Christmas books: ‘The Wicked Years Box Set’

’Tis the season for stocking stuffers and hopefully quiet time with a good book nestled under a blanket or near a fire. This year, two books from younger Catholics and a boxed set from an older one sit at the top of my gift-giving list.

I realize the world is going a little gaga over the second “Wicked” movie. Still, I highly recommend the four-volume set of novels about Oz that begins with the book on which the movie and musical are based. The books, which tell the story of Elphaba and her descendants as Oz plunges into fascism, bears unsettling similarities to our country today. 

But even as author Gregory Maguire is fiercely critical of authoritarianism, his series is more interested in the bit players of the world of Oz and the choices that they make. Maguire was raised Catholic, and his books offer an unexpectedly profound meditation on the moral life. As absurd as it may sound, you’ll never look at the Cowardly Lion the same way again. Or Dorothy. Or, yes, the Wicked Witch — though fans of the movie or musical will be surprised at how much darker and more adult the novel is. This is not kid stuff.

Fantasy writers can get a bad rap for their prose. But Maguire’s work glimmers with poetry. Here’s a passage from his recent prequel novel “Elphie: A Wicked Childhood”: “At nighttime, after she has sung Shell to sleep, she coils in her own sheets, twisted as a nautilus, in a birth clench, waiting to be real, to be something other than herself, waiting to be herself. No different from any thirteen year old human child. No different, and so different.” His novels are filled with moments like turning a corner on a street and suddenly finding yourself before the most stunning tree or sunset.