The Casual Vacancy
Oct. 7th, 2012 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jacko"It's a town full of Dursleys!" was my initial reaction.
The Casual Vacancy is an odd book. On the one hand, it's packed with fully rounded, interesting characters and is as good a multi-plotted page-turner as JKR has ever written. On the other hand, it's not an easy read at all.
JKR has always seemed to delight in writing horrible characters doing horrible things, but here she digs beneath their skin to see what makes them tick and why they are the way they are. Any worries that by focussing only on muggles (and some of the mugglish muggles you've ever seen) she'd be writing with one hand tied behind her back are quickly dispelled. Do you see what I did there? ;o)
The story is loosely about the fall-out on a small community when one of its pivotal members dies, but really it's about recognising the impacts everyone has (intentionally and unintentionally) on other people's lives and taking responsibility - or not - for those impacts. It raises lots of difficult issues and no easy answers. While there is (black) humour, there is little in the way of relief and the finale is genuinely shocking. This is definitely not a happy book.
Much of what the book has to say about society, disaffected youth and class warfare has been said before, but JKR digs deep into her characters and makes it very personal. Although you may not like many of the characters, you do find yourself identifying with them, often uncomfortably. Well worth a read.
I was fortunate enough to go and see JKR discussing the book live last night, at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. (W00t! *Squee!* Etc.) She picked up on this said that she found it most interesting how differently readers react to the various characters, who they like and who they feel guilty about liking. Mind you, she also said she admired the domineering Howard and that the hedonistic bully Fats was her favourite character in the book, so I'm not sure what that tells you...
It was a great event. She did an interview, read out a chapter from the new book, and took questions from the audience. She was on top form throughout, very funny, down-to-earth and engaging. She won the audience right from the start when she punched the air in triumph on being told the Daily Mail didn't like the book very much ;o)
Unfortunately the mic didn't make it to the upper tier where we were sat, so I didn't get to ask her anything. A lot of the questionners were rather gushing - On being told, "I love you!" for about the sixth time, she quipped, "It's great for the ego, this. You should all try it sometime!" She revealed that her next book for adults and next two books for children are already in progress.
Other great comments:
- "My youngest asked me, 'Mummy, if you could only keep either us or writing, what would it be?' I thought about it and said, 'I'd keep you, but I'd be very grumpy.'"
- "If you don't think Krystal is worth saving, then I have nothing to say to you as a human being. Gosh, that's a bit harsh isn't it?"
- "People have been endlessly pointing out to me that 'Barry' rhymes with 'Harry'. I wish I'd called him Kevin." (The interviewer points out that people have also noticed that 'Robbie' rhymes with 'Dobby') "Oh god. There's about 200 characters in the Potter books. It'd be really hard to find a name that didn't rhyme with any of them. Fair enough if I'd called someone a name that rhymed with 'Xenophilias'..."
Afterwards she did book signings. It was all very efficient. Despite the 2,000-strong queue, we were waiting less than an hour. (I've queued longer than that just to buy one of her books!) This meant I didn't have time to say more than "Thank you so much!" to her, but she smiled and said, "Thank you!" back as she handed back my signed book, still very upbeat and not yet worn down by the seemingly endless queue of fans. She says meeting readers is her favourite part of the job. She loves it really.
The Casual Vacancy is an odd book. On the one hand, it's packed with fully rounded, interesting characters and is as good a multi-plotted page-turner as JKR has ever written. On the other hand, it's not an easy read at all.
JKR has always seemed to delight in writing horrible characters doing horrible things, but here she digs beneath their skin to see what makes them tick and why they are the way they are. Any worries that by focussing only on muggles (and some of the mugglish muggles you've ever seen) she'd be writing with one hand tied behind her back are quickly dispelled. Do you see what I did there? ;o)
The story is loosely about the fall-out on a small community when one of its pivotal members dies, but really it's about recognising the impacts everyone has (intentionally and unintentionally) on other people's lives and taking responsibility - or not - for those impacts. It raises lots of difficult issues and no easy answers. While there is (black) humour, there is little in the way of relief and the finale is genuinely shocking. This is definitely not a happy book.
Much of what the book has to say about society, disaffected youth and class warfare has been said before, but JKR digs deep into her characters and makes it very personal. Although you may not like many of the characters, you do find yourself identifying with them, often uncomfortably. Well worth a read.
I was fortunate enough to go and see JKR discussing the book live last night, at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. (W00t! *Squee!* Etc.) She picked up on this said that she found it most interesting how differently readers react to the various characters, who they like and who they feel guilty about liking. Mind you, she also said she admired the domineering Howard and that the hedonistic bully Fats was her favourite character in the book, so I'm not sure what that tells you...
It was a great event. She did an interview, read out a chapter from the new book, and took questions from the audience. She was on top form throughout, very funny, down-to-earth and engaging. She won the audience right from the start when she punched the air in triumph on being told the Daily Mail didn't like the book very much ;o)
Unfortunately the mic didn't make it to the upper tier where we were sat, so I didn't get to ask her anything. A lot of the questionners were rather gushing - On being told, "I love you!" for about the sixth time, she quipped, "It's great for the ego, this. You should all try it sometime!" She revealed that her next book for adults and next two books for children are already in progress.
Other great comments:
- "My youngest asked me, 'Mummy, if you could only keep either us or writing, what would it be?' I thought about it and said, 'I'd keep you, but I'd be very grumpy.'"
- "If you don't think Krystal is worth saving, then I have nothing to say to you as a human being. Gosh, that's a bit harsh isn't it?"
- "People have been endlessly pointing out to me that 'Barry' rhymes with 'Harry'. I wish I'd called him Kevin." (The interviewer points out that people have also noticed that 'Robbie' rhymes with 'Dobby') "Oh god. There's about 200 characters in the Potter books. It'd be really hard to find a name that didn't rhyme with any of them. Fair enough if I'd called someone a name that rhymed with 'Xenophilias'..."
Afterwards she did book signings. It was all very efficient. Despite the 2,000-strong queue, we were waiting less than an hour. (I've queued longer than that just to buy one of her books!) This meant I didn't have time to say more than "Thank you so much!" to her, but she smiled and said, "Thank you!" back as she handed back my signed book, still very upbeat and not yet worn down by the seemingly endless queue of fans. She says meeting readers is her favourite part of the job. She loves it really.
