Rowling's Post-Potter Prose

J.K. Rowling is known the world over as the author of the Harry Potter series.  It’s positively mind blowing to try and calculate the impact of Harry Potter and it has made her one of the richest women in the world, although she did drop off the billionaire list earlier this year due to her charitable donations and the notoriously high British taxes.

Rowling could very easily sit back and live a life of luxury off her Harry Potter money, but that’s not who she is.  And we’re all better off for that.  Rowling has kept busy since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published in 2007, including writing two more novels.

The Casual Vacancy, her first post-Potter adult novel, was published in the fall of 2012 and was greeted by an unimpressed response by critics.  It seemed a lot of critics were harsh in their disappointment while others tried hard to find what they liked in the book.

I was excited to read The Casual Vacancy, regardless of what it was about, because it was written by J.K. Rowling.  Most people felt the same way.  The fact that it was so drastically different from the Potter books didn’t sit well with many.  The Casual Vacancy was never going to be about the grown up world of Harry, Ron and Hermione, it was something totally different.

While reading it, I found myself agreeing with most of the criticisms made against the book.  There was no real protagonist, there actually wasn’t anyone worth rooting for or even liking among the characters.  There was so much cursing, sex, and drug use that I felt at one point she was overdoing it just to prove she could write something decidedly adult.  It was not an easy read.

But I stuck with it because I have such faith in Rowling’s talent.  I believe at this point, everyone knows her back story.  Rowling was a struggling single mother who, by her own words, was as poor as a person could be without actually being homeless.  She was living on what we call welfare here in the US and the first Harry Potter book was turned down by 12 publishers.

I have no doubt that between her time struggling to make ends meet and all the charitable organizations she works with, Rowling has probably seen a lot of what she wrote about in The Casual Vacancy.  The people struggling with money problems, drug use, and neglected children.  She wrote these characters boldly and naked, these are not easily likeable people.  The adults are selfish and narrow minded, the children are rude and running wild. 

The book starts with a man, Barry Fairbrother, who appears to be the only genial person in the town of Pagford, dying, leaving an empty seat on the Parish Council.  The book follows his fellow townsfolk as they scheme to try and win his empty seat.  The town is split between those who supported Barry’s crusade to save The Fields, the government run public housing that borders the town of Pagford, and those who didn’t want Pagford to be responsible for the public housing and the people within.

There is a large cast of characters, both adults vying for the seat and children who had been touched by Fairchild, the local high school’s rowing coach.  Chief among them is Krystal Weedon, a teen who had been close to Fairchild as she excelled on the rowing team.  But her life was a difficult one, raised by a heroin addicted mother in a ramshackle home in The Fields, forced to grow up too quickly as she often had to care for her young brother, Robbie. 

The Casual Vacancy is a dark novel, sometimes darkly funny, sometimes depressing, that shows people at their barest.  Nobody is perfect and even those who seem happy are often not.  You spend the majority of this book waiting for the hero.  Waiting for someone to do something to justify all the time you spend with these unagreeable people.  And then, about three quarters of the way through the book, something happens.  I don’t like to say what because it is big.  It will completely change your thoughts on everything you had just read.  You’ll see these people for who they really are.  It will put everything into perspective for both the characters and the reader.  Everything you thought was important, doesn’t seem so anymore, the priorities of all the people in town, those who were directly affected and those who weren’t, all change.
 

And you suddenly find that person you can cheer for, that person you can like.  She was not somebody you expect to take charge, but she does and you know, in the end, she will succeed and her life will be better.  By the time the book ends, you have hope for the people of Pagford and for the person who steps up.
 

When people asked me what I thought of the book, they always ask with trepidation.  It seems like all they’ve heard are bad reviews and they’re afraid that this author, who had given them one of the greatest series of books ever written, will disappoint them with her new book.  I tell them honestly that it isn’t an easy read, but to please stick with it, because by the end, everything will make sense and you’ll be glad you read it.  I can’t help but feel the reviewers who gave it negative reviews didn’t finish the book. 

The Cuckoo’s Calling is completely different from Harry Potter and The Casual Vacancy. It is know common knowledge that Rowling tried to publish her first crime fiction under a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, so she could receive nonbiased feedback.  Word was leaked by the friend of a man who worked for Rowling’s former law firm.  She sued and won a substantial amount of money that will be donated to The Soldier’s Charity, the same charity that will be receiving all worldwide publishing royalties from The Cuckoo’s Calling.

The characters in her second post-Potter novel are so well written and the story so compelling, I found it hard to put down.  Rowling’s talent for detail makes it so easy to get swept up into the story and characters. This is a book I am genuinely excited about talking about and recommending to others.

The Cuckoo's Calling is fast paced and enthralling.  It begins with the death of Lula Landry, a world famous supermodel who had fallen to her death from her balcony onto the snow covered road below in the early hours of the morning.  The question is, did she jump or was she pushed?  With a history of mental illness it is believed she jumped, but her older brother, John Bristow, is convinced it was murder.  John goes to Cormoran Strike, a former military police officer turned private eye who left the military after losing his right leg below the knee in Afghanistan.  Newly single and down on his luck, Strike is thrilled when Bristow offers him more money that he could ever dream of to solve the mystery of his sister’s death.

This story is done in the vein of the old fashioned gumshoe mystery.  We meet an incredible cast of characters as Strike searches for the truth, from the wealthy Bristow/Landry family to the fashion designer of whom Lula was a muse to the supermodels and actors Lula hung out with to Lula’s birth mother and the poor woman Lula had befriended when she was getting help for her own mental health problems and so many more.  Strike finds an unlikely partner in Robin Ellacot, a young woman who had just moved to London to be with her boyfriend (now fiancé) and was sent to Strike’s office by a temp company to be his secretary for a week. 

Supposedly, The Cuckoo’s Calling is the first in a series of novels by Rowling, under the name Robert Galbraith.  I hope it is.  Cormoran and Robin make a great team and I look forward to their future adventures.

There will always be people who will compare everything Rowling writes to Harry Potter.  I know I picked up The Casual Vacancy because it was written by the author of the Harry Potter books that I loved so much, but I didn’t compare them, they are entirely different stories with different types of characters written for completely different audiences.  Other than having the same name on their covers, there is absolutely nothing that Harry Potter, The Casual Vacancy, or (J.K. Rowling's name is now on the inside flap) The Cuckoo’s Calling have in common.  And that’s not a bad thing.  I would gladly recommend any of these books to fellow readers.  Not everybody enjoys YA fantasy books or dark novels about everyday life in small town England or mysteries surrounding the murder of a young model, but if you go into these books with an open mind, you won’t be disappointed.

The Lure of Young Adult Books

It is so easy to dismiss young adult books as not being worth your time. I know it has been quite a while since I was a young adult. But, like all genre of books, there are a lot of quality stories.

I love Harry Potter. I remember when the first book came out and my mother suggested I read it. I read the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone then set it down and forgot about it. A while later, a friend told me I had to give it another try, so I picked it up again. I ended up reading Sorcerer's Stone in one night and Chamber of Secrets the next. This was just before Prisoner of Azkaban was released and my father, who works in the book business, brought the advanced reader's copy home. I snatched it up the first chance I got and, again, read the book in one night. To this day, Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite of the seven books.

I turned into one of those crazy adults who was obsessed with this "children's" series. My mother was a book manager at a large store and I helped her plan and execute midnight madness parties. I own all seven books in hardcover, along with extra copies of Order of the Phoenix (one is the children's British version and the other is the adult British version, that just means they have different covers). They sit atop one of my bookshelves in a place of honor between Harry Potter bookends. Beside the books is the little cardboard trunk that holds the Harry Potter Uno game. I also have several of the books on CD, if you ever get the chance to listen to the amazing Jim Dale read these books do it! My prize piece is a special edition of the Half-Blood Prince with an autographed book plate inside, another perk of having parents in the book industry.

The Harry Potter books are an anomaly in the publishing industry. A series of books originally written for children but appealing to teens and adults as well, both male and female. With Sorcerer's Stone being published in the US in 1998 and Deathly Hallows published in 2007, quite a few children grew up with the series. But I actually know more adults than children who have read them.

A coworker of mine has a teen aged daughter and they are both avid readers. I have received more quality book recommendations from him than I can count. One that sticks out was the book East by Edith Pattou.

It's a young adult book written with a fairy tale vibe. In a small village in Norway, Rose is a North-born baby born to a poor mapmaker and his superstitious wife. It is believed North-born children are destined to break their mothers' hearts because they will leave home to travel far away. They are wild, unpredictable, and intelligent. So Rose's mother lies to her and tells her she was East-born and should be obedient. But her fate can not be denied. The story follows Rose's adventures after a great white bear comes to take her away.

East is a book I would never have picked up on my own, but I'm so glad I took this recommendation. The beginning was a bit slow, but I stuck with it and it got to the point where I could not put the book down. It was engaging and well-written, just a good, old-fashioned tale of folklore.

More recently, my cousin, who also works in the book industry (it seems as though I was always destined to be surrounded by books) told me about The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. She swore up and down that this book was fantastic and it was hugely popular. I had not heard of it and it seemed a little too sci-fi for me. But she kept at it until I finally picked it up.

I am so sorry I ever doubted her. The Hunger Games is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I can't stop talking about it and I have gotten so many people to read it, I should be on Scholastic's pay roll. The second I finished The Hunger Games, I gobbled up the second book Catching Fire which had the distinction of being even better than the first book. I am counting down the days until the third and final book in the series, MockingJay, comes out.

The Hunger Games tells the story of a post-apocalyptic North America, called Panem, where the country is now divided into 12 districts, each one responsible for a certain item (ie: grain, fruit, coal), surrounding a large capitol city. At one time there had been 13 districts, but 74 years ago the districts tried to lead a rebellion against the Capitol which led to District 13 being destroyed. As a reminder to the public that they are in control, the Capitol holds the annual Hunger Games. A boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are chosen to fight to the death until there is only one survivor. The Hunger Games follows 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen as she is sent to the Games and has to compete.

Now, reading that description, this does not sound like the kind of book that would appeal to me. I was very pleasantly surprised. No description can fully do justice to the characters and story. At no point while reading these books did it feel as though I was reading a story aimed at 7th graders. There is a surprising amount of violence, but it doesn't take away from the story or the characters. These are quality, well-written books with characters and a plot that grabs you and holds you. You'll find yourself unable to put the book down until you've finished.

Every year my mother gives a speech at a local restaurant to teachers and librarians about current award winning YA and children's books. There are piles of books and she can't read them all, so I help her. I dig through the pile and pick out the books that sound good to me. As always, it's hit or miss. One book I picked out this year sounded like something I would love and was compared to the work of the Brontes. Uh, no. This particular book and Bronte should never be mentioned in the same sentence. It seemed confused as to where it wanted to go and then just abruptly ended. Another book was set in the west just after the Civil War and told the story of a teen aged boy and his young sister. In my opinion it was overly dramatic and the point it was trying to make, about the way the government treated the Native Americans, was tossed in near the end and was implausible and rushed.

But there are always a few that stick out. The one book that really stuck out to me this year was When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, the 2010 Newberry Award Winner.

It was a quick read and an enjoyable one. But it didn't really seem like anything special. I really liked how she ended the book, it was unexpected and unbelievable, but it worked. I returned it to my mother and told her it was a good read, but nothing really jumped out at me, I didn't understand why it won the Newberry Award.

After a few days, I knew why. I could not stop thinking about When You Reach Me. The more I thought about it, the more I really liked it. I mean really liked it. I found myself telling people about it and recommending it. There is just something about that story I can't really put my finger on that planted itself in my mind and refused to leave.

When You Reach Me tells the story of sixth grader Miranda who lives in 1970s New York City. She is obsessed with her favorite book A Wrinkle In Time and her mother is obsessed with getting on $20,000 Pyramid. There is a cast of characters including the vagrant who lives outside their building, Miranda's best friend who no longer wants to be her best friend, the new friends she discovers, and her mother's devoted boyfriend. Then one day, Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes that change the way she sees the world.

This book is full of the pre-teen drama we've all experienced and can relate to, as well as a bit of fantasy. This is book recommended for fifth to eighth graders and yet it was an enjoyable read for an adult.

Just like any genre of books, there are YA books that aren't too good, books I don't enjoy or don't want to read. But, just like any other genre, the good ones are really good.