Published on: September 27 2012
By: Little, Brown and Company
Number of pages: 503
Reading attempt: 1
Reading time: 14 days
Rating: « ½
Advice: Borrow it but brace yourselves with patience
because the wait will be long
The context
When I
found out last summer that Rowling was publishing her first adult book, I must
admit that I didn't exactly know what to think.
Having had so much success with the “HP” series, why would she want to
change audience, or genre?
Feeling
ambivalent, I decided to wait and see what other people would think of it. Bad idea ... Turns out the reviews were
pretty mixed: either they loved it or hated it.
This was only adding to my confusion and my dilemma: should I or should
I not read it. One thing was certain; I wasn't going to buy it. So, once more I
put myself on the waiting list of my local library and 4 months later, I had
the book in hand and started reading.
The story
The story
plot here is simple: a man, Barry Fairbrother, suddenly dies and leaves is
Parish Counsellor Seat vacant, ergo the casual vacancy. Based on those premises, the people of the
small town of Pagford will have to fill that vacancy while their lives go on
more or less as they always have.
Though, nothing is more wrong, for Rowling's novel is all about lies
and deceits, intrigues and disasters. As
she pulls back the surface story, she exposes the lives of all the main
citizens of Pagford in all theirs flaws and little secrets. Secrets that might have been better left
alone...
The book review
Even though
I kept in mind that this was Rowling’s first adult novel and that she was entitled,
just like any other first time author, to make mistakes, I must admit that I didn't particularly enjoy reading it.
Moreover, I kept putting it down and finding myself excuses to do
anything but read it. In this particular
case, reading didn't feel like fun anymore, it felt more like work, which I
already do plenty of.
The one
good thing I have to say about this book is that this is mainly the story of
the people of Pagford. This is where the
strength of the J.K. Rowling as we have come to know her in the “HP” series,
is. Her characters, although numerous,
all bring their contribution to the story and help it move forward as they evolve and
follow their paths, whether for better or worse. They are all of them distinct in their own
way. I particularly liked her teens,
which as we know seems to be her forte. Although her adults are also well built, at
the end of the day you feel naturally drawn to these teens and their lives, especially
in my case to the central teen character, Krystal Wheedon who leaves a lasting
impression event after you’re done reading the book. She might not look like it at first, but as
you read on you find out just of vulnerable and sensitive she is and you find
yourself hoping that she might just get what she has always been looking for: a
real family and a home where she feels safe at last.
Now what I didn't really like is the fact that the story, although mainly about the
characters, remains difficult to follow and the pacing might have a lot to do
with it. The pacing here is that of our
normal lives where some days are over packed with activities or action and
others where nothing really important happens.
It is okay in real life, but in a book, it makes the reading tedious and
I got easily bored. Should the book have
been shorter, it might have worked, but here the length creates a dragging
effect and some scenes were definitely too long and even, at times, unnecessary.
Moreover, Rowling
tries to recreate here the likes of our society in its every detail, but to a
smaller scale, making the book heavier and denser that it should be. She tries to treat every subject:
·
drug
use
·
parental
abuse
·
living
in poverty
·
the
ill-being of teenagers and their “Firsts” : job, love, loss, ...
·
the
narrow-mindedness of some small town folks
·
the
need for better social services and how some people truly depend on them
·
...
In my
opinion, she only ends up, at times, by scratching the surface. Though, I have to applaud her for using crude
language and exposing at times, something raw and dark. She does not shy away from what we all know
to be the truth.
All in all,
I believe the author might have tried to put too much in one book and that a
more thorough editing process might have solved the problem by making the book
shorter and lighter. Let’s all hope that
this will be the case in her next book.
As always,
keep reading all of you bookworms and book lovers out there. Until next time J
Ladybug
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