The end of the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, is a happy one. Dorothy has returned home after a tornado whisked her away from her Kansas home. She is reunited with her aunt and uncle. The Wicked Witch is dead and gone. Gordon McAlpine recasts that happy moment in After Oz into a psychological puzzle and a chilling murder mystery. Dorothy Gale herself is relegated to the background while a psychologist, Dr. Evelyn Wilford, and her hometown itself wonder what to make of the young girl.
After Oz begins with the tornado itself. Aunt Emily searches for a missing Dorothy before she is forced to take shelter. Dorothy is still missing when the storm passes and the town of Sunbonnet, Kansas, mobilizes to search for her. Four days later, Dorothy is found with Toto, sleeping in a pumpkin patch. The reunion, in McAlpine’s telling, is not a happy one. When asked where she has been for so long, Dorothy tells a story of a strange land, a scarecrow, and all the other things we know from the original book and movie. And then Dorothy tells her uncle, aunt, and the local doctor that she killed a witch, though she didn’t mean to. The adults might’ve been able to dismiss this confession with the rest of her story if it weren’t for the fact that a body, disfigured by lye, is discovered in town.
As fast as the tornado that whisked Dorothy away to Oz (if you believe her story), Dorothy is declared guilty of murder and sent to an asylum in Topeka. Mental health care being what it was in 1896, when people like William James, Sigmund Freud, and Jean-Martin Charcot were creating the field of psychology from whole cloth*, Dorothy is in real danger of being driven insane. Dr. Wilford, a protégé of William James, wrangles a handful of interviews with Dorothy.
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As Dr. Wilford is charmed by Dorothy, the town of Sunbonnet takes a turn as narrator. “We” are very concerned with appearances, with respectability, with reputation. Dorothy, to their way of thinking, is a dangerous and disruptive force in their little town. Sending her away to Topeka was a relief and “We” very much resent having Dr. Wilford showing up and poking her nose into everyone’s business.
Though I very much sympathized with Dorothy and Dr. Wilford, I struggled to decide which unreliable narrator I should trust. Sunbonnet is more than happy to sweep things under the rug and repeat all the gossip about Dorothy. The town becomes increasingly sinister as the plot thickens. Dr. Wilford is not entirely reliable either. She recounts her story in very long letters to her mentor, Dr. James. These letters reveal all kinds of details that make it very easy to question—if not doubt outright—Dr. Wilford’s academic and medical objectivity. (Fun detail: the coda of After Oz is a letter from Dr. Wilford to her cousin, L. Frank Baum.)
The unreliable narrators plus the mystery of what happened to the dead woman and why make After Oz a highly engaging read. I was immediately hooked by this moody book. I should warn readers who are hoping for an actual retelling of or a new sequel to The Wizard of Oz à la Gregory Maguire’s Wicked that they will be disappointed. I recommend that readers who are intrigued by the premise of this book just allow the book to take it where it will instead of wondering when flying monkeys will show up.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
* I realize I have more than 100 years of hindsight on these guys but I have some serious thoughts about Freud and Charcot.