Good Monday morning, all.
In the name of staying sane and making sure I have some actual downtime I’ve been reading a lot lately. Last night I finished reading J.K. Rowling’s new book; A Casual Vacancy, and I’m going to talk about it right now.
A Casual Vacancy was nothing like what I expected from a J.K. Rowling book in terms of pacing, character introduction and development and tone. Nothing at all. Though not all of this is necessarily bad.
I started the book and was confused right off the bat. I will admit, it took me a good quarter of the book to settle in with the characters and finally find her rhythm in the writing and be able to sync up with her. New characters are thrown at you with the feeling that she expects you to be able to just…kind of know where she is with them and who they are. POV (an issue I was much harped on by my very first editor and now I understand WHY…) jumps frequently and occasionally it’s hard to know which character is the one doing the talking. I’ll also say that, at first, knowing that I was reading from the same writer who gave us Hermione and Harry, it was supremely jarring to read the words “fuck” and “cunt” on the page. Not that language bothers me, but well, it just kind of jumped at me the first few times because I knew in my head that this is the mum of The Boy who Lived.
Of course, that is the occupational hazard that Rowling happily took on when making the jump from writing for youth/teens to writing for adults. The onus is on the reader to make the disconnect.
Now. The story. The story is actually good. It’s not great, it’s good. I liked it. Small town England, political, social and educational unrest. Angsty teens with drug issues, sex issues, adults with dark secrets encroaching on their well-crafted personal lives, intrigue, this book has it all.
We come in to the story on the eve of Barry and Mary Fairbrother’s anniversary. Mary is annoyed that Barry has been spending all of his time working on a certain issue that has taken up the council for well over 60 years, only now just coming to a head. A small branch-off of the town, known as “the fields” and populated by, shall we say, the less desirable residents of society, has been argued over for decades as to whether it belongs to quaint and lovely Pagford, or the larger Yarvil to the north. Pagford-ers don’t want it, as they believe that it’s not fair that the current definitions of borders puts the field’s children into their own school district, and they’re tired of constantly having to put money into the upkeep of the area. They are also trying hard to get rid of a certain drug rehab facility that draws its clients largely from the fields.
Of course, not everyone feels this way, and Barry himself, born and raised in the fields is strongly in favour of keeping it within Pagford’s boundaries, touting the line that if the residents can be shown that hard work really does pay off, you can move onwards and upwards in life no matter where you were born.
Unfortunately, he suffers a massive aneurysm in the parking lot of the golf club on his way in to dinner, and dies. Thus, creating the ‘casual vacancy’ on the council.
The book takes us through the view points of all the key players who are affected by this abrupt death. We get to know those who are on the council, both the pro-fielders and the cons, key members of the town, students of the school, residents of the fields and Rowling hides none of the soft underbelly of life from any of these characters. We see them at their worst, their lowest, their most vulnerable. The book has drug use, rape, infidelity, fury, and frustration.
While I was frustrated that this great ‘debate’ (whether to keep the fields or not) was not properly explained until well into the book, and while I found it hard in the beginning to get all the characters straight (since there are so bloody many and she flip flops often, even within the same page, over who is narrating) I couldn’t help but get drawn in to her world. Rowling writes her characters with complete honesty, allowing us to feel the rage along with some, the absolute desolation of others and all along bring us in to the world of a character whom we know is not going to end as positively as we might like. Some stories have dark and terrible endings, and she does not sugar coat it with fictional magical endings. I admire her for that.
If not for the name of the writer, though, I might never have picked up this book. I also may not have gotten past the first quarter of it without giving up for lack of focus. I got the distinct feeling that not as much energy was put into editing these types of details as there might have been had the author not already been a runaway best seller. The plot, in the beginning is sloppy and not well laid out, but the character development eventually makes up for that. I have to say as well, that every time I read a passage with Krystal Weedon in it, my brain immediately conjured up the image of Vicki Pollard from Little Britain.
Maybe J.K. is a fan…
So…A Casual Vacancy. Worth the read once you get passed the beginning, raw, honest and dark.
Don’t picture magical students while you read it. 4 stars out of five.
Great review. It’s on my list to read. I still will, but I appreciate this honesty. I do also hope that you find peace and serenity in your life 🙂
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Thank you Jennifer!!
I always get annoyed when reviews pander to writer’s who are already lauded for another of their works, so when I review a book, I try to be as honest as I can. I liked it for sure, just didn’t love it. I’d love to hear your thoughts when you read it, though!!
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I’ve picked this book up several times in the bookshop and, like you do, read as many pages as I can without the staff noticing that I am just reading, not buying! Depending on what I get for Christmas, I’ll probably buy it now, on the strength of this review. I think the inhabitants of the village would be Pagfordians, not Pagforders. As for Vicki Pollard, the place is full of ’em over here!
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It’s a really intriguing story, once you get into it. And total guilty pleasure is reading at the bookstore…tee hee hee. Just get past the beginning where you feel a little lost and it is worth it for sure.
Oh that Vicki…
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She’s a right bloody slapper, innit?
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LOL EXACTLY!!
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