Quick note before I dive back into essays: I’m reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire, and it is so very good. I haven’t finished it yet but I’ve had to place it out of arm’s reach so I don’t start reading it again. I really like Elphaba — she’s one of those characters you wish existed, so you could go to cafes together and such. I’m not sure how I feel about Maguire’s habit of skipping forward in time seconds after the climax of a particular plot point, and letting the reader figure out what happened afterwards through the retrospective musings of various characters. It certainly feels very modern and literary, but I also wish he would tell me more.