semperfiona | _Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Last library visit, I checked out an audio book of Wicked. I've listened to it on my daily commute for two weeks now, all seventeen discs of it (no exaggeration here, although seventeen is one of my favorite "undefined large number" substitutions) and finished it this morning.

I can't honestly say I liked it. I'm not sure I can say I disliked it, either, in the overall. But I just couldn't seem to buy into it, for a number of reasons. Kept listening mostly because the alternative was Pledge Week on NPR.

The purple prose
The author seemed to refuse to use a five-cent word when a fifty-cent one would do, and refused to use a penny word when a nickel one could be found. On top of that, there were an excess of similes and metaphors and overly flowery description that did nothing but invoke eye-rolling on my part.
The redefinition of Oz
I had a hard time with his inventions of an evil dictator, worker's strikes, droughts, religious conflicts (or even the three or four invented religions, for that matter), and so on. Somehow there was too much disconnect between the bouncy happy place we all remember from L. Frank Baum's books and the Judy Garland movie, and the oppressive environment Maguire paints. It is true that it's been many years since I read any of the original Oz books, and I remember next to nothing about any of them, so maybe I'm basing this whole objection on the movie, but nonetheless, I couldn't buy it.
On the other hand, I had much less difficulty with the Wizard as a politically powerhungry but personally pusillanimous old man. It seemed to fit the whole "man behind the curtain" idea.
Character non-development
"She's not bad, she's just drawn that way." The whole point of this book is to show us the story from the witch's perspective, and Maguire shows us all along that she's really not that bad, she's trying to right injustices, but then she is bestowed this horrid reputation and immediately goes out of her way to enhance it? I know he was trying to stay within the defined parameters of the story, but there's no motivation established for the odd horrific things she suddenly starts doing--while at the same time behaving the rest of the time like a crotchety-but-loving grandmother.

I know a lot of people who loved the musical. I'm wondering whether any or all of my objections are alleviated by the different format. Anyone out there both seen the musical and read the book who'd like to weigh in?