Monday, May 20, 2019

This week's Oz Short Story

The third tale in the 2001 edition of Oziana is "The Great Jinjin" by Melody Grandy, in which Zim Greenleaf, the Flying Sorcerer of Oz, is summoned before the title character. (And if you're not already familiar with Zim, you really need to be. You can find out more about him here, here, and here.) Zim is naturally reluctant, because he know just what Tititi-Hoochoo is capable of, and fears that the Private Citizen may take away Zim's powers, or worse. But Kaliko eventually convinces Zim to go. All the Jinjin wants to do is meet Zim and find out more about him and his motivations, but in the course of the interview it turns out that the Jinjin has a problem that Zim offers to fix. It takes a lot of work, but in the end Zim cures the Great Jinjin and gives him a whole new perspective on life.

Zim Greenleaf may be one of the best Oz characters ever created, and Grandy uses him very well to deal with all kinds of issues in the Oz books, always to the betterment of the characters involved. This is a beautiful, heartfelt story, with a lot of compassion and empathy for everyone. I am so glad my current spate of Oz reading includes the Seven Blue Mountains trilogy.

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