In a novel that tingles with playfulness and wicked observation, the author poses serious questions about intimacy, passion and how women really feel in bed.
Gregory Maguire, the prolific author of "Wicked" and dozens of other books (including a series for children), has just knocked off another, his third this year.
By Mary Norris October 29, 2009 Gregory Maguire, the prolific author of "Wicked" and dozens of other books (including a series for children), has just knocked off another, his third this year.
Growing up reading — and being read — the stories of Roald Dahl, generations of children have created for themselves various iterations of the wonderful, wild and often wicked worlds of the author's books.
"We do not love anything that is uncivilized," says one of his documents, "we hate wicked pride and its authors.
But the Stewart and Libby prosecutions are hardly typical examples of good prosecutors triumphing over wicked, lying defendants, as the author suggests.
Meanwhile, ritzy Italian jeweler Bulgari has engaged the wicked pen of Candace Bushnell, author of Sex in the City, and others.
The author uses archetypes: the wicked stepmother, the master and the servant, the brothers (in this case cousins) who are friends yet rivals, but his skill is to put flesh on them, to make them real and individual.
After reading a similar pronouncement, the comic author S.J. Perelman produced a wicked satire of the concept, "Dial 'H' for Heartburn".
If the DiY cultists set out their views verbally unadorned, concerned citizens might conclude that they were wrong-headed, wicked or, worse, simply banal.Fortunately, the authors' attempts at obfuscation do not altogether succeed.
