They have occasional, fleeting moments of goodness or sympathy. The reader spends the story placing each character on a spectrum of disagreeability in relation to their fellow townspeople. A prime example is Howard and Shirley Mollison, long-time residents of Pagford who see themselves as fixtures of Pagford and all that the town stands for.
Howard and Shirley are gossipy, petty, prejudiced, and entitled. Though they deal with serious issues, they focus mostly on typical teenage problems: crushes and sex, conflict with parents, and the general tendency to see things in binaries. One of the most notable teenagers is Krystal Weedon, used as an example of both the good and bad of the Fields in which she lives.
Krystal is promiscuous, violent, angry, truants often, and occasionally steals. Reality, Crude and Uncensored The Casual Vacancy is a raw description of human character and its many immoral imperfections.
This is a stark difference from the tale that made J. Rowling a household name and The Casual Vacancy. This novel is no doubt completely different in genre, perspective, and setting from Harry Potter ; not even an about-face, it is on an entirely different literary plane. One of the most noticeable differences is the prevalence, often overly saturated, of sexuality and vulgarity.
While Harry and his friends did not even start to like people until they were fourteen and kissing them until they were fifteen or sixteen, the teenagers in The Casual Vacancy have sex on their minds more often than not, either the real thing or the online porn they know far too well.
Frustration, sadness, even slight horror may come up in reading the stories of the interwoven lives of Pagford residents. The new book contains regular outbursts of four-letter words, along with the memorable phrase "that miraculously unguarded vagina" — which, leaked in a pre-publication profile, has caused a flurry of jokes on Twitter about Harry Potter and the Miraculously Unguarded Vagina.
Generally, though, The Casual Vacancy is a solid, traditional and determinedly unadventurous English novel. Set in the "pretty little town of Pagford", it is a study of provincial life, with a large cast and multiple, interlocking plots, drawing inspiration from Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot. The only obvious parallel with the Potter books is that, like them, it is animated by a strong dislike of mean, unsympathetic, small-minded folk.
The inhabitants of Pagford — shopkeepers, window-twitchers, Daily Mail readers — are mostly hateful Muggles, more realistic versions of the Dursleys, the awful family who keep poor Harry stashed in the cupboard under the stairs.
The book seems doomed to be known as Mugglemarch. The plot is set in motion when, on page five, its hero, Barry Fairbrother, falls down dead in the car park of the "smug little golf club". His death creates a "casual vacancy" on the parish council, and the forces of darkness, led by Howard Mollison, the obese delicatessen owner, see their chance to parachute in one of their own.
Barry, a man of "boundless generosity of spirit", had been the main opponent of their plan to reassign the Fields, a run-down sink estate, to the district council of the nearby city, Yarvil — thereby off-loading responsibility for its drug-addled inhabitants, and driving them out of the catchment area for Pagford's nice primary school.
The election heats up when scurrilous but accurate accusations, posted by "the Ghost of Barry Fairbrother", start appearing on the council website.
The Casual Vacancy has all the satisfactions and frustrations of this kind of novel. It immerses the reader in a richly peopled, densely imagined world. After reading the page novel and interviewing the famously reserved Rowling, writer Ian Parker shared his thoughts in a 10,word feature in the New Yorker.
Even Rowling found similar themes. But, by most accounts, the similarities end there. With this new adult novel, she drummed up the courage to branch out and take a risk. The curse, if you will, of the Harry Potter phenomenon. In an autobiography A. Because whatever Fitzgerald said, everyone deserves a second act — and a fresh read.
Already a subscriber? Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier.
If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. But you know what? We change lives. We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. And we can prove it. Your subscription to The Christian Science Monitor has expired. You can renew your subscription or continue to use the site without a subscription. If you have questions about your account, please contact customer service or call us at This message will appear once per week unless you renew or log out.
Skip to main content Skip to main menu Skip to search Skip to footer. Search for:.
0コメント