Was

Was by Geoff Ryman                     371 pages

This is a story about Oz.  We are introduced to Dorothy Gael, a little girl with a dog named Toto, going to live with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in Kansas.  We also find out about Frances Gumm, who became Judy Garland, who starred in The Wizard Of Oz movie.  We find out about the making of the movie and we meet several other people along the way, who in various ways become connected to either Dorothy or the movie.  This book spans the decades between the 1870s and the 1980s and tells several stories that come together in the end.  There were parts of the book that I liked a lot because some of the story was really interesting but I’m not sure that overall I really liked this book.  Because I like the Oz stories so much, maybe, and because this book is unsettling it’s hard to reconcile this book with the Oz series.  I’m not sure that I would recommend this book to people generally and I’m honestly not sure who would like it. (Except Ed)