The Casual Vacancy

The last novel I'm reading during my college career in the Casual Vacancy by none other than J.K. Rowling. While I'm not far into the novel yet (only about 40 pages or so), I already have loads of questions that I'm excited to (hopefully) figure out some of the answers to as I continue on.

While many of my questions have to do with the characters and plot, it also struck me how weird it was to read one of Rowling's works that isn't Harry Potter. I wonder how having an already formed opinion of an author changes the way I read her other novels.

Each time I've read the Harry Potter series it has been for no reason other than because I wanted to. I've found that while reading this book, I have a difficult time coming up with intelligent questions for class that go deeper than essentially wondering what would happen next—and I know it's not from a lack of them being there.

There has always been a distinct difference between "reading for fun" and "reading for class." I love all sorts of novels, and I think fun reading an academic reading are sometimes similar as well as valuable in their own ways; however, I found it difficult to read J.K. Rowling with an academic mindset. Will she always just be the writer of Harry Potter to me? Will this change as I dive further into the novel? Must authors "break out" of their roles as actors (such as Daniel Radcliffe) do? Was I too engaged in the novel that I didn't read as in-depth as I should have?

But despite all of that, the world Rowling creates in her first novel post-Hogwarts still feels familiar. The way she creates characters is completely intriguing. One of the things I noticed most in the first few pages of this novel is the warped sense of love so many characters had. Each relationship she introduces us to has flaws in one way or another.

I mean, the first lines of the novel say, “Barry Fairbrother did not want to go out to dinner. He had endured a thumping headache for most of the weekend and was struggling to make a deadline for the local newspaper. However, his wife had been a little stiff and uncommunicative over lunch, and Barry deduced that his anniversary card had not mitigated the crime of shutting himself away in the study all morning” (Rowling 1).

Samantha doesn't get along with Miles' family. I wouldn't be surprised if Simon abuses Ruth physically, just as he does emotionally when we first meet them. Not only is Gavin having an affair, but he's having an affair with a woman he doesn't even seem to really like.

How does these complex relationships impact what happens in the small town of Pagford? And how does the fact that these characters live in Pagford, versus, say, London, impact what happens to them? Is Rowling going to be able to pull off a story that goes in depth on this many people? I hope she does.

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