The Casual Comeback: has Rowling worked her magic?

Thursday, September 27th brought a small change to the layout of Waterstones on Market Street: a modest set of shelves adorned with some curious-looking red and yellow hardbacks hovered, unobtrusively, […]


Thursday, September 27th brought a small change to the layout of Waterstones on Market Street: a modest set of shelves adorned with some curious-looking red and yellow hardbacks hovered, unobtrusively, just off-centre through the doorway. Nothing about the geometrical design baring a scrawling title would suggest that this book, apparently a new release, was anything worth noticing.

This is hardly the reception JK Rowling is accustomed to when her new titles hit the shelves. As we are all aware, her Harry Potter franchise has sparked a cult phenomenon, selling a hundred gazillion copies in every single country and almost every language (including dead ones), spawned eight action-packed movies and turned JK from downtown Cinderella to a woman richer than Bill Gates, Richard Branson and the Sultan of Brunei put together (or something like that, who knows specifics these days). For a woman used to week-long queues at her midnight releases, this subtle slippage from print-press to punter must have been something of a relief – at least there were no golden snitch-patterned knickers hurled at her this time.

I am by no means speaking disparagingly of JK’s magical world: I am a fully paid up member of The Potter Club, and even though I have no more Hogwarts magic to ingest, I intend to keep my life subscription to Harry-fandom. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of ‘The Casual Vacancy’, Rowling’s first foray into adult writing. I wasn’t disappointed. Despite the terrible blurb, her weighty tome is a gripping read. And it isn’t just the sex, drug abuse and swearing (Ron’s ‘bloody brilliant’ is suddenly baby-talk) that make it  more grown up: her prose-style is suddenly more fluid and sophisticated – two fingers to all who said she couldn’t write. She retains her ease when describing characters and their inner daemons – within a page or two it was easy to love and relate to each and every one of them, and she has represented a cross-section of all society in a mere 500 pages. It was riveting from beginning to end.

Of course, one could argue that this novel explores many of the same themes as HP – death, adolescence and class division all feature within a small, insular community, the idyllic village of Pagford. Sound familiar? But this can hardly be a criticism – many authors write on circumscribed subjects, and seeing as Rowling has chosen pretty universal ones, this can only be in her favour. Is it the next ‘Middlemarch’? Who knows. It encapsulates our zeitgeist, even if JK’s gritty take on society is an uncomfortable truth we must accept. Perhaps I am biased coming from the inner-circle of Pottermania, but others should not look past this as a stand-alone work. Bravo, Ms Rowling; she’s done it again.

 

Image ©The Guardian