"The Casual Vacancy" Book Review

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

"Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

"Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

"And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

"The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults."

I'm just going to admit it: I got this just because J. K. Rowling wrote it and I loved the Harry Potter books. I'm also going to be completely honest and say I am not sure I would've picked this up otherwise.

Be that as it may....

I did read a few articles about this book beforehand and I remember Rowling stating that she thought it was a very British novel. But Pagford is a lot like any other small town that happens to be predominately white and full of itself whose inhabitants happen to speak with some British slang.

For some reason, the publishers never mentioned it was about a murder, just a death, but the way it sounded in the press made it seem like it was about a murder. But, no, Barry Fairbrother just dies. But for the first fifty pages or so, I did expect some evildoer to pull on his mustache and cackle with laughter about his having killed off the most interesting character I will never fully meet. Thanks, Rowling.

While the character development is very good, it does take up half of the book before the story really begins to move. And after that I couldn't get to the ending fast enough. Not because I disliked it, but because I was really interested in how these people were going to settle all of their problems. And also whether Rowling would let their problems be wrapped up all nice and tidy at the end. Maybe there wouldn't be an answer to all their problems. Because that's life, it just keeps going. And this book is very close to real life.

There were characters that I was supposed to hate: Simon and Obbo; there were characters I really disliked: Fats, Gavin, and Shirley; there were characters I either pitied or felt close to: Andrew, Gaia, Sukhvinder, Kay, Krystal, Terri, and Tessa. Ruth made me all sorts of frustrated (Goddamnit woman, just hit him first or at least hit him back, I know you have it in you!) I liked Howard and Miles, although I didn't like their view of things. I found it funny that Samantha thought the most romantic things about her shop closing ("It was strange how your brain could know what your heart refused to accept."), but detested her husband and his family.

It's a very good book, all 'round.

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