Was in Queereaders

Feb 13, 2009 Nancy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: made-me-cry, gay, hiv-aids, favorites, sf-fantasy, shelf-inflicted

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 tro ...more

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Apr 03, 2019 Rick rated it it was amazing

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. ...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Jamie rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 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 app 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. ...more

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Jan 13, 2017 Andrew Peters added it

This book blared out at me because I'm such a fan of Gregory Maguire's Wicked series, and I was curious about a different re-telling of The Wizard of Oz. I also like multiple, intertwined POVs, and I thought those narratives were well-chosen: the "real" Dorothy Gale, living in post-civil war Kansas, Judy Garland as a child actor, and the fictional actor Jonathan, a gay man dying of AIDS in the 1980s with an obsessive interest in the movie.

Of those, I enjoyed Dorothy's story the most. Her rustic, ...more

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