The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum

(Book Review--Land of Oz, Classics, Fantasy, Children's Books)  

(Read from The Complete Stories of Oz)

Started: November 23, 2021

Finished: December 3, 2021

(This review is written using my new format for book reviews.)

Background Information

Originally published in 1909, this is the 4th book in the Land of Oz series.  (For my previous reviews, see The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.)

My History With This Book

I read this book 5 years ago when I first attempted to work my way through The Complete Stories of Oz (as I mentioned HERE and HERE.)  If memory serves, this was the last complete book I read through in that collection before I lost interest and stopped reading.

Summary of the Book (*SPOILERS*)

Dorothy is just minding her own business on her farm back in Kansas when a scruffy looking hobo known as "Shaggy Man" shows up and asks for directions.  Dorothy is in the middle of showing him which road to take, when somehow she suddenly becomes lost in Fairy Land.  While Dorothy and the Shaggy Man try to find their way, they become aware that Ozma of Oz is going to be having a birthday celebration, and that everyone wants to come.

Dorothy, the Shaggy Man, and other friends they meet along the way (Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter and Button Bright) travel through fairy lands to try to make it back to Oz for Ozma's birthday party.  They encounter the usual strange creatures and dangers along the way, before they finally make it back to Oz.

Once back in Oz, all the characters from the previous books show up to make cameo appearances and remind us that they exist.

Then, Ozma has her birthday party, and not only are all the characters from Oz there, but, in an attempt to create crossover appeal, several characters from L. Frank Baum's other books also show up (Dot and Tot of Merryland, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Queen Zixi of Ix, and John Dough and the Cherub).

Evaluation

I'll be honest, I'm starting to get a little bit bored with these stories.  Upon reflection, I don't think it's a coincidence that I gave up on The Complete Stories of Oz 5 years ago shortly after finishing The Road to Oz.  (I never intentionally abandoned The Complete Stories of Oz.  I seldom intentionally abandon any book.  I just started going longer and longer between reading sessions as my interest gradually waned, and before I knew it, it had been months since I last touched the book.)

Anyway...

Part of the problem with The Road to Oz is that these books are becoming pretty transparently formulaic at this point.  We are now 5 books in, and the formula is very well established.  Namely:

* These books are always about a journey.  There's never any real plot.  The characters are going from point A to point B, and they encounter stuff on the way.
In the first 2 books, the characters were travelling within the land of Oz.  But after book 2, there was a shift in perspective.  Oz was no longer the dangerous and wild land--Oz was now the safe and happy land, and in books 3, 4 and now 5, the journey is to get to the land of Oz.

* Each new journey is accompanied by a new set of characters.  For whatever reason, L. Frank Baum was apparently reluctant to simply re-use characters from the previous books on these journeys.  So each new book introduces a whole new cast of travelling companions.  In The Road to Oz, Dorothy and Toto are, of course, familiar, but all the rest of their travelling companions (Shaggy Man, Polychrome, Button Bright) are new.  

* However, when they do finally get to the land of Oz, then all the old characters from previous books come back for cameo appearances, and the final third of each book is essentially old characters popping up and saying "Hi Dorothy.  Remember me?"

All of that is beginning to get a little bit tiring by the 5th book in.  

That, plus in this book, the quality of the imagination seems to dip from the previous books.  The new lands and new creatures encountered in this book are...okay, I guess.  But not nearly as bizarre and fun as the previous books.  And for most of the book there is very little in the way of actual danger or serious stakes.  (With the exception of the encounter with the Scoodlers.)

All that being said, there are a couple of interesting things going on around the edges of this book:

1) As someone who's always been a big geek, and fascinated by fictional continuity, I'm kind of fascinated by the Oz extended Universe that L. Frank Baum is trying to create in this book.  Even though I'm not sure I'll ever read the other books, I still think it's cool that they're all integrated.  

2) This book marks a big turning point in the Oz Mythos.  L. Frank Baum is now envisioning Oz as some sort of Utopian land where no one needs to use money, because everyone wants to help each other.  This will become a big element in future Oz books to come (or so I'm lead to believe by Mari Ness's Oz reviews.)

Extended Quotation

Nick Chopper, the Emperor of the Winkies, who was also known throughout the Land of Oz as the Tin Woodman, was certainly a remarkable person. He was neatly made, all of tin, nicely soldered at the joints, and his various limbs were cleverly hinged to his body so that he could use them nearly as well as if they had been common flesh. Once, he told the shaggy man, he had been made all of flesh and bones, as others people are, and then he chopped wood in the forests to earn his living. But the axe slipped so often and cut off parts of him—which he had replaced with tin—that finally there was no flesh left, nothing but tin; so he became a real tin woodman. The wonderful Wizard of Oz had given him an excellent heart to replace his old one, and he didn't at all mind being tin. Every one loved him, he loved every one; and he was therefore as happy as the day was long.

The Emperor was proud of his new tin castle, and showed his visitors through all the rooms. Every bit of the furniture was made of brightly polished tin—the tables, chairs, beds, and all—even the floors and walls were of tin.

"I suppose," said he, "that there are no cleverer tinsmiths in all the world than the Winkies. It would be hard to match this castle in Kansas; wouldn't it, little Dorothy?"

"Very hard," replied the child, gravely.

"It must have cost a lot of money," remarked the shaggy man.

"Money! Money in Oz!" cried the Tin Woodman. "What a queer idea! Did you suppose we are so vulgar as to use money here?"

"Why not?" asked the shaggy man.

"If we used money to buy things with, instead of love and kindness and the desire to please one another, then we should be no better than the rest of the world," declared the Tin Woodman. "Fortunately money is not known in the Land of Oz at all. We have no rich, and no poor; for what one wishes the others all try to give him, in order to make him happy, and no one in all Oz cares to have more than he can use."

"Good!" cried the shaggy man, greatly pleased to hear this. "I also despise money—a man in Butterfield owes me fifteen cents, and I will not take it from him. The Land of Oz is surely the most favored land in all the world, and its people the happiest. I should like to live here always."

The Tin Woodman listened with respectful attention. Already he loved the shaggy man, although he did not yet know of the Love Magnet. So he said:

"If you can prove to the Princess Ozma that you are honest and true and worthy of our friendship, you may indeed live here all your days, and be as happy as we are."

(End Quote From Chapter 15: The Emperor's Tin Castle)

This is one example of Utopianism in Oz.  Later in the book, the Tin Woodman also reveals that the people in Oz work no more than half the day.  And also that no one ever dies in Oz, unless they are condemned to die by the citizens.

Links

So, as always with these Oz books, I'm reliant on the analysis of Mari Ness at Tor.com.  Her review of The Road to Oz is: Partying in a Utopian Fairyland: The Road to Oz.  

Oooh, Ozma is having a birthday party! Can Dorothy and her friends make it in time for the party?  Can they? CAN THEY?

It must be confessed from the outset that The Road to Oz does not have much of a plot. (You just read pretty much the entire thing.)  But, even plotless, The Road to Oz is one of the most critical books in the development of Oz, since here at last we see the nearly ultimate, persistent version of Oz: Oz as communist utopia.

 In the comments section of that review, there's some debate about whether what L. Frank Baum is describing is actually communism or mere utopianism.  

I'm also doing this book as a buddy read with Dane Reads, who reviews the book on his blog HERE. 

This is the first time since I started reading the Oz series (as a buddy read with Joel Swagman) that I’ve wondered what I’ve got myself into. It just didn’t have the same magic as the other books, at least for me, and by this point it’s starting to feel a little bit formulaic. 

I think that sums up my feelings about this book as well.   

Odds and Ends

* When I saw The Complete Stories of Oz by L. Frank Baum in the bookstore 5 years ago, I naturally assumed it was all the Oz stories--at least those by L. Frank Baum.  I'm gradually discovering, however, that there are a whole lot more L. Frank Baum stories that connect to Oz that are not included in this volume.  As I noted in my review of The Marvelous Land of Oz, L. Frank Baum spun the characters from that book out into Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz and The Woggle-Bug Book.  Now, to add to the list of tangentially related Oz books, I have all the books that crossover with The Road to Oz--Dot and Tot of Merryland, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Queen Zixi of Ix, and John Dough and the Cherub.  

Looking ahead, it looks like in 1911 and 1912, L. Frank Baum will also do Oz crossovers with The Sea Fairies and Sky Island.  

The completist inside of me is tempted to try to track down all of these related books.  (After all, if you're going to read The Complete Stories of Oz, then you might as well read the Complete stories of Oz.)  If I were back in the U.S., I'd probably already be checking the library for these books.  But I'm not sure how much luck I'll have tracking them down in Vietnam.  Although it looks like all of this stuff is on project Gutenberg.  Maybe I might look into getting the printed out here one day.

* The Road to Oz is the first time Toto's been back to the land of Oz since the first book.

But this brings up yet another continuity problem with this series.  In books 3 and 4, it's clearly established that any animal that comes to Oz is able to talk.   So why can't Toto talk?  (According to Wikipedia, this will be addressed in the future books, so I guess I'll have to wait for those.)

* And speaking of continuity problems, this is the second book in a row now that Dorothy seems to have forgotten that Ozma's belt can bring her to Oz at any time.  Why didn't she signal to to help her?

This is addressed (kind of) later in the book:

"I've watched you in my Magic Picture all the way here," declared Ozma, "and twice I thought I should have to use the Magic Belt to save you and transport you to the Emerald City. Once was when the Scoodlers caught you, and again when you reached the Deadly Desert. But the shaggy man was able to help you out both times, so I did not interfere.

Okay, so that explains things from Ozma's point of view.  But from Dorothy's point of view, why didn't she try to signal to Ozma sooner. 

* Based on what I've been reading on Wikipedia and from Mari Ness, I understand that L. Frank Baum is now beginning to transform his vision of Oz into a Utopia in which there is no money, and nobody ever dies.  The part about no money I've already mentioned above.  But the part about nobody ever dying is also in this book, although very briefly.  From chapter 16:

"What is this?" asked Dorothy, in wonder.

"It's Jack Pumpkinhead's private graveyard," replied the Tin Woodman.

"But I thought nobody ever died in Oz," she said.

"Nor do they; although if one is bad, he may be condemned and killed by the good citizens," he answered.

Notice how L. Frank Baum tries to just slip that in there, as if Dorothy is simply referencing something that was already established.  But this wasn't already established.  Lots of creatures died in the first Oz book. So this is yet another retcon.
There have been so many retcons in this series so far that it's no use getting upset about them now.  But what's odd about the "no one ever dies in Oz" retcon is that it's not even consistent within this same book itself.  In the very next chapter (Chapter 17), we hear about Dyna the sorcerer and her beloved bear.  

 It happened she had once had a big blue bear for a pet; but the bear choked to death on a fishbone one day, and she loved it so dearly that Dyna made a rug of its skin, leaving the head and four paws on the hide. She kept the rug on the floor of her front parlor.

So this is confusing.  Can creatures die in Oz or not?  I guess I'll have to wait till later books to see how this concept develops.

Connections to Other Books I've Read

* When Dorothy sees a play in the town of Foxville, she remarks how it reminds her of one of Aesop's fables.  

Rating: 

3 out of 10 stars.  I found it mostly boring.  Some interesting moments here and there, but on the whole, a bit of a chore to read through.   

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November 28, 2021 p.388-432

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Video Review: 

The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: Book Review