(Read from The Complete Stories of Oz)
Started: December 7, 2021
Finished: January 2, 2022
(This review is written using my new format for book reviews.)
Background Information
Originally published in 1913, this was L. Frank Baum's 7th book in The Land of Oz series. (L. Frank Baum had tried to end the series after book 6, but public demand and financial necessity eventually brought him back.)
My History with this Book
5 years ago when I first attempted to read through The Complete Stories of Oz, I only to through the first 5 books, and halfway through the 6th. This is book number 7, however, so from here on out, I'm entering these books fresh.
Summary of the Plot (*SPOILERS*)
We start out the book with two completely new characters. (Which is different. This is the first time we've done this since book number 2.) Ojo and Unc Nunkie are two munchkins living in the forest in the Land of Oz. They visit the Crooked Magician, who is one of Unc Nunkie's friends. (And who, it turns out, is the same guy that makes the magical Powder of Life, which was a big plot point in book 2.)
There's an accident, and Unc Nunkie is turned into a statue. Now, Ojo must go on a quest to get all the ingredients to make a potion in order to get Unc Nunkie back to life.
Like many other Oz books, this is a journey story. Ojo walks around Oz, meets strange and wonderful creatures, and encounters dangers.
This is, however, the first Oz story so far in which the protagonists get swapped out halfway through. In the beginning of the story, the Shaggy Man, the Glass Cat, and the Woozy are all accompanying Ojo. But they end up staying at the Emerald City halfway through, and Ojo is joined by Dorothy and the Scarecrow instead.
Evaluation
It's okay.
It's another typical Oz story in which characters wander around and encounter strange things along the way. I'm not sure I have much to say about it that I haven't said about the other Oz stories. It's easy to read. (It is a children's book, after all.) Some of the strange lands that our characters encounter are fun to imagine. I think that's about it for my commentary.
External Links
* Dane Cobain (who I'm doing this series with as a buddy reads), reviews the book on his website here:
The new characters in this one were actually pretty interesting, and there’s something about a patchwork girl that I found to be super relatable. But I did have a problem with the plot, and it’s basically the same problem that keeps on occurring.Basically, the main characters are trying to brew up a potion that can be used to turn some petrified people back into flesh and blood, and I just couldn’t help wondering why they didn’t just ask Ozma to use her magic belt to do it. They even meet Ozma about two thirds of the way through the book and carry on trying to gather up all of the ingredients they need when they could have just asked her for a cheeky favour.
I agree.
* As always, I made sure to check out Mari Ness's review at Tor.com: Fairness and Foolishness: The Patchwork Girl of Oz Mari Ness comments on a number of interesting things. She talks about the moral ambiguity in this book:
When I first read this book as a child, I was horrified that my kind hearted Tin Woodman was willing to let two people—one a beloved uncle of the main character—remain stone statues, essentially dead, all to keep a butterfly from feeling any pain. And although as an adult I can see the Tin Woodman’s point, I still find the elevation of a butterfly over the urgent needs of two humans morally dubious.
Mari Ness also continues her theme of criticizing Ozma:
Believe it or not, I really don’t want to be all about the Ozma hate. But honestly, Ozma, would it have killed you to, you know, explain the idea behind your law to the Shaggy Man, at least, so that it would not have seemed so arbitrary and unfair?
And, there's an interesting little factoid at the end:
Two things mar Patchwork Girl: an incident with the Tottenhots, meant to refer to stereotypical descriptions of the Hottenhots of South Africa, and the horrible song played by the living phonograph, with the godawful lyrics, “Ah wants mah Lulu, my coal-black Lulu.” The Oz characters, to their credit, also object to this song, even if they seem to be reacting more to the sound than to the lyrics. Both bits are jarring in a book where a literally colorful woman, created to be a household slave, earns her independence and merrily defends her unusual, “crazy” appearance, refusing to be pitied or condemned. It’s also a depressing reminder that here, at least, Baum was all too much a man of his age, despite his pointed examples of tolerance and acceptance of differing sorts of people in this and other Oz books.(The racial references have been removed in the Books of Wonder editions, but can be found in other printings and in the Gutenberg etexts....
After reading this, I double checked. And indeed, also in my version (The Complete Stories of Oz) "coal black" has been replaced by "cross-eyed". But the original text is preserved on project Gutenberg.
* There's also the Wikipedia entry for this book, which had some interesting information about the writing of this book.
The same correspondence (November 23–7, 1912) discusses the deleted Chapter 21 of the book, "The Garden of Meats." The text of the chapter has not survived, but Neill's illustrations and their captions still exist. The deleted chapter dealt with a race of vegetable people comparable to the Mangaboos in Chapters 4–6 of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. The vegetable people grow what Baum elsewhere calls "meat people," apparently for food; Neill's pictures show plants with the heads of human children[4] being watered by their growers. (This is thematically connected with the anthropophagous plants in Chapter 10 of Patchwork Girl.) Frank Reilly tactfully wrote to Baum that the material was not "in harmony with your other fairy stories," and would generate "considerable adverse criticism." Baum saw his point; the chapter was dropped.[5]
* And also via Wikipedia, I learned that the Wise Donkey who appears in this book is a crossover character from another of L. Frank Baum's fantasy books, The Magical Monarch of Mo. (This continues the trend of what I've been noting in these Oz reviews--there's more than just an Oz series, there's a whole L. Frank Baum extended universe.)
* Update: Dane's video review is HERE.
Extended Quotation
"Now, then," said the woman briskly, "I must get you some supper, for you are doubtless hungry. What would you prefer: planked whitefish, omelet with jelly or mutton-chops with gravy?"
Ojo thought about it. Then he said: "I'll take the chops, if you please."
"Very well; amuse yourself while I'm gone; I won't be long," and then she went out by a door and left the prisoner alone.
Ojo was much astonished, for not only was this unlike any prison he had ever heard of, but he was being treated more as a guest than a criminal. There were many windows and they had no locks. There were three doors to the room and none were bolted. He cautiously opened one of the doors and found it led into a hallway. But he had no intention of trying to escape. If his jailor was willing to trust him in this way he would not betray her trust, and moreover a hot supper was being prepared for him and his prison was very pleasant and comfortable. So he took a book from the case and sat down in a big chair to look at the pictures.
This amused him until the woman came in with a large tray and spread a cloth on one of the tables. Then she arranged his supper, which proved the most varied and delicious meal Ojo had ever eaten in his life.
Tollydiggle sat near him while he ate, sewing on some fancy work she held in her lap. When he had finished she cleared the table and then read to him a story from one of the books.
"Is this really a prison?" he asked, when she had finished reading.
"Indeed it is," she replied. "It is the only prison in the Land of Oz."
"And am I a prisoner?"
"Bless the child! Of course."
"Then why is the prison so fine, and why are you so kind to me?" he earnestly asked.
Tollydiggle seemed surprised by the question, but she presently answered:
"We consider a prisoner unfortunate. He is unfortunate in two ways—because he has done something wrong and because he is deprived of his liberty. Therefore we should treat him kindly, because of his misfortune, for otherwise he would become hard and bitter and would not be sorry he had done wrong. Ozma thinks that one who has committed a fault did so because he was not strong and brave; therefore she puts him in prison to make him strong and brave. When that is accomplished he is no longer a prisoner, but a good and loyal citizen and everyone is glad that he is now strong enough to resist doing wrong. You see, it is kindness that makes one strong and brave; and so we are kind to our prisoners."
Ojo thought this over very carefully. "I had an idea," said he, "that prisoners were always treated harshly, to punish them."
"That would be dreadful!" cried Tollydiggle. "Isn't one punished enough in knowing he has done wrong? Don't you wish, Ojo, with all your heart, that you had not been disobedient and broken a Law of Oz?"
**** From Chapter 15: Ozma's Prisoner****
5 out of 10 Stars. A completely average Oz story.
* December 26, 2021 p.621-664
* January 2, 2022 p.664-728
Video Review (Playlist HERE)
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