Gregory Maguire

"Gregory Maguire returns with an inventive novel inspired by a timeless holiday legend, intertwining the story of the famous Nutcracker with the life of the mysterious toy maker named Drosselmeier who carves him."--Amazon.com.

A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker

Hiddensee

From the author of the beloved New York Times bestseller Wicked, the magical story of a toymaker, a nutcracker, and a legend remade . . . Gregory Maguire returns with an inventive novel inspired by a timeless holiday legend, intertwining the story of the famous Nutcracker with the life of the mysterious toy maker named Drosselmeier who carves him. Hiddensee: An island of white sandy beaches, salt marshes, steep cliffs, and pine forests north of Berlin in the Baltic Sea, an island that is an enchanting bohemian retreat and home to a large artists' colony-- a wellspring of inspiration for the Romantic imagination . . . Having brought his legions of devoted readers to Oz in Wicked and to Wonderland in After Alice, Maguire now takes us to the realms of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann-- the enchanted Black Forest of Bavaria and the salons of Munich. Hiddensee imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve. At the heart of Hoffmann's mysterious tale hovers Godfather Drosselmeier-- the ominous, canny, one-eyed toy maker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky's fairy tale ballet-- who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter. But Hiddensee is not just a retelling of a classic story. Maguire discovers in the flowering of German Romanticism ties to Hellenic mystery-cults-- a fascination with death and the afterlife-- and ponders a profound question: How can a person who is abused by life, shortchanged and challenged, nevertheless access secrets that benefit the disadvantaged and powerless? Ultimately, Hiddensee offers a message of hope. If the compromised Godfather Drosselmeier can bring an enchanted Nutcracker to a young girl in distress on a dark winter evening, perhaps everyone, however lonely or marginalized, has something precious to share.

Vicky (A City Girl's Thoughts)

DNF'd. I didn't know this is an LGBTQ+ novel; I don't see it listed as that.

Celeste Richardson

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

I picked up this book because I was looking for a retelling of the Nutcracker to get me in the Christmas spirit. I should’ve known better than to trust Maguire to instill holiday cheer into anything he writes. I was definitely not filled with cheer and goodwill while reading this, which was a disappointment I should’ve seen coming.

Was this a bad book? No. It retold a familiar story in a new and unfamiliar way, from the perspective of Drosselmeier, the toy maker who crafted the eponymous Nutcracker. And Drosselmeier’s story was an interesting one. But just as he had an incredibly difficult time connecting emotionally to other people, so did I with his story. I found it intellectually compelling but emotionally unsatisfying.
 
I’ve enjoyed Maguire’s work in the past. Wicked was, in my opinion, an incredibly original retelling of a story that has been told so often that it lost a bit of its life and flavor. Wicked revitalized the Wizard of Oz for me, giving it a depth that I had missed. Elphaba was a far richer character than I would have expected, and I always enjoy seeing both heroes and villains in a different light, as Maguire presented both Dorothy and the Wicked Witch, along with various other characters made famous in the original. 

That’s what I was hoping for from Hiddensee, but it’s not what I got. I wanted more depth and richness added to a tale I love. And indeed, Maguire did add aspects to the old tale that were interesting, as I said before. But I just didn’t care about Drosselmeier like I yearned to. I didn’t see the Nutcracker in a new light that surprised and delighted me. I saw him given a new purpose, but he was lifeless in the pages of this book. And honestly, the tone of this book reminded me of Uprooted, which I hated. If you loved Uprooted, you might really enjoy this book.

One of the amazing things about fairy tales and folk tales is their ability to entrance us and move us in a very limited number of pages. Hiddensee felt both too long for a fairy tale and too short for a deeper, more compelling novel, leaving it on a shaky middle ground where it was unable to keep its footing. Of course, this is a personal opinion, as all of my reviews are. But now I feel the need to track down the original story to rid myself of the sour residue left by Maguire’s book, so I can reclaim a story I love. If anyone has another retelling of this story that they love, please share it with me; I don’t want my vision of the Nutcracker to stiffen with age.

Original review can be found at Booknest.

Story Eater

Hiddensee was a difficult to get through. It had alternate periods of acceleration and deceleration of plot, and I almost DNF. What I hated most about it was the haphazard way all of the quintessential elements of the Nutcracker were thrown in there mostly at the end like seasoning that was forgotten at the beginning of the dish. 

I have read some reviews that say it was too slow-moving, boring, etc.-with which I can partly agree. What causes the boredom for me is the variable pace at which the plot moves. The beginning definitely sold the book for me to continue it, but about one-third of the way into the book, a major plot point abruptly shifts and then lags for about 50 pages. It picks up again with an introduction of another character, and then lags after that character's story arc/section ends. This pattern repeats a few times and then the book ends rather anticlimactically. 

I would give it two stars, except:

I like the magical realism Maguire seems to incorporate into the novel. Unfortunately, those elements that strongly captured my interest in the beginning fade quickly, and the plot loses that particular focus altogether at times. 

Additionally, Maguire's character development in this book is either accidentally or purposely genius. Everything the reader learns about the main character comes through his interaction with the other characters in the book. Starting with his nameless debut, the main character's caretakers treat him in a way that leads to the cornerstone of his development. Without revealing too much about the plot, including the very quick-miss it if you speed read over it-plot twist about the main character's parents, much of what is redeemable about this book comes from the subtle interactions and character development from the supporting players.

In the end, the book will appeal to some and not to others, as all books do. Maguire has a niche, and this one seems to fall short of the epic plots he has been able to create in the past.

Hiddensee A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker

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