Lost

The book certainly held my interest (I read about three-quarters of it in one day), but it's ultimately somewhat disappointing. Maguire starts out by setting up a truly creepy ghost story, but it turns out the book is actually a character study. I'm fine with books which defy categorization or which mix or meld genres (in fact, when they are done well, I love books like that), but in Lost I couldn't help but feel like Maguire cheated by reeling me in with a ghost story and then, when I was well and truly hooked, giving me the literary character novel he wanted to write all along. When a writer pulls a switch like this, disappointment is almost inevitable. I'd have been happy with a straight-up ghost story, and I'd have sat still for the show more character study from the beginning without being hoodwinked into it. Maguire is good enough to do either; I wish he'd had enough wisdom (or confidence?) to pick one or the other. show less

**Includes spoilers**

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I started out loving it - Winifred Rudge is an author from the Boston area who travels to London to visit her cousin (but not by blood) and to research Jack the Ripper. When she arrives in London, her cousin is not home and she cannot find him. Furthermore, her cousin seems to have hired workers to remodel his kitchen and they hear strange noises and are scared out of their minds.

The main mysteries of the book involve finding her cousin and solving this haunting sound. She investigates the people living in and around the building and seems to be going quite mad herself.

The text of this novel is interrupted with the novel that Winnie herself is writing. Sometimes it seems like show more the two are on totally different wavelengths but it starts to make a little more sense at the end. There were some boring spots but the plot wasn't totally predictable, which kept me reading. At times I felt it was a bit anti-feminist: Winnie's life seems to disintegrate when the men in her life leave her and she's unable to satisfy her desire of having a child. Even at the end of the story, she's looking for her ex and wondering if he's come back to her yet.

I enjoy ghost stories and this was definitely a good ghost story. Realistic? Of course not, but Maguire doesn't write realistic stories. My advice would be to take this is a ghost story and enjoy the ride! show less

When in danger, when in doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout.

Lost is a book by the author of Wicked. Maguire cleverly combines fairytales, history and an agile imagination to create stories that are impossible not to keep thinking about, long after the book is finished. Lost uses the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge as its pillar, to tell the story of Winnie Rudge, a writer who has traveled to London to research her next novel. She arrives to find the relative she planned to stay with missing, his flat occupied by builders and a very creepy haunting. Maguire's talent is in how he combines all the disparate elements of his story into a seamless tale.

I'm a huge fan of Maguire's work; I really enjoy the way he takes traditional tales and makes them into something more complicated and different from their normal role. This was not my favorite story, because I was expecting something different. I thought there would be more incorporation of Scrooge or Jack the Ripper, but they were more like figureheads who were present in name but not in character. I thought that the story was interesting and enjoyed the book for what it was, but I feel that the book's synopsis on the back maybe was the most misleading part of it. I found the Wendy to be very likable, most of the time, and I really felt like I connected with her character and wanted her to win at the end of the story. Overall, I liked show more the story but would not consider it one of my favorite books of all time. show less

This book was a chore to read, and I only finished it because I had brought it on vacation and had no other options. Used to being completely overwhelmed with the deep magic and inimitable creativity, humor, and darkness of Gregory Maguire, this book was a dead fish of a read. I think this would have been a great short story, but it just drags at novel length.

Lost was interesting in the beginning but it quickly lost any sort of momentum as it progressed. It begins with an eye-catching scene of a car accident that the protagonist Winnie sees and tries to help. Then it quickly moves to an adoption service Forever Families and we briefly meet families both in the traditional and non-traditional sense who are in the process of trying to adopt. Then we're off to England where Winnie is supposed to meet her step cousin and "friend" John Comestor. But when she arrives, he's nowhere to be seen, the house is being worked on, there's a loud pounding coming from the chimney, no one wants to really talk to Winnie and weird things are happening.

I did not care for this novel. It was interesting in the show more beginning but it quickly lost any sort of momentum as it progressed. I was halfway through this book before I got fed up with the fact that there is no focus for where the story is going. It seems like Maguire had a sudden, great idea for a story and then lost steam and interest as it went along. I enjoyed "Wicked" and "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" immensely, but this was just awful. show less

The perpetual theme of this book is spelt out from the first to the last page. And at times I became lost in the plot; not because Winnie moves into the story she is writing, which in fact works well, but because the structure of the story, particularly towards the end, is weak.

In spite of my disappointment, both in the denouement and in the inconclusive finale, I found this book enjoyable to read because of the variety in writing style, the literary references and the clever use of vocabulary. There are so many carefully chosen words which Maguire uses effectively to explain the setting. When the Forever Families meeting first assembles he describes how “ Winnie and the other supplicants hung back”. He moves from sloppy American show more everyday language to describe the accident on the freeway to purple prose to build up the tension such as “Throughout the night, the house shuddered, the furnace gasping emphysematously(!), the windows bucking in their casings”. I also appreciate his acerbic wit in comments like “the pursuit of Happy meals”.

There seem to be two parallel threads running through the book; the loss of a child even referred to in metaphors such as “The window shattered spraying glassy baby teeth”, and the suspension and intermingling of time. The phrase “Time no longer” kept occurring to me and I finally identified it as coming from “Tom’s Midnight Garden” by Philippa Pearce where two lonely children from different eras meet during troubled dreams at the time when the clock strikes 13. As an aficionado of children’s fiction, I wonder if Maguire was consciously or unconsciously using this plot as yet another form of inspiration for his book. I found the references to classic children’s books an interesting facet of the story, but it does presuppose that the reader is almost as familiar as he is with the other stories.

I did wonder early in the book whether Winnie was actually dead, as the haunting seemed to follow her, but gradually the suspense and fear created by Maguire was replaced by so much psychology about Winnie’s feelings of guilt and despair. Had I been the publisher of the book I would have returned it to Maguire so that he could tighten up the story structure and improved his characterisation to match his skill with language.

Obviously names are carefully chosen to match the characters, but I found this irritating. It is as if he doesn’t trust the reader to decide on a character’s motivation and purpose in the book. I kept wishing that Winifred Rudge had a flowing romantic name like Winona Ryder. Then perhaps she might have been a more sympathetic character.

So, an unusual book which was worth reading, but somehow it fails to achieve- whatever it was trying to do? I do, however want to read “Wicked” and “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” since they sound much more my cup of tea. show less