Oz and beyond Book

A quick read. Somehow I was expecting something more dense, with impenetrable prose and bristling with footnotes, but this book turns out to be not that academic. It's more of an affectionate summary of the plots of all of Baum's fantasy books (not just the Oz ones). A couple of times the author raises the thesis that Baum's vision of Oz is actually more coherent than is generally thought, but this is so manifestly indefensible that one wonders why he bothers. Riley is most interesting when he writes about the distinction Oz has of being the first American fantasy land. He draws a comparison between the land of Oz and Baum's vision of America and correlates the Westward expansion of the US with the constant discovery of new corners and hidden places in Oz. Someday I hope to find a critical work on Oz which delves into the horror of a land with no death, where babies never grow up but squall eternally, and where you can be chopped to pieces and each individual piece will go on living. Riley mentions these things, but withholds comment, tactfully it seems.