Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Shaggy Man of Oz [Book Review]

[Contains spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"The Shaggy Man of Oz" is the thirty-eighth book in the Oz series, created by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Jack Snow and published in 1949. As with in "The Magical Mimics in Oz," Jack Snow completely ignores the canon of Ruth Plumly Thompson and John R. Neill.

What a treat! This book is essentially the sequel to "The Road to Oz," which was the fifth book. It deals with the Shaggy Man and his Love Magnet which was introduced way back then. The book also introduces two new travelers from America, a boy and girl named Tom and Twink. A toy clown named Twiffle joins them on their journey to get the Love Magnet repaired and then return it to the land of Oz.

In many ways, this book reminded me of "The Road to Oz," which was a very wandering sort of book. It made sense that a tramp was the main character of both. It has less to do with Oz and more about just getting a little lost out in the wide fairy expanse of Baum's world.

The villain of the story is a wizard named Conjo. He was hilarious. He was basically a fun, happy guy with a serious problem with selfishness. He was basically a really old child with too much power. There was a scary aspect to him too since he really didn't seem to know the difference between right and wrong. It's one of those situations where the guy just needs to be controlled or else he'll go too far, but under another person's power, he is completely harmless and even charming.

The travelers had to pass through some very interesting areas as they tried to get back to Oz. One was a land in the clouds that had no gravity. Antigravity was a little hard to fathom back in the 40's. They saw it as being able to swim without having to worry about breathing issues.

There was a city that was completely obsessed with theatrical plays. They would kidnap people and enchant them into a sleepwalking state. They would then force them to participate in the same play over and over again. This whole section of the book was great comedy. There was one woman named Lady Cue who was remarkably confused and ditsy. Everything she said and did was scattered and silly. I had a VERY similar character in one of my unpublished books, so I really related to the character-type.

The last thing they had to deal with before the end of the story was a whole land filled with fairy Beavers. Not much to say about them other than the fact that they were extremely adorable. They were all very industrious and friendly. They worked together and were just plain fun to read about.

I freaking loved this book. Jack Snow feels to me like Baum reborn. I don't care that he ignored the other canon. The other canon really wasn't that great. It didn't need to exist. It's too bad we didn't have Jack a whole lot earlier.

I absolutely recommend "The Shaggy Man of Oz." It does help if you have read "The Road to Oz" first. This is really the true sequel to that one, but I guess it's okay if you have not. The author explains what happened well enough without actually spoiling it. Good stuff. Give this one a read.

This blog was written on October 20, 2022.

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