“Lost” - Gregory Maguire

I am a massive fan of Maguire’s delightfully subversive retelling of literary classics. “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” and “Mirror Mirror” rank up there with “Wicked” as my favorites. I thought for sure that I’d enjoy whatever yarn Maguire would spin based off of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. I was certain that in “Lost”, Maguire would turn our conception of Scrooge on its head, and we’d emerge despising old Cratchit. I was wrong.

Half-way through the book, I was at a loss. Ebenezer Scrooge did provide the basis for a plot point, but there were also nods to “Peter Pan”, “Alice in Wonderland”, and even Dante’s “Inferno” to contend with, as well as non-literary references to Jack the Ripper. The main character, Winnie, states: “Nothing is connected. Nothing makes sense”. I heartily agreed with her. 

Clearly, Maguire intended to pull from several classics, but didn’t intend a retelling as with “Wicked” et all. I think he did have a gem of an idea about living with and through loss, but it got wholly lost here (pun very much intended). I’d skip this one altogether.