The Casual Vacancy
Author: J.K. Rowling
Rating: â 2/5
Date Read: 2012/10/31
Pages: 503
I really wanted to like this. Not because itâs by J.K. Rowling, although I do respect her as a person, and I think that she writes well. I wanted to like it because it sounds like the kind of book I would like: set in an idyllic small town, where everything is not what it seems. I wanted to like it, but I didnât. I couldnât. The entire thing was insipid and uninspired.
One major problem was that Rowling didnât know what kind of book she wanted to write. It wasnât clear whether she intended this to be scathing social commentary, or a realistic portrait of a small town. I wasnât sure whether she wanted us to love the characters, or love to hate them. Worse, though, was the fact that this book was fairly plotless, but not particularly character-focused, and with sparkly writing. It didnât have much to recommend it.
While I hate to compare this to Harry Potter, I feel that I must. For me, the beautiful thing about Harry Potter was the J.K. Rowling created a world where the magical felt familiar. In most fantasy worlds, I always feel that Iâm looking in on a world that is not comparable to my own. Harry Potter felt real and magical at the same time. Pagford, the fictional world in which The Casual Vacancy is set, feels similarly real, but I question the effectiveness of making the real world feel real. I have to live in the real world all the time, and I know what itâs like. I wish Rowling had philosophized about the real world, like [a:Leo Tolstoy|128382|Leo Tolstoy|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1342945438p2/128382.jpg], or made fun of it, like [a:Oscar Wilde|3565|Oscar Wilde|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1316521008p2/3565.jpg] and her (supposed, although I donât see it) inspiration [a:Anthony Trollope|20524|Anthony Trollope|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1199114248p2/20524.jpg]. However, she didnât seem to have anything interesting to say about the real world. I would have preferred a little magic.
