Kindle format
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Target audience: adults only
Synopsis:
When Barry Fairbrother
dies suddenly of aneurism in his early forties, leaving his family and a lot of
unfinished issues behind, the town of Pagford is in shock. He was a well-known
councilor and a coach of the local female rowing team. He was also a man
with a mission. Who will fill his shoes? Will his death benefit his allies or
his enemies?
Surprisingly there are
more than one or two token candidates. Pagford, seemingly an English sleepy
town like many others, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey,
becomes a war zone and, like in every war, there will be casualties. Who will prevail? Is it important at all?
My impressions:
First of all let me
state the obvious: hearing the name of J.K. Rowling you will immediately think
‘Harry Potter’ even if you haven’t read any of the books or haven’t seen the
movies. But HP series was finished some
time ago and now Ms Rowling decided to branch out. I am far from criticizing
her for that, let me just say it was a very bold move, rejecting a genre which
made you famous, renowned and super-rich, trying something entirely new and
different. I grant it, she could afford
that little experiment without breaking out into a financial sweat, a rare
luxury among authors. My question is rather why it was done the way it was
done when it could have been done almost any other way ?
My first surprise: the
new book was still published under the name of J.K. Rowling. Let’s face it –
whether the author likes it or not that name belongs firmly to Harry Potter.
Using it to market a contemporary fiction novel for adults is like trying to
sell e.g. BMW shoes or Manolo Blahnik computers. Of course it has its short-term advantages: plenty of people have bought the book out of
sheer curiosity (like me) or loyalty so I suppose
the publisher and the author will make nice, fat profit, no problem. Still most of those casual readers will be
confused and disenchanted at best,
getting not exactly what they have expected or used to expect. I suppose next time they
won’t fall for the magic name alone.
The novel itself is a
solid piece of writing, planned and executed decently well, but the topic isn’t
either fresh or original, let alone ground-breaking. I am not an especially well-read person in
English literature and even I have read many similar position by Kate Atkinson
or Sue Townsend; I can even add Agatha Christie to the bunch here, and I must say their books were actually better
– funnier, more edgy. Do not expect in
The Casual Vacancy any magic, even of
the metaphorical kind, or fireworks of humour and wisdom. While reading it I didn’t feel that intense
urge to find out what happened next, or to devour the book as soon as possible.
It was a tepid story set in a banal, industrial-grey world; after reading it I could
shrug my shoulders and move on. I related
to none of the characters, I didn’t hate anybody in particular, I am not
curious what will happen to them in the near future. If I have to be honest I could live without
meeting them at all.
I suppose I would be
far more comfortable if the book was published under an alias. Now it seems to me that Ms Rowling decided
to minimize any risk and to capitalize shamelessly on her previous success,
selling readers something which is supposedly connected to the HP series but in
reality as far away from those books as it can only be. Only after the lecture
of reviews or the book itself you see you have been conned. Had this one been penned by a debut author,
without all that glamour of a world-famous name, it would have still been published but I am sure it would have
also passed unnoticed and would have been forgotten soon.
By the way would it be
such a bad idea to write something new (heck, even starting a new series) for
adults but with fantasy elements included? Do only kids deserve a bit of fun?
Taking into account how many mature readers have enjoyed the adventures of
Harry and his friends, not to mention his enemies (yours truly among them) it
seems like a completely rhetorical question, right?
Final verdict:
A decent novel about
contemporary Britain but nothing outstanding you must or should read or
you miss out on an important book. Rowling has said pre-emptively: ‘ I'm a writer
and I will write what I want to write.'
Ok, fine. I am a reader and I will read what I want to read. Not something like this one, though.
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
