The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum

Rating: 3/5

Lost References:

There are so many references to this work, some of which I didn’t even catch until reading up on fan sites. Where to begin?

A man named Henry Gale crashes on the island in a hot air balloon. (Ben Linus steals his identity.) Later, Sawyer calls Tom Friendly, one of the Others, “Zeke.” Zeke is one of the farmhands that works for Henry Gale, just as Tom works for Ben.

There is an episode titled “The Man Behind the Curtain” in which Locke calls Ben this and then directly mentions the Wizard of Oz. (As it turns out, the actual powerful being behind the curtain is Jacob, though he, unlike the Wizard, has real powers.) There is also a three-part episode called “There’s No Place Like Home” with flash forwards for Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, Kate, & Aaron.

Then there are also some references to the film, like a character getting crushed and having red shoes sticking out. (In the book, they were silver shoes, not ruby slippers.) But such references don’t really count, so I think I’ll let it go here.

Speaking of shoes, Dorothy uses her shoes and a wish to return home to get back to Kansas. To get back to the Island, Jack thinks he needs his father’s shoes.

On a larger, thematic note, both stories are about people being caught in a storm and thrown into a magical land.

Thoughts:

If I’m honest, I didn’t really care for this book. It wasn’t bad, but with all the hype around both the book and the movie, I was expecting a little bit more. It was written very simplistically, which one would expect from a children’s book, but there was far more “telling” than “showing” in the action. I never really felt engaged or like I was part of the story, just observing from the outside. Dorothy’s emotions especially were told very passively, and even when she did say or do things that would support the purported emotions, it just wasn’t enough to make up for the rest.

Lost: Signs of Life – Frank Thompson

Rating: 4/5

Lost References:

Again, this book took place during the first season of Lost, though it didn’t include the crash like the others did. This one includes the motifs of art, dreams/visions, and ghosts.

Thoughts:

I liked that it actually added to the Island mysteries, as opposed to Endangered Species, which was basically about a jungle adventure. I liked that, unlike the other two books, it actually incorporated the show characters into the actual plot instead of using them as props to frame the scene and convince us we were in Lost. However, it does miss out on the use of original secondary characters on the Island, which Hapka’s works at least tried to do. Besides that, it annoyed me that Jeff spent half his flashback time sleeping around, which I consider especially wasted space because he’s otherwise the most developed and realistic of the three books’ main characters. The most obvious flaw in the book, though, is its serious need for editing. There were many technical errors, like referring Jeff as Jack within the book and Nick on the back cover blurb, of all places. There were times when the author did things like suddenly jump between character perspectives or break from the Island-flashback-Island chapter structure. Then there was the ending. Just like the Return of the King movie, this book suffered from several false endings after the climax. All in all, this book had more promise than the other two character-wise and plot-wise, but it comes across as a very unfinished product.

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret – Judy Blume

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

Sun finds Sawyer reading this book on the beach.

Thoughts:

This book is obviously intended for young girls, so I didn’t expect to like it myself. I was right. When Margaret makes her dull and confused journey to discover her religious heritage, she only learns that she doesn’t have an opinion. The book’s intended demographic may enjoy a relatable protagonist, but not necessarily. That kind of character is no substitute for plot. And the book holds no obvious attractions for any other readers. Boys will be uncomfortable about the intimate female discussions that make up a large portion of Margaret’s time with her friends. Adults will just be bored.

Tianmu Mountain Ascended in a Dream – Li Bai

Rating: 4/5

Lost References:

In flashbacks of Sun and Jin’s home, this Chinese poem is there in calligraphy. (Yes, they’re Korean, but they can still like the poem.)

Thoughts:

When I showed this poem to my sister, who has her degree in East Asian Studies, the first thing she did was nod and say, “Mm. Li Bai.” That, ladies and gentlemen, is the name of the poet, and apparently he’s very important as an ancient Chinese poet.

Personally, I enjoyed the images of nature and mythos that populated the poem. Then the last two lines contained a moral that came almost out of nowhere, ruining the effect of the mountain imagery. My sister admonished me that it’s been around for over a thousand years, so I shouldn’t be too critical. I can see the truth in that, but that doesn’t change my reading of it.