The Casual Vacancy

When I first began reading this book, I found keeping track of all the different characters and relationships to be quite challenging. However, after a little perseverance they felt like old friends.

Rowling is a marvellous story teller, and her characters are quite believable. They were all quite flawed, but aren't we all. I found Fats the worst of the lot - he was an ungrateful bully and a coward, and so pretentious with he search for an ‘authentic' life.

I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and while this novel is completely different, Rowling did not disappoint!

¡oh si! Por fin lo terminé!!

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Once upon a time, there was a small town in the south of England. This town, Pagford, was filled with nasty, petty people who hid their vices and small-minded hatreds behind a mask of stereotypical British politeness. Then, a beloved member of the town dies, and the brittle facade that all these people were hiding behind slowly falls apart. I suppose we're meant to feel sympathy for them and their quiet tragedies, but the book is so fatalistic and depressing that you don't really empathize or identify with any of them.

And that's about it. After having read it, I'm not quite sure why Rowling wrote it, or what point she was trying to get across other than that people are often cruel, vindictive, and selfish, but I respect that she did.

I listened to this as an audiobook and it was slow going at first. The extensive cast of characters confused me initially, but I was soon absorbed in their lives. There are a few characters who seem to have no redeeming qualities, and I thought that was a miss on Rowling's part, especially when she works hard to establish a backstory for a few otherwise unsympathetic characters, partly, one assumes, to build sympathy. In any case, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it. Lots for a book group to talk about in terms of class, technology, rural/urban, and age divisions.

When news got out earlier this year that J.K. Rowling, most famous for writing the Harry Potter series, was writing a novel for adults, there was a very mixed reaction amongst the readers I knew and was friends with. Some readers of my acquaintance were dismissive, thinking that only the “Rowling stans,” to quote one of them, would want to pick it up - though this was someone who wasn't a fan of the Harry Potter books, so I suppose said person doesn't quite count. As for myself and those closest to me, we were more than happy to read Rowling's latest, though this happiness was tempered by varying levels of caution, more so when news got out that it wasn't going to be fantasy. While I've always admired any writer who wants to expand his or her repertoire, not a lot of them are very good at actually making the jump into something else entirely, especially if said writer is going from speculative fiction to “mainstream” fiction, for lack of a better term.

It was because of this caution that I took my time acquiring a copy of Casual Vacancy. I wanted to know what my other friends, who had pre-ordered the novel, thought about it before I got my own copy. When the news came back very positive, I decided that it was about time I got my own to read, and was very pleased with what I had read. It proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Rowling has breadth and is not resting on her laurels as the writer of Harry Potter.

Casual Vacancy is about the death of Barry Fairbrother, an important member on the town council of Pagford. His death creates a “casual vacancy” on the council, which therefore needs to be filled. In the run-up to the election, the true natures of various people are revealed, and it's made clear that not everyone in Pagford is quite who they seem to be. Everyone is hiding a secret, and all those secrets eventually come out into the open - sometimes with disastrous results. All of this makes for a story that is incredibly realistic and fraught with tragedy and heartbreak. There is class prejudice and racism; there is rape and drug abuse; there is disrespect and swearing and all sorts of things that did not appear in the Harry Potter books. But there is a reason for them being there, and anyone who reads it with the appropriate frame of mind will come to appreciate what Rowling has done.

This, I think, is where a lot of readers run into problems, if their reviews are anything to go by. The first thing readers need to remember, before they go into this book, is that it is not Harry Potter at all. Readers who go into it thinking that everything will be sunshine and butterflies will be in for a severe disappointment, and may find themselves disliking this novel for all the wrong reasons. As is so often the case, much of the enjoyment of a novel comes from entering into it with the right expectations, and since I did not go into this thinking it would be like Harry Potter, I found myself well and truly pleased with it. I have read other reviews by people who walked into it thinking it'd be close to Rowling's blockbuster series, and have walked away disappointed, or did not even finish it at all. This, I think, is entirely unfair to Rowling, who has created a relatively accurate portrayal of a small town that pretends to be perfect while struggling to hide all its festering evils. In many ways, it might be said that Casual Vacancy is the antithesis to Harry Potter: solidly grounded in reality, not only in terms of the lack of magic, but also in terms of that lack of genuinely “good people.” Everybody in Pagford hides his or her own wicked secret, and all of it is revealed in the run-up to the elections and sometime after.

It is this gradual revelation of everybody's most tragic and most hidden secrets that, I think, is the best thing about the novel. There are many characters caught up in the mess after Barry Fairbrother's death, and all of them are carefully built up in the first half of the novel. This part takes a while; Rowling is careful to construct the characters, make them comprehensible, if not relatable, to her readers without the luxury of a sequel in which to further build them up. This is something I find gratifying, since it shows Rowling is capable of creating complete characters within the span of one book, even it if does take half the book for her to do it and thus making the book feel rather slow to start. I do not mind this in the least, however, because getting to know the characters is crucial for when everything finally picks up in the second half of the book, which is pretty much an emotional roller coaster ride until the end.

Now that I speak of the characters, I hesitate to say that I love any of them - and that is a very good thing. To love a character tends to be a straightforward thing, and something that's easy to do, but the characters in Casual Vacancy cannot be said to be straightforward lovable at any point in time. The emotional reaction the reader has to them is far more nuanced, automatically colored by the reader's own opinions, politics, and personal life. The reader will likely find herself or himself drawn to a handful of characters, but would hesitate to say if she or he “loves” the character or characters she or he is drawn to.

As for myself, it would be easier to say that I pity characters, and I do pity a lot of them: Krystal Weedon, Sukhvinder Jawanda, and Tessa Walls, to name just a few. As for hate, there's only one whom I truly hate to the bottom of my soul (Simon Price, who I hoped would get shot or stabbed or die an equally violent death at some point in the course of the novel, though of course he didn't), while for the rest I feel dislike in varying degrees. The reason I hate Simon Price is because he is an abusive father and husband, not to mention a thief, and at no point in time is it explained why he is like that. He just is, because people like him just are sometimes. If there had been some sort of explanation for why he was the way he was, I might have moved him from the "hate" category to the "dislike" category - or I might not have. There's no excuse for being abusive, so I like to believe.

It is obvious, of course, that none of these characters are like the ones in Harry Potter. There is no clear Voldemort, no clear Harry, no clear Hermione or Ron or Malfoy or McGonagall - and that's the point. Rowling has stated that this is an “adult” novel, and I believe this is a reference not only to the gritty content, but also to the way it depicts reality. While I do not doubt there are a lot of precocious children and young adults who would appreciate Casual Vacancy as is, it usually takes being an adult and having some experience of the world to know that there is no such thing as black and white when it comes to the world and living in it. More often than not characters are both good and evil at the same time; more often than not hope rises only to be extinguished; more often than not we wish for something but never get it. The characters of Casual Vacancy, and the things that happen to them, show the grayness of life very clearly: some of them get what they want but not quite; some of them never get what they want but instead get something they did not expect; and - as is often the case - they think they have what they want when in truth they're just settling for second-best, and while some of them are aware of that, there are a good number of characters who aren't.

One other thing that Casual Vacancy is not, aside from not being Harry Potter, is a murder mystery. Some people read it thinking it's a mystery of some sort, in the same vein as Agatha Christie or numerous British country-house murder mysteries. I suppose it's easy to make that assumption, given the setting, but I think after the first three chapters it's quite clear that this is no murder mystery. After all, it's made quite obvious that Barry Fairbrother really did die of a stroke, which means the rest of the novel isn't going to be about finding out who killed him. As I mentioned earlier, this novel is about the a small town and all its festering evils, which come boiling up to the surface with Barry Fairbrother's death. The plot circles around the characters and showing what makes them - and the town they all live in - tick. In truth, there isn't really much of a plot - this novel is about the characters and showing how they interact with each other, and with themselves, peeling away the walls and layers they hide behind to show the truth of them, in all their shame and complexity.

Overall, Casual Vacancy is a masterstroke: as far away from Rowling's Harry Potter series as she can get, but still displaying her prowess as a writer and showcasing her ability for breadth in terms of what she can write. It is a powerful character study of a small town's residents, showing them not as archetypes but as living, breathing human beings, with complexities and nuances that the reader will find amusing, disturbing, and troubling, all at once. There are no heroes here, and there are no villains: there are only people -and that is the beauty of it.

I was on my couch, e-reader in hand, reading a book, when my Dad announced, “Your J.K. Rowling has written a new book. I hear it's an adult book.” I was curious. Of course I was. Harry Potter was a part of my childhood and I highly anticipated a new novel from my favorite childhood author. I held off from buying the book immediately though. I went through a few Goodreads reviews from people who had completed the book, and I made my decision.

The book starts off slow. I'm a sucker for small town stories, and if you threw a British one at that, I was all ears. Anyway, the small town of Pagford in England is the primary location of this novel. I was a few pages into the book and just when I felt it was pretty good, I came upon ‘flirt'. I was shell-shocked. I mean, I wasn't a stranger to cuss words, much less this being a term I heard used everyday. Hell! It was a term even I used. But when it came from the pen of the woman who was a major part of my childhood, I was pretty shaken up. The story telling is typical of JKR. Slow and steady; with just the ample amount of description to kick your imagination into high gear.

When I heard JKR was writing an adult book, I wasn't really convinced. Then, when I got the book in my hands and started reading it, I knew it was true. She uses a lot of cuss words...liberally. I couldn't go through a page without coming across half a dozen swear words. While she discusses the matter of sexuality pretty openly, she does fail at using the appropriate cuss words.

Apparently, JKR has a problem with the c-word; she uses it liberally and she hasn't perfected its use. I haven't come across a single person using it as liberally as I have across JKR using it. In a book, no less. Oh, I have come across them using it in erotic novels, but then, if they weren't, would it even be considered an erotic novel these days?

JKR takes up the same issue she took up in the Harry Potter series - the fight between good and evil. It's a constant source of new books and most of them tell you the same thing in between two thick cardboard bounds and 700 pages of words; good wins, evil loses. I'm not saying it's the same, obviously it's not. But, it's the same content and people have to realize that. Now more so than ever.

The rich and the poor fight. The town dwellers look down upon the slum dwellers. All common, right? Yeah. Absolutely! Rowling is pointing out the reality of the situation here! If most of these people had bothered reading through the entire book, it does tell a good story; a story with a moral. A moral everyone should follow.

I won't tell you what it is. You should read it and find it out for yourselves. Think of it as a quest.

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, and you're getting ready for bed, just think: “Would it do for me to think of people who have the same money as me as my equal and look down upon those with less money as my lesser?” Think about it and tell me what you honestly think.

If politics is your forte, then this book is for you. JKR has already shown us how manipulative she can be in her Harry Potter series. She shows a bit of that here too, in the form of court-room politics. Politics is all over the place. It's the second thing that suffocates you about the book, after the cuss words. Personally, it has been really well executed by Rowling and I have to take my hat off to her for that. The book has an amazing plot, though not as amazing that it should span seven books, but amazing enough to proclaim proudly that, “Yes, I have a right to be voted for in the Goodreads Choice Awards!” So what are you waiting for? Read it and vote for it!

Definitely a departure from her other works, but the characters are still as interesting and intricate in her writing as she's previously proven. A good way to resume a career post-Potter.

This is a grim and dark book. Not dark in the way that the later Harry Potter books are, but dark with a gritty, pessimistic view of human nature. There's no one in the book that is in the classic sense of ‘good'. Expect a huge dose of realism and a sordid insight into what appears to be an idyllic town.

I have a unique perspective of J.K. Rowling and The Casual Vacancy: I am one of the few who knows practically nothing of Harry Potter. And yet I was excited when I heard the release was coming soon—not because I was enamored with Rowling or because I thought I might discover a great new talent, but because I would be able to give a startling, honest review of Rowling's foray into the world of adult literature. I was going to tear Rowling limb from literary limb and prove once and for all that the masses had been bamboozled by a little magic, that underneath the fantasy was nothing more than a parade of poorly organized, meaningless words. I had no reason to hate Harry Potter other than the fact that it was immensely popular; therefore it must suck (see also Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, etc.)

Admittedly, I even started writing my review months before the book was published. It contained witty remarks and flashy pictures that mocked the craze of Harry Potter. It was guaranteed to catch the attention of many and I would become famous overnight for my single-handed dismantling of a shoddy franchise. I considered including parts of that initial review in this one—the parts that just showcased my ignorance of Potter—but none of that seems fitting for this book. It would be disrespectful and irrelevant in the light of one of the greatest works of contemporary fiction. (Yes, you read that right, and no, there is absolutely no sarcasm implied.)

The Casual Vacancy is the best book I have read in years. It is orchestrated with such a precision that it would be ignorant to write Rowling off as anything but talented. The story moves with a pace that made my heart skip. The characters are unique and so incredibly realistic. The novel is heartbreaking and entertaining and, dare I say it, perfect.

That's not to say it was the easiest read. The beginning starts off rather slowly, and without knowing where Rowling is ultimately going it seems as though she is trying to tackle something much larger than she can handle. Also, the characters—they're great but there are so many of them that it is incredibly difficult to keep track of them all, especially since they are connected with one another and these connections are vital to the story. Eventually I was able to keep the characters straight, but even at the end I had to pause and think about it; it certainly wouldn't hurt to keep notes.

Clearly this book hasn't hit its target audience yet. The reviews have largely been negative. The rating on Goodreads drops every day. Though I haven't read Harry Potter, I know enough to declare that this is not, as some seem to have hoped, Harry Potter for adults. It is dark and bitter. It is designed to make you disgusted with humanity. Most significantly, it is real. The Casual Vacancy portrays the reality that many readers wish to escape from. I'm sure not everyone will agree with me, but this novel reminded me considerably of Jonathan Franzen. There is that same multi-layered dissection of daily human condition that is repulsive and largely ungratifying. That being said, I think Rowling is a much more universal writer than Franzen. She is able to tackle that same grit with an added emotional layer that I believe Franzen lacks.

A year ago I wouldn't have imagined it possible that I would be comparing J.K. Rowling with Jonathan Franzen. I wouldn't have believed that I would ever read one of her books, or that I would LOVE IT and declare it one of the best books I have ever read. But it's true. Unabashedly I proclaim that I am in love with J.K. Rowling. And I openly apologize for having ever spoken poorly of her, especially having not given her a try.

So does this mean I will read the Harry Potter series now? I've made no definite decision, but I might. (Yeah, I know, you told me so.) But part of me thinks that in the time it would take me to read the whole Potter series, I could read The Casual Vacancy several more times and dissect its many layers and learn something profound. Yes, I was a fool to dismiss Rowling, but I have opened my mind and am prepared to learn from a master.

Someone dies. A huge number of characters spend a bunch of time discussing it. By the time anything else happens, nobody cares. The writing is just not good enough to make me feel attached to any of these people.

BEFORE:
In politics, a casual vacancy is a situation in which a seat in a deliberative assembly is vacated during that assembly's term. Casual vacancies arise through the death, resignation or disqualification of the sitting member.

I believe that's as far from magic as something can get.

I don't CARE about the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery anymore! Surreptitiously takes out wand. Looks around furtively.
Accio The Casual Vacancy!
. . . Nothing happens . . .
GREAT. Okay, don't panic. Clause 7 also states that magic can be used in front of Muggles in exceptional circumstances, including situations when the life of the witch or wizard is threatened, or the lives of other witches, wizards and Muggles are threatened. Lives WERE in danger here, after all. If I didn't have this book RIGHT NOW, I might've killed someone. Or myself. Right. That's what I'll say when those old schmucks from Improper Use of Magic Office show up to get me. NO. Okay, stay calm. What's the worse that could happen? It could be...or it could be....Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, THIS IS SICK THIS IS—
Starts hyperventilating.
THEY'LL LOCK ME UP IN AZKABAN! Doesn't matter, I'll just break out.
Boromir: One does not simply walk out of Azkaban.

Oh, the horror. I don't want my first kiss to be from some bloody Dementor! Oh, fuck.
They're here.



Oh, wait. I can do better.
Points wand at herself and quietly whispers

Avada Kedavra.

DIES, OBVIOUSLY.

So poor J K Rowling must have really been dreading the release and critique of this, her first ever non-Harry Potter book. Everybody ready with knives sharpened in that ever British tradition of knocking anyone whose ever dared to be successful way.

“An adult book with swear words” the press shouted days before it's release, well yes we realised that! And it is a very adult book, as I can assure you the first few chapters are a little dull and filled with such a myriad of different characters as to make any readers head spin. You find yourself having to keep checking who is who, who is related and they are all a little dull so as to make none really stand out and hence it is a bit of a slog to get into this book.

I wasn't instantly gripped, like a book I'd been set for an English class I felt I had to keep going back to it rather than being drawn by a strong need not to put it down. I had the strong sense that her new publishers thrilled at having landed Joanne's next novel and giddy at the money they'd make from it had failed to find an editor with the backbone to tell the famous author that she needed to move the pace on a little, just in case she took her book elsewhere,

By half way through I was still a little non-fussed about the characters, some were beginning to show some redeeming features but the sheer small mindedness of the majority made them unlikeable and the book seemed to amble along at the pace of a snail. The last 150 pages will redeem it reviews said so I kept going.

Yes the last part of the book does become much more interesting, knives come out and suddenly everyone in Rowling's fictional village of Pagford are turning on each other. The big climax though excellent felt rushed. I found myself finding at least 100 pages of the book I had to force myself through could have been edited out and dedicated instead to expanding the bit that did hold true emotion and depth of tragedy. Instead much of the book rambles on about an election that doesn't really come to much and is actually rather dull.

It's not Potter, to be fair I truly believe that she will need several books before she finds her next real classic book. I'd read other Rowling novels in the future and this one is not truly awful but it's not truly great either.

I like this book more now than I did when I read it.

I don't know, man...I just don't know.

The characters were so petty I couldn't empathize with any of them. The writing was strong, but I don't feel like I got anything from this book and was just depressed by the end.

damn.....for all my expectations......

[added 7/2013]The fact that almost every 4 or 5 star review is full of guidelines on how to approach this book (“don't compare it to Harry Potter,” “don't expect a plot or likable characters or magic” etc., etc.) is evidence enough to show that it doesn't stand on its own merits. If it was any good, everyone wouldn't feel compelled to make excuses for it.[/]

Is this really what the brilliant mind behind Harry Potter comes up with? Petty small town politics, gossip and soap opera-like romance? What a disappointment. There are moments of brilliance in the writing, but it doesn't make up for the almost complete lack of humor, poignancy or even a single likable character. The Casual Vacancy is unnecessarily foul, overly pessimistic and just not worth the time it takes to read.

I wish Rowling would have been more ambitious. The plot could have been more expansive–bigger than a couple small towns. She could have chosen to do something more literary, The Casual Vacancy more than a few times feels closer to the genre of books by authors who release new titles every 3 months. She also could have chosen to simply be more creative instead of trying to be another Franzen or Duncan (both good in their own spheres, but this is J.K. Rowling we're talking about!). We know she's got it in her. Instead, this book feels like it is trying so hard to be for adults that it just ends up being boring. It's also a shame so many kids who grew up reading Harry Potter will be bombarded with an onslaught of profanity and vulgarity when they now, as young adults, see what their favorite author is up to.

On a more pedantic note, I had both the audio and digital versions and found several discrepancies between them, entire paragraphs, for example, missing in the digital version that are present in the audio version. Odd. You'd think that a book this big and anticipated would be perfectly presented.