Literary Significance and Criticism
Overall, reviews for Son of a Witch were mixed. Some reviewers praised the book for its innovative look into an imperfect fantasy world while others disparaged the book's alleged lack of focus. Writing for The Boston Globe, Sarah Smith wrote, "Maguire has done it again: Son of a Witch is as wicked as they come," but Katharine Powers for The Washington Post called it "off-kilter and aimless." Kirkus Reviews keeps the middle ground of these two characterizations, writing, "The book works too hard to dazzle us; it's considerably more cluttered and strained than Wicked…but few readers will fail to stay its magical course. Once again, the myth of Oz proves its enduring power."
Liir was named #1 on a list of Top Ten LGBT Book Characters.
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Famous quotes containing the words literary, significance and/or criticism:
“There are in me, in literary terms, two distinct characters: one who is taken with roaring, with lyricism, with soaring aloft, with all the sonorities of phrase and summits of thought; and the other who digs and scratches for truth all he can, who is as interested in the little facts as the big ones, who would like to make you feel materially the things he reproduces.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“It is necessary not to be Christian to appreciate the beauty and significance of the life of Christ.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)