Genre question (Gregory McGuire

I think he's one of those authors that fall in the precarious grey-area of categorization. Frank L. Baum's work was defined well enough to be in the literary fiction section of a bookstore, but Gregory Maguire's work, though link to Baum's takes place entirely in fantasy worlds - with the exception of the fairy tale variants... which again falls into that grey-area of categorization.

I loved "Wicked" - but I find the majority of his work depressing. He sets you up for a potential happy ending, but like the brother's grimm, delivers the opposite. I like it, but I have to be in the mood for it.

I think the SF/Fantasy section is for genres. McGuire's books are not generally considered genre fantasy. By the way, it's not "literary" section -- at least not at my local BN. It's "literature."

Possibly he is placed in the literary section because his stuff is a little like a literary experiment? While being fantasy, the books are more about playing with our perceptions, and our understandings of some very popular stories.

I don't know really. Just offering up a hypothesis.

Other people might have different opinions on this, but I'd say that Maquire is a case where actual prose style has a great deal to do with the categorization as "literary."