A MUST READ!! (Book #4)

The Casual Vacancy: J.K. Rowling

This book is not like J.K. Rowling’s previous books.  And in case you have been living under a rock this past decade, she is the brilliant writer behind the Harry Potter Series.  Let me be clear, she is not necessarily responsible for the movies (I dunno about the logistics behind the movies); people tend to have mixed reviews about the movies.  But I have found that people who have those mixed reviews haven’t read a single book.  Or they read the first book and claimed that it was childish—but as any avid Potter fan will say, “when you read the books you start at age 10, and you grow up with Harry and his friends…”  Well, something to that effect.  Anyway, that is part of the genius behind Rowling.  Her characters are complex people who grow up and learn from things that have happened to them; they make mistakes and don’t necessarily choose what seems like an obvious solution.

This book takes place in the British country area of Pagford and Yarvil.  There is a definite sense of realism and modernity, with the characters aptly using things such as social media, (i.e., facebook).

“The Casual Vacancy” is a social commentary on today’s society; and it’s not big picture (super political level/whole country), it’s little picture (small town, neighborhood sort of thing). Now, I am not too familiar with everything that is going on in the UK, but throughout the world there is a lot of socio-economic turmoil; a huge deviation formally known in the US as the 1% versus the 99%.  People are constantly pre-judging everyone that appears to come from a “lower class,” and as a result people kind of get stuck in their economic situation.  What I love about this book is how it emphasizes the roles that are forced on children and how they react to this illusion world that their parents live in; there are actions to their consequences, but it is definitely satisfaction to see their parents idealistic world fall apart.

Spoiler alert : Barry Fairbrother dies (but it’s okay you will read it in the first chapter).   As the book progresses, you get the sense that he is part of the “1” that fought for the “99.”  He tried to make people see past their own prejudices and stereotypes, by showing that with nurture and support anybody can do anything; but if there is a whole town of people, including your own family, telling you that you are a worthless whore, you will start to believe that is all you can become. 

What Rowling did with this book, was take this one fighter for the unwanted and she killed him.  It is really interesting to see what kind of effect this has on this small community of Pagford (and to a lesser extent Yarvil).  It seems as if Fairbrother was the lynch pin of the town, and if you take away the lynch pin, shit hits the fan, as you will see when you read this book.

Hopefully, this intrigued you enough to want to read the book.  If it didn’t, you should read it anyway, because it is well written, captivating, and interesting even if you don’t get a lot out of it…which you should, because otherwise you suck.