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Where's the Rowling magic, critics wonder
Source: Agencies |
September 28, 2012, Friday
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J.K. Rowling's first foray into adult fiction was bound to be compared to her wildly successful Harry Potter series, and, while "The Casual Vacancy" has earned mixed reviews, for some critics the magic has worn off.
The Casual Vacancy, which hits the shelves yesterday, looks destined for the top of the bestseller lists whatever the reaction, with Rowling's celebrity status guaranteeing public anticipation and media attention in equal measure.
In the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani likened some of Rowling's small-minded, snobby characters to the odious Dursley family from the Harry Potter tales. "One can only admire her gumption in facing up to the overwhelming expectations created by the global phenomenon that was Harry Potter," Kakutani wrote.
"Unfortunately, the real-life world she has limned in these pages is so willfully banal, so depressingly cliched that 'The Casual Vacancy' is not only disappointing - it's dull."
Other critics were less damning, however, and several reviews in British and United States newspapers argued that, while not great, Rowling's eagerly anticipated break from the world of child wizards and witches was good.
"The Casual Vacancy is no masterpiece, but it's not bad at all: intelligent, workmanlike, and often funny," said Theo Tait in the Guardian newspaper.
"The worst you could say about it, really, is that it doesn't deserve the media frenzy surrounding it."
Book stores opened early in London to deal with anticipated demand, and the print run in the US alone is reported to be two million copies.
That build-up is understandable. The series-concluding "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which appeared in 2007, became the fastest-selling book in history. More than 450 million copies of the seven Potter books have sold worldwide.
The Casual Vacancy is set in a small English town called Pagford, where class prejudices are played out and Rowling exploits her post-Potter freedom by tackling themes of drug addiction, teenage sex and violent domestic abuse.
The plot is set in motion by the death of Barry, which creates a "casual vacancy" on the local municipal ("parish") council and gives his opponents an opportunity to offload a nearby run-down housing estate on to a neighboring district and be done with its seedy inhabitants.
Although Rowling, 47, is dubbed the world's first author billionaire, she started her literary life in the 1990s as an unemployed single mother living on state benefits who struggled to find a publisher.
The Casual Vacancy, which hits the shelves yesterday, looks destined for the top of the bestseller lists whatever the reaction, with Rowling's celebrity status guaranteeing public anticipation and media attention in equal measure.
In the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani likened some of Rowling's small-minded, snobby characters to the odious Dursley family from the Harry Potter tales. "One can only admire her gumption in facing up to the overwhelming expectations created by the global phenomenon that was Harry Potter," Kakutani wrote.
"Unfortunately, the real-life world she has limned in these pages is so willfully banal, so depressingly cliched that 'The Casual Vacancy' is not only disappointing - it's dull."
Other critics were less damning, however, and several reviews in British and United States newspapers argued that, while not great, Rowling's eagerly anticipated break from the world of child wizards and witches was good.
"The Casual Vacancy is no masterpiece, but it's not bad at all: intelligent, workmanlike, and often funny," said Theo Tait in the Guardian newspaper.
"The worst you could say about it, really, is that it doesn't deserve the media frenzy surrounding it."
Book stores opened early in London to deal with anticipated demand, and the print run in the US alone is reported to be two million copies.
That build-up is understandable. The series-concluding "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which appeared in 2007, became the fastest-selling book in history. More than 450 million copies of the seven Potter books have sold worldwide.
The Casual Vacancy is set in a small English town called Pagford, where class prejudices are played out and Rowling exploits her post-Potter freedom by tackling themes of drug addiction, teenage sex and violent domestic abuse.
The plot is set in motion by the death of Barry, which creates a "casual vacancy" on the local municipal ("parish") council and gives his opponents an opportunity to offload a nearby run-down housing estate on to a neighboring district and be done with its seedy inhabitants.
Although Rowling, 47, is dubbed the world's first author billionaire, she started her literary life in the 1990s as an unemployed single mother living on state benefits who struggled to find a publisher.
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