The new Not Harry Potter book
Today, J.K. Rowling is giving literary birth to The Casual Vacancy. And no, that’s not a cleverly named celeb baby (I still like Blue Ivy Carter the best). That’s the title of her new so-not-Harry-Potter adult book.
The Casual Vacancy is already a hot topic. Yesterday, Hypable.com posted a link to Apple’s iBookstore, where those interested could read fifty pages of The Casual Vacancy free, before the book even went on sale. Knowing Rowling, that’s probably not enough pages to even bother reading.
Now, I’m as Harry-Potter-addicted as the next Muggle, but I just can’t find it in me to want to read The Casual Vacancy. Call it loyalty to my lightning-scarred lover, or just plain old stubbornness, I just don’t want to read an adult-based J.K. Rowling book. It’s wrong, and it shouldn’t exist. It would be the equivalent of E.L. James suddenly writing a children’s nursery rhyme book (“whips and chains may break my bones, but safe words will never hurt me!”). *Insert gagging sound here*
The Casual Vacancy…in your wallet
Even if I did want to read it, have you seen the price tag on this beauty? There’s definitely a casual vacancy, and it’s in your wallet (yours, not mine!). Is this just the spoiled book-brat in me talking? Has Amazon ruined me for higher book prices? Maybe, but I digress. The hardcover version of The Casual Vacancy on Amazon is listed at $20.90. The Kindle price? A whopping $17.99. Do you know how many poorly-edited $0.99 Kindle books I can buy instead of this? Eighteen! Eighteen books that are also not Harry Potter. And okay, yes, I’m spoiled. Sue me. But it’s not just that. Because The Casual Vacancy is already getting casual reviews.
Huffington Post posted a review of The Casual Vacancy, which showed up on HuffPost Books’ front page as early as 1:00 a.m. Andrew Losowsky says of Vacancy:
This book is more depressing than her previous work because it is set [in] a real world without magic, and where cruelty is less apocalyptic and more believably petty. Though some sequences feel a few drafts short of being ready, others are written with a fluency and beauty that suggest that there could be more and better works to come from her pen.
And Huffpost has the nicer review. The review in The New York Times chews up Casual Vacancy and spits it out, leaving it a casualty of literary critique. Famed for her brutal reviews, it’s not really surprising that Michiko Kakutani didn’t love (or even seem to like) The Casual Vacancy. Kakutani says:
There is no magic in this book—in terms of wizarding or in terms of narrative sorcery. Instead, this novel for adults is filled with a variety of people like Harry’s aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley: self-absorbed, small-minded, snobbish and judgmental folks, whose stories neither engage nor transport us.
No “Vacancy” here
Lukewarm and scathing reviews aside, I’m just not sure I even want to live in a Rowling-created world without magic. There’s enough “casual vacancy” in good literature, I don’t need anymore. So, is it worth it? I don’t think it is. But I love to be proven wrong.
So tell me, how do you feel about J.K. Rowling writing an adult book? Are you going to read The Casual Vacancy? And do you think it will be worth the price tag?
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Curiosity abounds because please don’t hate me but I didn’t care for the HP books. So my POV is, what else can she do? I do think that the highly-acclaimed successes of the HP series may spell disaster for her new adult-oriented books for a number of reasons but the biggest one is of course it not being HP. To be honest, I would recommend anyone going into CV to view it as a debut of a different genre and try not to be too overly-critical. And if it’s not up to par, I’m more than certain she’ll learn the craft for writing a different sort of universe.
See, I did love the HP books, and while I celebrate her ability to cross genres as an author, as an HP fan, I admit I’m biased. But it’s not just that. It’s the reviews have been lukewarm, on top of the price. Now, a lot of people are bellyaching about the price, but here’s my issue: Rowling is always quick to sue anyone who writes anything in the HP name, she refused for a long time to publish the HP books as ebooks because she didn’t want to share any money with the ebook publishers, and when she first started selling them, it was only through her way. Her inability to want to play the game in publishing, but still reap the rewards ($$) has left a sour taste in my mouth. I’m not a fan of Rowling, I’m a fan of HP. So I don’t want to give her the benefit of the doubt, because I’m not vested in her as an author.
I rather detest people’s dislike for Rowling writing an adult novel. It’s as though her fans are demanding she pigeonhole herself. Instead of writing yet another YA novel where she’s guaranteed enormous sales and praise, she’s taken a risk and is exploring her craft. She’s in a fine financial position to try it, but it’s still brave, and not nearly enough writers do it.
You write that you don’t want to live in a Rowling-created world without magic. Do you want to live in any magic-free world written by any author? If yes for some, why not for her? She hasn’t done it before, so it can’t be that you know you dislike it. The line I agreed with is that what Casual Vacancy seems to cover is well-tread elsewhere, yet magic children were hardly new with Harry Potter. If she has something distinct to do with this, or even if she’s just figuring out how to write something different, that ought to be worthwhile in itself. I harken to Justin Cronin’s The Passage, a flawed novel whose charms were equal points success and recognition of an author figuring out how this genre works.
At first I wanted to recuse myself, since I couldn’t stand the Harry Potter books after the second. But then, most of the authors I admire are versatile, which I admire, and have been harassed for their versatility. Stephen King got so much crap for doing something other than Horror that he wrote Misery out of his own fears for himself.
First, I’m not a JK Rowling fan, so I’m not pigeonholing her into anything. As an author, I’m all for her trying to cross genres and write something adult-themed. It’s her right to do so. It’s my right not to like it or read it. That’s just what this post is about: my opinion and reading preferences. Like you detesting people’s dislike for her creating an adult book, I detest all the people telling me my opinion and preferences are wrong. I don’t want to live in a Rowling-world without HP magic because I loved the HP books. Someone who didn’t love them can’t really understand where I’m coming from, and a lot of the people who didn’t like HP seem to be almost unnecessarily upset at those that are stating their loyalty to HP over The Casual Vacancy. The beauty of literature is that we each take something from it that is unique. When I find something that is uniquely amazing, making my brain like something that is different AND not up to par in the eyes of the critics, I tend to not want to read it…which I have the right to feel. Just as you can love it all you want. I hope you do in fact. Just don’t tell me I have to and that I’m wrong for not doing so.
I’m a HP fan-girl, and I don’t know if I can read it… not because I don’t think she can write something else–I’m sure she is able and probably quite good at it, too. My problem is my love for all thing Harry Potter.
Unlike Carrie and John, I loved the books. I’ve read them many times and plan on reading them again with my 7 year-old, soon. The first time I read them, I was heartbroken that the story ended, and every time I reread them–it’s the same thing. I long for it to go on forever.
What does your love of HP have to do with The Casual Vacancy, you ask? I’m fickle. I don’t want to read a different book, that I really want to be Harry Potter, and catch a fragment of that voice, that magic–a series of words–SOMETHING–that reminds me of how much I long for that never-ending story.
AND… I won’t pay $18.00 for a digital download. That’s nuts!
That’s just me, though. I will probably give in sometime (but not @ 18bucks)
That’s my problem, too. I’m very HP-focused on this issue. I don’t like her personally…I respect her as an author, but I’m not a fan of HER, just a fan of HP…and I’m sure the movies helped endear me to that. I miss HP, and while I don’t want to see her write more HP just to keep the good lovey money making feelings going, I am very much in love w/HP and that makes me not want to read TCV. It does help that it’s $18. As a writer and editor, I’m so torn on the price wars of ebooks, but Rowling has a history of trying to milk as much $ out of stuff as she can, so it already turns me off. And yes, Amazon has spoiled us.