isn't a bad thing: I like Ms. Toews. In fact, I like her more than I do Maguire, so I wasn't disappointed - much. There's much to like in this novel but nothing that's particularly great. A lot of the characters are stock "types" you find in novels of this kind and the story can be formulaic. Maguire's worst offense in this regard (IMO) is the plotline involving Jeremy Carr, the gay choir director of the Catholic church, and his friends Sean and Marty. It felt tacked on and passionless. Compared, at any rate, to the story of Tabitha Scales and her family.
Tabitha is the most potentially interesting character in the novel and there are points when you can see what Maguire could have done if he had been more focused on her:
"Now Tabitha was walking along with the whole globe inside her, the whole brightly colored existence, all its impossible skins and layers and transparencies. It was hard to think about it.... (T)he whole globe was in her, and in the globe was the eensy little baby with it little kicking feet, and the whole baby's life was in there with it, and the whole world it would experience, it was all right there inside her....
She walked past Pastor Jakob Huyck, who with his usual timing just happened to be driving by. He rolled down his window and said, `Going somewhere?'
`Not going,' she called, `coming. I'm coming.' In an earlier month she would have said this sexily, but the sound in her own voice was more than sexy. It was godly.
She waved him by and kept walking, loving herself almost for the first time. She walked all the way to the gas station, thinking about everything and nothing at once." (p. 285-86)
The other potentially interesting group of characters are the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries, a group of geriatric nuns exiled to a near forgotten home outside of Thebes.
By rights, this book falls somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars, so I can't wholeheartedly recommend it but if you like Maguire or this type of fiction, you may enjoy it.
December 13, 2009
Finished this last night and am still mulling it over. There were moments as I was reading it when I smiled or chuckled or maybe even laughed out loud at some of the quirky bits and phrases. I really wish I'd followed my sometimes-pattern of marking those spots so I could dutifully report them here, but for some reason, I didn't mark them.
Let me say straight off that there were several things I really liked about this book. The main thing was how Concord Press and Gregory Maguire made it available to the reading public. It was incredibly generous, and altruistic and far-reaching. Don't believe me? Then see the list of charities and contributions people who have received this book have done in return for the gift: everything from the usual spots for donation to $20 (Au) to a blind Aborigine on the streets of Alice Springs. More than $114,950 at this writing. Generosity-based publishing rocks! Thank you Concord Press, and thank you Mr Maguire.
I think I went into this expecting this to be a little more light-hearted. All I had to go on was the blurb on the site which said
But in general, the writing was good, crisp and clean. Maguire has a talent for showing the other side of the story, and does so, once again, quite nicely here. There were a lot of the Catholic bits that made me smile. I think the main disappointment was that the book did not match my expectations, and what I thought it would be about. That certainly isn't the author's fault. He told the story he set out to tell. If I wanted something different, then perhaps I need to write it myself.
Let me say straight off that there were several things I really liked about this book. The main thing was how Concord Press and Gregory Maguire made it available to the reading public. It was incredibly generous, and altruistic and far-reaching. Don't believe me? Then see the list of charities and contributions people who have received this book have done in return for the gift: everything from the usual spots for donation to $20 (Au) to a blind Aborigine on the streets of Alice Springs. More than $114,950 at this writing. Generosity-based publishing rocks! Thank you Concord Press, and thank you Mr Maguire.
I think I went into this expecting this to be a little more light-hearted. All I had to go on was the blurb on the site which said
. Set in the grotty upstate town of Thebes, The Next Queen of Heaven is a Christmas tale gone horribly wrong. Clocked by a Catholic statuette, Mrs. Leontina Scales starts speaking in tongues. Tabitha Scales and her brothers scheme to save their mother or surrender her to Jesus—whatever comes first. Meanwhile, choir director Jeremy Carr, caught between lust and ambition, fumbles his way toward Y2K.The book was that, but also involved a heavy amount of teenaged angst/anger from a sullen, not so nice teenage girl and her equally dysfunctional brothers, a lot of struggling with the HIV, homosexuality in the lives of three men in Thebes, and a dying order of nuns. I think I expected the Y2K part to be a bit bigger in the general scheme of things, and the lust of a certain Pentecostal minister to be a lesser part.
But in general, the writing was good, crisp and clean. Maguire has a talent for showing the other side of the story, and does so, once again, quite nicely here. There were a lot of the Catholic bits that made me smile. I think the main disappointment was that the book did not match my expectations, and what I thought it would be about. That certainly isn't the author's fault. He told the story he set out to tell. If I wanted something different, then perhaps I need to write it myself.
January 17, 2012
I consider myself a Maguire fan, based on my enjoyment of a number of previous books. Wicked, of course, but I think that Ugly Stepsister was monumentally good.
This book ... I confess that I gave up after 100 pages. Perhaps it gets better after that, but I won't be around to find out. I'm being selfish. I didn't care about anyone in the book. I wasn't curious about what happened next.
I kind of felt like I was reading about Liir, or Chabon's "Mysteries of Pittsburgh." But in the end, I felt like Tabitha and Jeremy were the authors of their own discontent and that my support and encouragement would serve no constructive purpose.
Maybe next time.
This book ... I confess that I gave up after 100 pages. Perhaps it gets better after that, but I won't be around to find out. I'm being selfish. I didn't care about anyone in the book. I wasn't curious about what happened next.
I kind of felt like I was reading about Liir, or Chabon's "Mysteries of Pittsburgh." But in the end, I felt like Tabitha and Jeremy were the authors of their own discontent and that my support and encouragement would serve no constructive purpose.
Maybe next time.
January 10, 2011
After reading this book, I can see the correlations between it and the back cover synopsis, but can't help feeling that the back cover was misleading. For example, Mrs. Scales does not at any point in the book speak in tongues. Also, "Christmas pageant" is the wrong term for the Christmas Eve mass debacle it depicts (there are no people, just chipped old creche statues, and I've always thought a pageant involved real people acting out something...but maybe I'm wrong. I could live with that.)
Where to start? I'm disappointed. Clearly. Why? Because this had the potential to be a really great blend of funny and spiritual and touching. It tries really hard for the funny (want an example? Here's one, which doubles as an example of unfortunate dialogue: “’I’ll do the praying. You be the good example. Don’t forget your Inner Breathing. Also your pocketbook, it’s there by the plant.'” I know I'm supposed to laugh at the end of this. It's the intention of the speaker, if not the author, but seriously? Could the effort be any more obvious?), and, for the most part, ignores the others entirely. So many wasted opportunities for a character (any character) to respond with something other than defensive sarcasm. Never happens.
I think what follows counts as spoilers. Most of them vague, and no major plot point reveals, but if you'd rather read the book without knowing anything about it ahead of time, you may want to stop reading this now and go do that instead.
The rant: we're in some tiny fictional town in upstate NY that seems to have not one single normal person in it. We have a surprisingly large community of gay men (but no lesbians? Do the nuns count?) who stereotypically break out into multi-part harmonies at random in public (one of whom is suffering from AIDS, and is ill enough for complete strangers to recognize that he's in a bad way, yet his family--who he still lives with--are oblivious to him being sick. Or gay, for that matter), a lecherous pastor, an abundance of misbehaving teens (with no average or “good” ones to balance them out, with the exception of Kirk, whose fastidious and effeminate qualities are expounded on to the point of ridiculousness. He’s gay, whether he knows it yet or not. We get it. Why is this bigger news to everyone than the fact that his older sister is borderline illiterate, possibly knocked up, and visits the same jail cell so frequently she’s putting her favorite posters on the walls so it’s homey for her when she—inevitably—returns?), a crazy single mother who has a newfound speech impediment/mental scramble of some kind, thanks to getting clocked on the head with a Virgin Mary statuette (that makes her drop the first letter of the first word of her sentences, but somehow the people around her either can’t figure this out or figure it out and then forget they’ve figured it out and can’t understand her again), a beauty salon owner-slash-town gossip, and a group of feisty aging nuns. There are vague outlines of other families in the background, but these potentially ordinary people never fully materialize, so what we have is an entire small town populated by larger than life caricatures of people. It gets crowded quickly.
There were times when I started to settle into this book, I swear. But then Tabitha would be plotting to jog her mother back to "normal" with a wrench--no, an industrial stapler--no, now it's a wrench again, or Sean would be not very Irish--heavily accented Irish--only Irish when speaking to his Mam. And I'd get irritated all over again.
Here's what I did like: Tabitha. I hated her on the first page. Too obviously crass, begging for attention with all the cussing and sleeping around and whatever. I wrote her off early on as part of both the "unnecessarily larger than life" and "trying too hard" categories. Shortly after her mom is released from the hospital, though, she starts shrinking down to a manageable size. By the end of the book, I actually feel for her a little--she's in a screwy situation (hysterical or not), and she doesn't ramp up the drama or cause a scene. And she recognizes something (that she doesn't want her mother's life? that she can't stay here and watch Caleb's life play out without her? that she has to escape the crazy before she becomes the crazy? her revelation happens somewhere off the page) that makes her want to be a different person somewhere other than Thebes. Whatever led her to it, the Tabitha in the passenger seat at the end of the book is a completely different character than the one in the passenger seat at the beginning of the book, and one that's approximately life-sized. I can't say that I like her, but I can say that I like her better, which is pretty cool.
Where to start? I'm disappointed. Clearly. Why? Because this had the potential to be a really great blend of funny and spiritual and touching. It tries really hard for the funny (want an example? Here's one, which doubles as an example of unfortunate dialogue: “’I’ll do the praying. You be the good example. Don’t forget your Inner Breathing. Also your pocketbook, it’s there by the plant.'” I know I'm supposed to laugh at the end of this. It's the intention of the speaker, if not the author, but seriously? Could the effort be any more obvious?), and, for the most part, ignores the others entirely. So many wasted opportunities for a character (any character) to respond with something other than defensive sarcasm. Never happens.
I think what follows counts as spoilers. Most of them vague, and no major plot point reveals, but if you'd rather read the book without knowing anything about it ahead of time, you may want to stop reading this now and go do that instead.
The rant: we're in some tiny fictional town in upstate NY that seems to have not one single normal person in it. We have a surprisingly large community of gay men (but no lesbians? Do the nuns count?) who stereotypically break out into multi-part harmonies at random in public (one of whom is suffering from AIDS, and is ill enough for complete strangers to recognize that he's in a bad way, yet his family--who he still lives with--are oblivious to him being sick. Or gay, for that matter), a lecherous pastor, an abundance of misbehaving teens (with no average or “good” ones to balance them out, with the exception of Kirk, whose fastidious and effeminate qualities are expounded on to the point of ridiculousness. He’s gay, whether he knows it yet or not. We get it. Why is this bigger news to everyone than the fact that his older sister is borderline illiterate, possibly knocked up, and visits the same jail cell so frequently she’s putting her favorite posters on the walls so it’s homey for her when she—inevitably—returns?), a crazy single mother who has a newfound speech impediment/mental scramble of some kind, thanks to getting clocked on the head with a Virgin Mary statuette (that makes her drop the first letter of the first word of her sentences, but somehow the people around her either can’t figure this out or figure it out and then forget they’ve figured it out and can’t understand her again), a beauty salon owner-slash-town gossip, and a group of feisty aging nuns. There are vague outlines of other families in the background, but these potentially ordinary people never fully materialize, so what we have is an entire small town populated by larger than life caricatures of people. It gets crowded quickly.
There were times when I started to settle into this book, I swear. But then Tabitha would be plotting to jog her mother back to "normal" with a wrench--no, an industrial stapler--no, now it's a wrench again, or Sean would be not very Irish--heavily accented Irish--only Irish when speaking to his Mam. And I'd get irritated all over again.
Here's what I did like: Tabitha. I hated her on the first page. Too obviously crass, begging for attention with all the cussing and sleeping around and whatever. I wrote her off early on as part of both the "unnecessarily larger than life" and "trying too hard" categories. Shortly after her mom is released from the hospital, though, she starts shrinking down to a manageable size. By the end of the book, I actually feel for her a little--she's in a screwy situation (hysterical or not), and she doesn't ramp up the drama or cause a scene. And she recognizes something (that she doesn't want her mother's life? that she can't stay here and watch Caleb's life play out without her? that she has to escape the crazy before she becomes the crazy? her revelation happens somewhere off the page) that makes her want to be a different person somewhere other than Thebes. Whatever led her to it, the Tabitha in the passenger seat at the end of the book is a completely different character than the one in the passenger seat at the beginning of the book, and one that's approximately life-sized. I can't say that I like her, but I can say that I like her better, which is pretty cool.
October 22, 2010
I really want to enjoy every book I read; that's the whole reason I pick them up in the first place, because they sound interesting. However every once in awhile you hit a dud, and The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire is one book that just never got my attention, let alone kept it. The book is the story of the town Thebes, full of eccentric characters including Mrs. Scales who becomes a little crazy after being knocked on the head by a Catholic statue, her daughter Tabitha who rebels against her mother's religion and just about everything else and her two sons- all the result of three different marriages. There's also the gay choir director Jeremy who happens to live fairly nearby to his ex-lover, (now married with children) is also practicing for a New York musical contest with two gay buddies, one of whom is sick with AIDs. There's also half a dozen other characters with their own storylines, including a Pastor who has an attraction to Tabitha, Tabitha's boyfriend Caleb who is ignoring her following their magical Halloween together and a whole bunch of nuns. And yes- this is all in one book.
My first mistake was thinking it would be anything like the only other Maguire book I've read, Wicked, but even though it is not fantasy I still expected the wit that was present in his most popular book. In the Author's note Maguire writes, "For readers who know me primarily as a writer of fantasy, the setting and subject matter (and the vernacular spoken by characters herein) may come as surprise. Forgive me my trespasses." Well Maguire, I don't forgive you for wasting so many hours of my life as I trudged through The Next Queen of Heaven's constant attempt to be clever and quirky. For one example, Maguire describes Tabitha as a child that "At the age of seven she had spent three-quarters of a year with a clothespin on her nose, trying to keep witchcraft from winging itself through her nasal passages. That's what comes from naming your kids after TV characters, thought Turk." It's simply not funny and it's the type of overly quirkiness that makes the characters seem false instead of genuine and pales in comparison to books which manage to do quirky well, like Jonathan Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You.
More significantly, Maguire simply begins too many storylines and ends up with so many loose ends as to strangle any potential that The Next Queen of Heaven even had. Extracting one storyline out the book- for example the story of the elderly nuns, or that of a gay man and his former, now married lover and perhaps Maguire would have had a book I'd enjoy but as it is he overstretched both his talent and my attention span. Exceedingly tedious, the book had me so bored that it was hard to focus on it for any significant length of time and found me actually avoiding it by cleaning my apartment at one point- which shows my desperation. It's not that The Next Queen of Heaven was awful bad- but it just doesn't pull you in which means that reading it is an exercise in persistence instead of the passion I feel when reading a book I love. *
My first mistake was thinking it would be anything like the only other Maguire book I've read, Wicked, but even though it is not fantasy I still expected the wit that was present in his most popular book. In the Author's note Maguire writes, "For readers who know me primarily as a writer of fantasy, the setting and subject matter (and the vernacular spoken by characters herein) may come as surprise. Forgive me my trespasses." Well Maguire, I don't forgive you for wasting so many hours of my life as I trudged through The Next Queen of Heaven's constant attempt to be clever and quirky. For one example, Maguire describes Tabitha as a child that "At the age of seven she had spent three-quarters of a year with a clothespin on her nose, trying to keep witchcraft from winging itself through her nasal passages. That's what comes from naming your kids after TV characters, thought Turk." It's simply not funny and it's the type of overly quirkiness that makes the characters seem false instead of genuine and pales in comparison to books which manage to do quirky well, like Jonathan Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You.
More significantly, Maguire simply begins too many storylines and ends up with so many loose ends as to strangle any potential that The Next Queen of Heaven even had. Extracting one storyline out the book- for example the story of the elderly nuns, or that of a gay man and his former, now married lover and perhaps Maguire would have had a book I'd enjoy but as it is he overstretched both his talent and my attention span. Exceedingly tedious, the book had me so bored that it was hard to focus on it for any significant length of time and found me actually avoiding it by cleaning my apartment at one point- which shows my desperation. It's not that The Next Queen of Heaven was awful bad- but it just doesn't pull you in which means that reading it is an exercise in persistence instead of the passion I feel when reading a book I love. *
June 7, 2011
Picked this up in my local Border’s going out of business sale, knowing nothing about author Gregory Maguire, and figuring the paperback would do as light-hearted entertainment on one of my upcoming plane trips across the Pacific. I was a little nostalgic for one of those pleasures Kindle has robbed me of: Finishing a paperback on a trip and being happy to leave it behind as a surprise for the next guest to inherit your hotel room ...or for the housekeeper, or the barista making my coffee each morning.
So much for advance planning at the bargain bin: Started TNQOH at home instead, wanting to read something very different from other recent choices I’ve made, and wanting to read it quickly, as with chomping through a good meal when you know from where your hunger comes. Maguire delivered, but not as I expected, and I’ll have to try reading another one of his ‘normal’ novels, since this one apparently is a bit of a departure for him, or so he says... is he being honestly apologetic or blatantly mischievous in his Author’s Note?
This is one of those books where the back-jacket copy is utterly accurate, while simultaneously proving that truthfulness can be misleading without enough context to prepare you for likely deceptions. You do feel a little deceived at the end, but when you think about it, you realize it would be worse to admit you were such a clueless reader — far better to give the author credit for being a sneaky genius.
I felt almost completely ambivalent about the book nearly half-way through it, even wondering if I’d even bother to finish it, only to read a bit more and find it snuck up on me — couldn’t put it down the final third despite berating myself for reading instead of working (and fiction, really?) I think the hook sunk in for me when introduced to the ancient Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries, for I did survive a full 9 years of Catholic School with them, and there are some things you can never escape relating to at some level. Let’s just say that no one can ever accuse us Catholics of not being interesting, at least not us wayward ones who still say “Holy Ghost” precisely because people think “Holy Spirit” has become more p.c. — we know that ship sailed away from us a long time ago.
There were a few unanswered questions for me with this book, but you know what? I am perfectly okay with them. Good job Gregory Maguire!
So much for advance planning at the bargain bin: Started TNQOH at home instead, wanting to read something very different from other recent choices I’ve made, and wanting to read it quickly, as with chomping through a good meal when you know from where your hunger comes. Maguire delivered, but not as I expected, and I’ll have to try reading another one of his ‘normal’ novels, since this one apparently is a bit of a departure for him, or so he says... is he being honestly apologetic or blatantly mischievous in his Author’s Note?
This is one of those books where the back-jacket copy is utterly accurate, while simultaneously proving that truthfulness can be misleading without enough context to prepare you for likely deceptions. You do feel a little deceived at the end, but when you think about it, you realize it would be worse to admit you were such a clueless reader — far better to give the author credit for being a sneaky genius.
I felt almost completely ambivalent about the book nearly half-way through it, even wondering if I’d even bother to finish it, only to read a bit more and find it snuck up on me — couldn’t put it down the final third despite berating myself for reading instead of working (and fiction, really?) I think the hook sunk in for me when introduced to the ancient Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries, for I did survive a full 9 years of Catholic School with them, and there are some things you can never escape relating to at some level. Let’s just say that no one can ever accuse us Catholics of not being interesting, at least not us wayward ones who still say “Holy Ghost” precisely because people think “Holy Spirit” has become more p.c. — we know that ship sailed away from us a long time ago.
There were a few unanswered questions for me with this book, but you know what? I am perfectly okay with them. Good job Gregory Maguire!
September 5, 2023
First, know that this is NOT a retelling of a fairy tale like Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It is a story of a quirky, dysfunctional family and the people they interact with, most of whom are quirky too. It is quite amusing in sections, and it is poignant in other sections. The reason I can't rate it higher than a 3 is that the ending fell flat.
February 25, 2012
I think my 3-star rating of this book may be a bit generous as I sit down to write this review. I had to force myself to finish reading this story mostly out of curiosity as to how it would end. And, now that I am finished, admitedly, I find myself asking, "So what?"
A collection of wacky characters and their inter-related life stories are the backdrop of the storyline that includes a three-time divorced mother (Mrs. Leontina Scales) who is a member of the 'Cliffs of Zion Radical Radiant Pentecostal Church' and her 3 dysfunctional children (Tabitha, Hogan and Kirk), her pastor (Pastor Jakob Huyck) who develops a crush on Tabitha, a choir director (Jeremy) in the adjoining Catholic Church (Our Lady of Something or Other) and his gay friends Sean and Marty. Jeremy has never gotten over his love for Willem, who is now married with the perfect family. Jeremy is also the twinkle in the eye of Kirk, the youngest of Mrs. Scales' three children.
And, there are the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries, (Mother Clare du Plessix, Sister Alice Coyne, Sister Maria Goretti, Sister Jeanne d'Arc, Sister Felicity, Sister Perpetua, Sister Clothilde, Sister Magdalene). I have to admit the Sisters were my favorite characters. They were smart, funny, witty and sincere.
One of the more interesting passages for me came from Mother Clare when she was speaking to Jeremy and his friends:
"The whole notion of the cloister still espcaes you, doesn't it? At least one of the many reasons one enters is not to escape the world because it is too painful, but because it is too beautiful to bear."
A collection of wacky characters and their inter-related life stories are the backdrop of the storyline that includes a three-time divorced mother (Mrs. Leontina Scales) who is a member of the 'Cliffs of Zion Radical Radiant Pentecostal Church' and her 3 dysfunctional children (Tabitha, Hogan and Kirk), her pastor (Pastor Jakob Huyck) who develops a crush on Tabitha, a choir director (Jeremy) in the adjoining Catholic Church (Our Lady of Something or Other) and his gay friends Sean and Marty. Jeremy has never gotten over his love for Willem, who is now married with the perfect family. Jeremy is also the twinkle in the eye of Kirk, the youngest of Mrs. Scales' three children.
And, there are the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries, (Mother Clare du Plessix, Sister Alice Coyne, Sister Maria Goretti, Sister Jeanne d'Arc, Sister Felicity, Sister Perpetua, Sister Clothilde, Sister Magdalene). I have to admit the Sisters were my favorite characters. They were smart, funny, witty and sincere.
One of the more interesting passages for me came from Mother Clare when she was speaking to Jeremy and his friends:
"The whole notion of the cloister still espcaes you, doesn't it? At least one of the many reasons one enters is not to escape the world because it is too painful, but because it is too beautiful to bear."
December 3, 2009
While I was reading this, I was really enjoying it, but now that I look back, I can't quite figure out what it was trying to do. There's a lot of humor and a fair bit of tragedy, but not a whole lot of story. A woman goes mad when she gets clonked on the head by a statue of the Virgin Mary. A trio of gay men befriend a gaggle of elderly nuns. A teenage girl is self-righteously angry but also rather hilariously dumb. A man with HIV gets ill. People mistreat each other. A man is hopelessly obsessed with his married ex. But when the story ends, nothing's really all that different from when we started. I guess you can assume that everybody gets over their issues and and turns over a new leaf, but who can tell?
On the bright side, Maguire doesn't trot out the thesaurus quite so often as he does in his fairy tale retellings (Wicked, et al), which made for a less frustrating read. All in all, it's not bad for a free book, but not something I'd want to read again. I like books that tell a story, and I felt like one wasn't really told here. I can deal with the open-endedness, but I finished this feeling more like the plot was simply set up and then left as an exercise for the reader.
On the bright side, Maguire doesn't trot out the thesaurus quite so often as he does in his fairy tale retellings (Wicked, et al), which made for a less frustrating read. All in all, it's not bad for a free book, but not something I'd want to read again. I like books that tell a story, and I felt like one wasn't really told here. I can deal with the open-endedness, but I finished this feeling more like the plot was simply set up and then left as an exercise for the reader.
December 4, 2011
Being an Upstate NY native and having the good fortune to pick up The Next Queen of Heaven at the precise time of year during which it is set, I found this book wonderfully atmospheric and hilariously familiar. Everything about it rang true. I can't believe that readers complain that the characters are over-the-top or stereotypical; I know every single one of these people. Perhaps the book is just too niche to find a wide audience, and hence the low rating, but I loved reading a book about characters who are ill or facing economic hardship or crises of faith that firmly places these factors within the larger rhythms of life. This book has perspective, humor, and respect for different points of view. I actually enjoyed it more than Maguire's fairy-tale re-tellings.
December 2, 2018
A change of pace, as Maguire admits in the forward, from his earlier books, including "Wicked" and "After Alice." It is essentially two separate stories taking place in the same small town, which occasionally and rather lightly touch upon each other. One story might be comical if it weren't so improbable and overdone - that of a dysfunctional family that is even further unmoored by an injury that basically takes the mother's mind for a time. The other has a more serious tone, involving a group of three gay men, but I was put off by the degree to which their conversations revolved around their sexual preference. I doubt this would be true in real life.
January 7, 2021
Very different from his usual work, but what a treat! Simultaneously irreverent and secularly divine.
December 31, 2009
This was a neat read at Christmas for several reasons. First, it begins with a protestant parishioner who gets knocked on the head accidentally with a Catholic statuette of Mary and begins speaking in tongues right around Christmas time. (Ha! I just love this plot device.) Second, this book is free through Concord Free Press; all they ask is that you donate to a charity of your choice. This is also a beautiful representation of the Christmas spirit, and I applaud their efforts.
I do think the main reason I liked this book more than other reviewers is because I have personal experience with quirky church musicians and nuns. (My experience is not with catholic school parochial education nuns, but funny, warm, down-to-earth nuns who live and work in New York City.) I laughed out loud at the rivalry and snippy comments between the Cliffs of Zion Radical Radiant Pentecostals and the Our Lady’s Catholics. The elderly gruff Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries were equally hysterical in their adoption of a gay singing group using their rehearsal space to practice for an AIDS benefit.
As did others, I wanted a bit tighter ending with more closure for some of the characters. But I think what pushed this from 3 to 4 stars for me were the subtle crazy church things (like the Incredible Flying Baby Jesus that miraculously lands in the manger during the last verse of O Holy Night on Christmas Eve) that, as crazy as they are, ring true. Such things really do happen in real churches around the US, I promise. I would recommend this for anyone else who has worked in a church and/or been raised by parents working in a church and seen the quite strange, but quite funny side of church life and denominational rivalries.
I do think the main reason I liked this book more than other reviewers is because I have personal experience with quirky church musicians and nuns. (My experience is not with catholic school parochial education nuns, but funny, warm, down-to-earth nuns who live and work in New York City.) I laughed out loud at the rivalry and snippy comments between the Cliffs of Zion Radical Radiant Pentecostals and the Our Lady’s Catholics. The elderly gruff Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries were equally hysterical in their adoption of a gay singing group using their rehearsal space to practice for an AIDS benefit.
As did others, I wanted a bit tighter ending with more closure for some of the characters. But I think what pushed this from 3 to 4 stars for me were the subtle crazy church things (like the Incredible Flying Baby Jesus that miraculously lands in the manger during the last verse of O Holy Night on Christmas Eve) that, as crazy as they are, ring true. Such things really do happen in real churches around the US, I promise. I would recommend this for anyone else who has worked in a church and/or been raised by parents working in a church and seen the quite strange, but quite funny side of church life and denominational rivalries.
October 28, 2010
Gregory Maguire is known for his retelling of children's stories (i.e. The Wizard of Oz, The Little Match Girl, etc.) This is the first of his novels that I see that he has come up with a purely fictional story. I must confess that I did have some trouble with the amount of characters in this novel and I found myself more than once trying to get a grip on what was happening because I had one of the characters mistaken.
It did get a little easier to read after a while, especially once I got the characters in the right order. And I do have to say that there were many instances where I found myself laughing out loud. I couldn't help it - there were just so many things going on and the more I thought of them, the funnier I found the whole thing to be. It was silly. The characters were over the top and the situations they found themselves in were unbelievable. There's a little bit of everything in this book - religion, sexuality, HIV, two feuding churches, teen pregnancy, musicians, even elderly nuns. It was pure mayhem! With all the crazy and zany antics throughout, there was also the more serious tone of finding and believing in oneself.
I also really enjoyed that the book takes place around Christmas - and I think Mr. Maguire did a great job in capturing the Christmas spirit - in his own quirky way.
I can't say that I loved this book, but I can definitely appreciate it. I found it too busy for my tastes and I felt that the ending lacked a little. I would have liked more closure for some of the characters. All in all, I can't say this is a book for everyone but I can see where many would still enjoy it.
It did get a little easier to read after a while, especially once I got the characters in the right order. And I do have to say that there were many instances where I found myself laughing out loud. I couldn't help it - there were just so many things going on and the more I thought of them, the funnier I found the whole thing to be. It was silly. The characters were over the top and the situations they found themselves in were unbelievable. There's a little bit of everything in this book - religion, sexuality, HIV, two feuding churches, teen pregnancy, musicians, even elderly nuns. It was pure mayhem! With all the crazy and zany antics throughout, there was also the more serious tone of finding and believing in oneself.
I also really enjoyed that the book takes place around Christmas - and I think Mr. Maguire did a great job in capturing the Christmas spirit - in his own quirky way.
I can't say that I loved this book, but I can definitely appreciate it. I found it too busy for my tastes and I felt that the ending lacked a little. I would have liked more closure for some of the characters. All in all, I can't say this is a book for everyone but I can see where many would still enjoy it.
December 29, 2011
Years ago I read "Wicked" by this author and thought I'd give this one a try when I stumbled across it at the library. It was a pleasant surprise that much of this book takes place during Christmas, as that wasn't mentioned on the back cover. While it does take place during the holiday season, it isn't a part of the story itself and only serves as more of a background for certain events, such as Midnight Mass in a Catholic church.
This book was lighthearted, easy to read, and sometimes so goofy and a bit juvenile in it's humor that I wanted to stop reading but I kept at it as it was moving quickly. I could have done without all the references to the gay characters. I felt like saying in my head, 'okay, I get it already, they are gay' now move on with the story. To me, I felt like some characters sexuality only served the story to give it shock value or appeal to a certain audience and aside from providing a background to have one of the characters ill with HIV, I don't know what value it contributed.
All said, the story was ok; not amazing, not bad, just something to pass the time during the lull in the holidays when I didn't have time for a great big thick book.
This book was lighthearted, easy to read, and sometimes so goofy and a bit juvenile in it's humor that I wanted to stop reading but I kept at it as it was moving quickly. I could have done without all the references to the gay characters. I felt like saying in my head, 'okay, I get it already, they are gay' now move on with the story. To me, I felt like some characters sexuality only served the story to give it shock value or appeal to a certain audience and aside from providing a background to have one of the characters ill with HIV, I don't know what value it contributed.
All said, the story was ok; not amazing, not bad, just something to pass the time during the lull in the holidays when I didn't have time for a great big thick book.
July 3, 2023
The wonderfully drawn characters are worth the read. The ending is very satisfying, too.
March 6, 2021
As a great admirer of Mr. Maguire's work, it pains me to share how much I disliked this book. Quirky, small-town humor with a little bit is often fun and welcome. Throw in religious fervor and a gay storyline and you've got something promising! Unfortunately, The Next Queen of Heaven just doesn't deliver. Characters are alternately mean-spirited, pathetic or both, the humor falls flat nearly every time, stereotypes are tossed around willy-nilly, and while the conclusion is meant to represent closure and moving on, it just feels... empty and unsatisfying.
It's not really worth going into the plot, but I will say that the gay storyline is sadly the least successful, and the most borderline offensive to me, like the worst in American gay cinema (I am notoriously harsh on gay movies.) Ultimately Gregory is an accomplished writer, in this novel, the loveliest sentence cant cover up an unsatisfying plot and unlikable characters. A sad miss for me.
It's not really worth going into the plot, but I will say that the gay storyline is sadly the least successful, and the most borderline offensive to me, like the worst in American gay cinema (I am notoriously harsh on gay movies.) Ultimately Gregory is an accomplished writer, in this novel, the loveliest sentence cant cover up an unsatisfying plot and unlikable characters. A sad miss for me.
November 6, 2010
I'd like to give this 2 1/2 stars. It was a decent story and entertaining read although I thought it was uneven and didn't fulfill its potential. It could have been really good if he had just developed it some more and used some of the interesting characters he introduced only to ignore for the rest of the book.
After being impressed by Wicked and The Ugly Stepsister, I have been consistently disappointed by Gregory Maguire, especially since his concepts for each novel have been so original. This was the first one I read that did not relate back to a fairytale/Dickens so I was interested to see how he would perform. It's amazing how much mileage he has gotten out of one fantastic novel in that I keep reading his books even though they are mediocre. Next up is A Lion Among Men. If that one is disappointing, I will most likely give up on this author.
After being impressed by Wicked and The Ugly Stepsister, I have been consistently disappointed by Gregory Maguire, especially since his concepts for each novel have been so original. This was the first one I read that did not relate back to a fairytale/Dickens so I was interested to see how he would perform. It's amazing how much mileage he has gotten out of one fantastic novel in that I keep reading his books even though they are mediocre. Next up is A Lion Among Men. If that one is disappointing, I will most likely give up on this author.
January 13, 2012
I swear Maguire has some other people writing stuff and putting his name on it. I understand that an author will not always hit it out of the park but it is an even 50/50 with this guy. Still trying to figure out what he was trying to accomplish with this book. No resolution, thin plot-line, just a bunch of stuff that happens with really weak dialogue.
It feels like this is a short story he had stashed away somewhere, needed something to turn into the publisher in between "Wicked" books, fleshed it out a little bit (but not much) and offered up to the masses with the tiniest amount of stank on it.
There was not one sympathetic character on hand throughout this entire ordeal that I could latch on and empathize. Jeremy and Tabitha seem to be the main protagonists. That's all I can say.
December 5, 2009
Again, I wish I could do half stars, because I think my rating is more like 3.5 stars than 3. It was an interesting book, but very unlike Maguire's other writings. The characters were all normal small-town people dealing with maybe not-so-normal problems, like a woman being hit on the head by a Virgin Mary statue and going into a sort of coma. The book leaves you with the impression that maybe things will be okay for everyone at the end, but it doesn't tie things up too neatly or in ways that would be unbelievable. Everything about this book seems plausible, like you could picture these things happening to you or someone you know. Doesn't always make for the most exciting/edge-of-your-seat read, but still pretty good.
July 9, 2011
Greg Maguire is channeling Christopher Moore and doing a better job than Moore.
It's nothing like Maguire's other books - it's not a take off on a fairy tale, and despite the title, it really isn't a take off on Mary, Mother of God, although her Son's church's feature heavily in it.
It's about a three-times divorced mom who gets hit on the head by a statue of the Virgin Mary, in the church basement. Don't ask me why Mary was on top the refrigerator, maybe she was looking for a snack? Mom gets knocked out, her kids have to take care of her and learn to fend for themsleves, and it's interesting.
It also features gay men, retired nuns, and a strange assortment of small town characters. I liked it, a lot, but it's not for everyone.
It's nothing like Maguire's other books - it's not a take off on a fairy tale, and despite the title, it really isn't a take off on Mary, Mother of God, although her Son's church's feature heavily in it.
It's about a three-times divorced mom who gets hit on the head by a statue of the Virgin Mary, in the church basement. Don't ask me why Mary was on top the refrigerator, maybe she was looking for a snack? Mom gets knocked out, her kids have to take care of her and learn to fend for themsleves, and it's interesting.
It also features gay men, retired nuns, and a strange assortment of small town characters. I liked it, a lot, but it's not for everyone.
December 14, 2016
I did not finish this book. It's just too juvenile and negative. All the characters do is swear at each other and think the most unkind things. I don't even want to keep it on my home bookcase, that's how turned off I am. The funny thing is, I've liked Maguire's other books. There are a couple of sentences here and there that are funny, but most of it is complete rubbish. For an example..someone comes to the door..the teenage daughter tells her younger brother to say "f'you" to whoever it is. When the younger brother doesn't say it to the degree the sister had wished, she yells at him to say it like he means it, and has him practice yelling "f'you" for several minuets. That's how most of the book was up until I finally closed it for good. Goodbye, obnoxious characters.
November 15, 2010
I got to page 100, and even though a few of the characters stirred my interest (Sister Alice and the elderly nuns), and there were some funny lines, I just couldn't bring myself to care about or like any of the other characters. They came across as hollow caricatures of various white trash types ("slutty, foul-mouthed teen", "flaky, ineffective religious-freak mother", "sensitive, probably gay baby of the family", etc.). Another reviewer here called this book "exceedingly tedious" and that sums up my feelings EXACTLY - I couldn't bring myself to waste the time to finish the book - there are just too many books, too little time!
December 29, 2015
The humor of this story is the slice of life humor that comes from a heart that can live a life and laugh at the stuff that life presents to that heart. This is a story with a big heart for all those that inhabit this small town in upstate New York. Gregory Maguire has created a world that is so real, rather than that of Wicked and his other fantasy books. I could imagine these things happening on an ordinary winter day in any small town in North America. Brilliant change of pace for Maguire and it is both touching and funny. I love his other books, but this shows his imagination does have some basis in the real world and I appreciate his vision.
November 15, 2010
this book was free online with the stipulation that you donate to a charity of your choice and log the donation amountand the charity's name on their website for tracking purposes and then pass the book on to someone after reading it and recording your name in the back of the book. It was different than any of his other books I've read but was perfect for the chilly damp weekend.
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