#43: Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

I certainly feel as though I have tackled one tough book after another with #42 and now #43.  As if The Hobbit wasn't hard enough to get through (it wasn't hard to read, just long and descriptive and you had to read every single word carefully in order to keep up and understand), let's try Casual Vacancy.  I get tired just thinking back about what it took to read this book.

Casual Vacancy is written by JK Rowling, who wrote the amazing, life changing Harry Potter series.  (If you have not read the Harry Potter books, stop reading this blog and go tackle those books first.) As a lover of Harry, I was intrigued to read Rowling's newest book, wondering how her writing would be when she's not writing about Hogwarts and Harry.  Well, I can say without hesitation that she's a brilliant writer, but Casual Vacancy is no Harry Potter.

First off, within the first two pages of the book, a main character dies in such a way that you are left with your mouth wide open fearing headaches.  Then, Rowling spends the next 250 or so pages describing a heard of characters like no other characters you've ever read about in your life.  These characters are described in such vivid detail that you can see them in your mind, you can hear them, you know their thoughts, you can see what they are wearing...I still can, even weeks after reading this book (I finished it about two weeks ago, but am just now getting around to blogging about it.).  While the character development is brilliant, it made me crazy that it took her 250 pages to finally finish crafting the 20 some-odd characters that were swimming around the pages of this book, and in my head.  However, I kept reading knowing that eventually something would happen (oh, and it did) but I have to admit that it tested my patience.

So, after those 250 pages, the characters, who when you first read about them are introduced as separate individuals, begin to come together to create an elaborate and intricate, and rather riveting, plot.  The plot of the book, if I can summarize 500 pages in a sentence, is how one English town fills the vacancy on their parish council that was left open when Barry Fairbrother dies (on page 1 of the book).  It seems simple enough, but Casual Vacancy is anything but simple. 

Aside from the masterfully crafted characters, Rowling is skilled like no other in weaving together their lives to create a story that will make you think.  Once the actual story begins, you are forced to confront true politics, and not just politics on a grand scale (as in those we all dealt with during our recent Presidential election), but politics in a small town.    What people will do to get what they want is a bit scary, if you ask me.  What goes on behind the scenes, which as readers we are privy to, is even scarier. 

But, the one part of this story that truly frightened me the most, and I wonder how many other parents of teenagers who read Casual Vacancy feel the same, was how the teenagers in the story ruined the lives of their parents.  All with the click of a mouse.  I am now very much aware of how much more my children know about technology than I do, and how they can use this knowledge for either good or evil.  I am hoping for good, but I certainly do plan to watch my step around my girls.  I knew teenagers could make your life miserable, but the lengths these teenagers go to to retaliate against their parents is quite scary.   Very scary, in fact. 

So, was Casual Vacancy worth my time (and lugging around a huge book)?  Yes. The characters alone are worth the read, and stick with them.  Once you get past the first 250 pages, you are set for a great, although often disturbing, story.   It's not Harry Potter, but really, who expected it to be?  But, it is JK Rowling, one of the world's most fabulous writers.  For that reason alone, you should read Casual Vacancy.

Happy Reading!
:) Dodie