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mae
04-12-2012, 07:01 AM
http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/TheCasualVacancy

Little, Brown Book Group announces that the new novel for adults by J.K. Rowling is entitled The Casual Vacancy. The book will be published worldwide in the English language in hardback, ebook, unabridged audio download and on CD on Thursday 27th September 2012.

The Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little 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?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

The Casual Vacancy
480 pages (approximately)
ISBN 9781408704202 (hardback) price £20.00
ISBN 9781405519229 (ebook) price £11.99
ISBN 9781405519212 (audio download) £20.00
ISBN 9781405519205 (CD) price £30.00

Prices in other territories will be announced separately.

DoctorDodge
04-12-2012, 07:08 AM
Hmmm. Sounds very British. I'll keep an eye out for it, anyway.

Garrell
04-12-2012, 07:09 AM
I will be reading it:)

Shannon
04-12-2012, 07:12 AM
It does sound British, doesn't it? That was my first thought also.

DoctorDodge
04-12-2012, 07:28 AM
It's certainly a bold release for the author. Personally, I was expecting something still slightly fantasy based but for a maturer market, like the opposite of what King did with The Eye of the Dragon. The later volumes of Harry Potter were written for a more mature audience than the earlier volumes anyway, so an adult fantasy novel would've been a natural progression. Going for something that not only has no such elements but sounds about as British as a book about baseball sounds American is a big risk.

Still, when you're ridiculously stinking rich and lead a quiet enough life for that to continue for the rest of your life, I guess you can afford to take a risk now and again.

Jean
04-12-2012, 07:33 AM
Sounds very British.
Yes. Bears want to read it.

mae
04-12-2012, 07:33 AM
Small-town British politics? Who knew? Will check it out for sure.

DoctorDodge
04-12-2012, 07:33 AM
Sounds very British.
Yes. Bears want to read it.

Somehow, I'm not surprised. :lol:

Jean
04-12-2012, 07:35 AM
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/bear_wink-1.gif

Brice
04-12-2012, 07:52 AM
Signed limited edition please?

harrison ryan
04-12-2012, 10:11 AM
Reading that description, it really doesn't blow my hair back much. All the same, more power to J.K.R. for following her muse!

Mr. Rabbit Trick
04-12-2012, 10:47 AM
Small-town British politics? Who knew? Will check it out for sure.

You and 20 million others. I guess it will be the biggest selling book for many years.

jhanic
04-13-2012, 04:38 AM
Yeah, I'll be reading it also. Rowling isn't the best writer in the world, but her stories are captivating.

John

alkanto
04-13-2012, 05:18 AM
Sounds very British.
Yes. Bears want to read it.

As will Pond! I mean, come on...something my favorite Brit describes as very British...how could I resist? :lol:

mikeC
04-13-2012, 06:17 AM
Maybe she confused "adult" with "depressing".

Ka-mai
04-13-2012, 06:34 AM
I think there's some pretty depressing stuff in HP... which she effectively neutered with that terrible epilogue. :rolleyes:

I can't wait for this! I hope it's as ridiculously detailed and intricate as her others. I also hope she has finally learned not to put an adverb at the end of every sentence ever. The one thing I truly did not like about HP was how everyone "said ____ly." Rarely exclaimed, shouted, whispered, or even asked. (How can you not use the word ask?!)

Brice
04-13-2012, 07:00 AM
By using the word said apparently.


@ John: True, but story is the most important thing a fiction writer can have. Without it you are nothing as a writer.

BROWNINGS CHILDE
04-13-2012, 07:09 AM
Sounds interesting, I'll check it out.

DoctorDodge
04-13-2012, 07:43 AM
Maybe she confused "adult" with "depressing".

Well, let's be honest: some of the greatest British stories have that dark depressing edge to them. Many of my favourites have that while still being hilarious and entertaining. I wonder if this will be one of them. Probably not: doesn't really sound depressing at all, imo. (Then again, the amount of depressing stuff I watch...:lol:)

pmtarantino
04-15-2012, 07:31 PM
Signed limited edition please?

There is no intention to do a limited edition. (J.K. Rowling never did a signed edition neither)

mae
07-03-2012, 09:57 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/casual-vacancy-jk-rowling-book-cover_n_1645809.html

Today, the Hachette website revealed JK Rowling's cover and page count for new book "The Casual Vacancy."

The book will be 512 pages, hopefully enough to whet Rowling fans' voracious appetites for more.

Fans were extremely excited about Rowling's announcement of her book, particularly since the "Harry Potter" series ended in 2007. She has been rather crafty about releasing information in order to create anticipation. First, in late February, she announcedthe fact that she'd have a new book for adults coming out. Then, in April, she announced title, release date and plot. With this, there is not much more that can be revealed (or so we think...).

Here's the book cover. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/littlebrown/img/tcv.png

sgc1999
07-03-2012, 10:02 AM
Does anyone else find J K Rowling attractive? She must of been a total hottie when she was younger. I still think she is an attractive woman. And the millions have nothing to do with it... seriously they dont.

Brice
07-03-2012, 04:50 PM
...but they certainly don't hurt any either. :lol: It's not like Simon's thinking you'd really be hot if you didn't have ridiculously obscene amounts of cash.

mae
09-27-2012, 06:47 AM
http://entertainment.time.com/2012/09/27/j-k-rowlings-the-casual-vacancy-weve-read-it-heres-what-we-thought/

It’s not really possible to open The Casual Vacancy without a lot of expectations both high and low at the same time crashing around in your brain and distorting your vision. I don’t know if it’s possible or even desirable to avoid them. I know I had a lot of, let’s call them feelings when I opened the book (which happened on Saturday morning; don’t ask; I work for the military-industrial-entertainment complex, let’s just leave it at that). I have spent many, many hours reading Rowling’s work. I am a known Harry Potter fan.

I also know enough literary sabermetrics to know that the odds of the book being good were not short. A lot of young adult authors, great ones, have tried their hands at literary fiction, and not a lot of them have succeeded. Not even Roald Dahl could switch-hit, and not for lack of trying. All the available evidence suggests that it’s just a different kind of talent. The most successful example I can think of is T.S. Eliot writing both The Waste Land and also Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. And that’s not even a very good example.

But after about ten pages of The Casual Vacancy I began to forget about all that stuff, and online rumors about how the book was amazing or awful or had lots of sex in it. I forgot about how I had three days to write a review of a 500-page book. I forgot about everything except the pages in front of me. Because I had come under the spell of a great novel.

What surprised me about The Casual Vacancy was not just how good it was, but the way in which it was good. I suppose I’d expected a kind of aged-up, magicked-down Harry Potter, something that showcased the same strengths the Potter books do: Rowling’s meticulous plotting, her inventiveness, her love of mischief, her likeable characters, her knack for visual spectacle. I also expected it to showcase her weaknesses, because all writers have them. Yes, I’m a fanboy, but I still think the Potter books have too many adverbs in them, and not enough sex.

But The Casual Vacancy is a different beast entirely. It was not what I was expecting. It’s a big, ambitious, brilliant, profane, funny, deeply upsetting and magnificently eloquent novel of contemporary England, rich with literary intelligence and entirely bereft of bullshit, and if it weren’t for Rowling’s stringent security measures it would or at least should have contended for the Booker Prize. This is a deeply moving book by somebody who understands both human beings and novels very, very deeply. It’s as if Rowling were an animagus, except that instead of turning into a stag or a dog or whatever she transformed into Ian McEwan.

Before I get into the plot of The Casual Vacancy I want to call out one character in particular, a sardonic, smart-mouthed schoolboy known as Fats, because he’s an instructive point of comparison. Having read all four thousand and whatever pages of the Harry Potter series I thought I’d heard most of what Rowling had to say about the inner workings of teenage boys. I was wrong. Here’s Fats skipping school—he wears his uniform “with the disdain of a convict”—and thinking about his life and his obsession with what he calls authenticity:


The mistake ninety-nine percent of humanity made, as far as Fats could see, was being ashamed of what they were; lying about it, trying to be somebody else. Honesty was Fats’ currency, his weapon and defense. It frightened people when you were honest; it shocked them. Other people, Fats had discovered, were mired in embarrassment and pretense, terrified that their truths might leak out, but Fats was attracted by rawness, by everything that was ugly but honest, by the dirty things about which the likes of his father felt humiliated and disgusted. Fats thought a lot about messiahs and pariahs; about men labeled mad or criminal; noble misfits shunned by the sleepy masses.

Fats, like so many adolescents, has grasped a truth and then made the mistake of believing it to be the whole truth. He could be talking about Harry Potter in that last sentence—messiahs, pariahs, noble misfits—but where Harry lives a fantasy (magic is real, he’s secretly the Chosen One) Fats must coordinate between reality and fantasy, which is a very different task indeed. Long before you get to the “splendid breasts and…miraculously unguarded vagina” of the girl Fats is meeting later for a callous, hasty shag in a graveyard, you know you’re not in Hogwarts anymore, or even in its affiliated den of sin Hogsmeade.

Jane Austen once advised a young writer that “three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on.” Rowling is on the Austen plan here. The Casual Vacancy is set in a small, picturesque English town called Pagford. It begins with the sudden death of Barry Fairbrother, a member of the Pagford Parish Council, which is locked in an internal struggle over the Fields, a low-income housing development on the border with Pagford’s larger and less lapidary neighbor Yarvil. Some Pagfordians resent the burden of the Fields, the petty crime and the addicts in need of rehab and the children in need of education, and they want to rezone it as part of Yarvil and be done with it. Barry was sympathetic to the Fields, but his death creates an opening on the council—the technical term is a casual vacancy—and in their unseemly haste to fill it Pagfordians on both sides expose their carefully concealed inner lives. (Rowling may or may not be teasing the fans when she writes that “they saw it, not as an empty space but as a magician’s pocket, full of possibilities.”)

Based on that pitch alone The Casual Vacancy would seem to be light social satire, a skewering of small-town foibles and hypocrisies, but Rowling has always been more ambitious than that. Her interest is in the emotional and social chasms that yawn between us, and the grotesque emotional wounds we inflict on those on the other side, always in the belief that we’re acting in righteous self-defense.

Rowling arranges her characters not in neat opposing ranks but in a complex web. Among the solid citizens we meet are Colin, a neurotic deputy headmaster (and adoptive father of Fats) who wants to carry on Barry’s work; Howard, deli owner and leader of the anti-Fields lobby, who’s as fat and nasty as Vernon Dursley and less funny; Miles, Howard’s son and Barry’s former business partner, whom Howard is grooming for the empty spot; Kay, a social worker who visits families in the Fields, including that of Krystal (she of the splendid breasts), whom Barry coached in rowing. It’s in this intricate Gordian tangle—and that’s about a quarter of the full tangle—that one sees most clearly the patient hand that built Harry Potter’s world, a fictional universe so detailed and believable that an entire generation has pretty much chosen to live there. (No one would choose to live in Pagford. But unfortunately we already do.)

No one can go five minutes without lying to someone else or themselves—the psychic currency of Pagford consists of “things denied, things untold, things hidden and disguised”—and when they do at last try to tell the truth they discover that the tools at hand, words, are pitifully inadequate for the task. Rowling, by contrast, shows off a new descriptive dexterity, an extra verbal gear that until now she’s kept in reserve: a used condom in the grass is “the gossamer cocoon of some huge grub”; an old woman’s fingers are “a clutch of bulging knuckles covered in translucent leopard-spotted skin.” Etc.

In Pagford everybody believes they’re the hero of the story, but as the novel’s point of view restlessly shifts we see each character recast again and again as villain, victim, fool, lover, ally, traitor. The sexually precocious Krystal is a daughter of the Fields, and each side uses her to bludgeon the other: she’s a cautionary tale, a model of educability, a bully, a fiercely loyal sister who is the only thing keeping her family together. The truth is, she is all those things. (The story of Krystal and her shattered tribe is the most utterly wrenching thing in the book. Her mother, Terri, is a hopeless heroin addict, and she plays as a villain for much of the book, until Rowling takes us inside her point of view and shows us why she has to get high, at which point the case against her crumbles.) As the vote over the vacancy approaches, the fight descends into a hail of body blows. Jobs, marriages, reputations and people themselves go down in the fray. Rowling has always had ruthless writerly discipline—this is the woman who killed Hedwig—and she pulls no punches here. And there is no Dumbledore to step in at the end to give everything a meaning and declare a moral victor.

It’s rare to see a writer whom you think you know well unfold a new dimension like this, a dimension that you didn’t even suspect existed. The Casual Vacancy is, in a funny way, not so much an extension of the Harry Potter books as their negative image: it’s a painfully arbitrary and fallen world, a world that, bereft as it is of the magic that animates and ennobles Hogwarts, sags and cracks under its own weight. After his furtive coupling with Krystal, a melancholy, post-coital Fats thinks, “He wished he could simply be transported, this instant, to his attic bedroom.” Harry would just have apparated there. But Fats, like the rest of us, must take the long way home.

Ka-mai
09-27-2012, 04:01 PM
That was an epic review. I can't wait to start.

I laughed at "this is the woman who killed Hedwig." Bitch! :lol:

(But seriously, fuck you, Jo.)

Mattrick
09-27-2012, 05:31 PM
I'm praying this book bombs so massively.

Ka-mai
09-27-2012, 06:20 PM
Why? And you're probably out of luck, I've read four reviews and they were all excellent.

Mattrick
09-28-2012, 02:09 AM
Just to prove she is a one trick pony like most authors who use a book series to cover creative flaws. that and I hate Harry potter.

jhanic
09-28-2012, 05:29 AM
You hate Harry Potter!?! An EXCELLENT series!

John

Jean
09-28-2012, 06:27 AM
what John said

: shocked bear :

sgc1999
09-28-2012, 07:53 AM
Im reading casual vacancy now. I never read the potter books as its just not my thing. Her writing is very good i must say. The material so far in this book is pretty lame but for some reason the pages keep flying by. I hope she writes an adult epic fantasy:)
Or... trys her hand at horror, even better:)

Ka-mai
09-28-2012, 10:19 AM
Just to prove she is a one trick pony like most authors who use a book series to cover creative flaws. that and I hate Harry potter.

I view a book series as a whole, so she's written one series (and a couple small companion books) which is one thing. The Casual Vacancy is her second thing. She hasn't done enough separate works to be pinned as a one-trick pony, so I don't see how this would "prove" it (I think you would need at least 3-4 separate works to make that case about anyone). Also, commercial success does not always have a correlation with quality (coughTwilightcough) so even if the book bombed it wouldn't be a reliable indicator of quality or originality.

As for this book... I'm mostly just horrifically shocked that JK Rowling used the c-word and wrote about masturbation. :lol: I'm trying very hard to get over it and read the book like a normal person. The writing is very good and I think she has generally gotten over her obsession with adverbs (I was about to strangle her during OOTP). In general, I'm interested to see where this goes. Only 6% through so far... I'm savoring the experience. :D

WeDealInLead
10-01-2012, 01:03 PM
I'm 1/10 in and it's alright so far. There seem to be a lot of characters but I'm sure everything will start making sense further we go along. I mean, we've all read The Stand, UTD and It.

I've only read the first HP book so I'll be judging this book on its own merit.

jhanic
10-01-2012, 01:06 PM
As I said elsewhere, I just wish she had put, in the beginning of the book, a cast of characters.

John

jhanic
10-05-2012, 04:54 AM
I'm a little more than half way through the book now, and am still having trouble identifying with any of the characters. N0NE of them are very likeable, let alone sympathetic, and that's really slowing me down. If I didn't have this hang-up about always finishing a book I've started, I think I would have dropped it by now!

John

sgc1999
10-05-2012, 08:20 AM
LOL, I almost quit reading it last night. Im the same though, It has to be REALLY bad for me to not want to finish. The writing is good, but like you said its immpossible to like or especially even dislike any of the charachters. Its kind of like sitting on a bench at the park and watching people walk by. Its ok at first maybe even relaxing but then its just boring.
My thoughts.
I will finish and see if i change my mind.

becca69
10-05-2012, 10:02 AM
Well I just received my tickets to the NYC event. Looks like she will only sign the new book :(

WeDealInLead
10-06-2012, 05:04 AM
I'm struggling with the book too. Just finished two painful and useless chapters. Wall walked for ten pages to visit that girl and then changed his mind and walked back. There was also that dinner with 4 characters whose names I can't even rememeber. She has 50 more pages to make me care about the characters.

Mattrick
10-07-2012, 03:17 PM
Glad to be hearing so much negative.reviews. Still, it will probably still sell enough for her to write three more bad books.

Mattrick
10-07-2012, 03:26 PM
Just to prove she is a one trick pony like most authors who use a book series to cover creative flaws. that and I hate Harry potter.

I view a book series as a whole, so she's written one series (and a couple small companion books) which is one thing. The Casual Vacancy is her second thing. She hasn't done enough separate works to be pinned as a one-trick pony, so I don't see how this would "prove" it (I think you would need at least 3-4 separate works to make that case about anyone). Also, commercial success does not always have a correlation with quality (coughTwilightcough) so even if the book bombed it wouldn't be a reliable indicator of quality or originality.

As for this book... I'm mostly just horrifically shocked that JK Rowling used the c-word and wrote about masturbation. :lol: I'm trying very hard to get over it and read the book like a normal person. The writing is very good and I think she has generally gotten over her obsession with adverbs (I was about to strangle her during OOTP). In general, I'm interested to see where this goes. Only 6% through so far... I'm savoring the experience. :D

Most authors who start with a series have nothing else in them, so they milk their one good idea for everything they possibly can. I have trouble giving these authors any credibility because of this. And JK Rowling is shameless with merchandise. Essentially everything about harry potter posses me off, especially considering how troubling it is for academy award.winning filmmakers to get a dark tower film made but hack filmmakers made.extra harry potter movies....it is a travesty.

Ka-mai
10-07-2012, 03:33 PM
Am I the only person on these boards that thinks a Dark Tower movie would absolutely blow? I mean, look at all of Stephen King's books made into film, and how many turned out well? Like three? I say leave well enough alone before something else gets completely fucked up on the big screen. Not to mention how crappy the Hunger Games movie and certain Harry Potter movies were... book to movie translation is always sketchy.

Anyway, I just don't understand being so hateful towards someone who wrote something filled with positive ideas and role models, even if it's not to your liking.

jhanic
10-07-2012, 04:34 PM
I agree that a Dark Tower movie would probably be a disaster. And I really don't agree with Mattrick that the Harry Potter series was worthless. Granted, it doesn't rise to the level of a literary classic, the series is still an extremely enjoyable read.

John

Ka-mai
10-07-2012, 05:05 PM
I will admit, her writing needed some serious work (I've said it a thousand times before, I'll say it again: adverbs) but the story was brilliant. I think her writing improved immensely in The Casual Vacancy, but its overall readability... I still can't pick it up. :( Just shows that good writing is important, but not everything.

DoctorDodge
10-08-2012, 01:03 AM
I'm eager to hear Jean's opinion on this. There seems to be complaints of a lack of sympathetic characters - considering how many Polanski movies I've watched where, imo, there is a distinct lack of sympathetic characters and the story has been all the better for it, Jean liking it might just persuade me to get it. Hardly any guarantees of that, but again, I'll be interested if there is more to it than JK attempting to be "mature".

Jean
10-08-2012, 03:57 AM
Am I the only person on these boards that thinks a Dark Tower movie would absolutely blow?No.


I'm eager to hear Jean's opinion on this. There seems to be complaints of a lack of sympathetic characters - considering how many Polanski movies I've watched where, imo, there is a distinct lack of sympathetic characters and the story has been all the better for it, Jean liking it might just persuade me to get it. Hardly any guarantees of that, but again, I'll be interested if there is more to it than JK attempting to be "mature".I am dying to start reading it. I hope I will tomorrow or the day after. By the way, many English writers (Huxley or Waugh, for example) can do totally without sympathetic characters.

WeDealInLead
10-08-2012, 04:35 AM
They're not just unsympathetic. They're boring and predictable. The whole book is about small town politics and how nasty that can get. I'm from a small town (5000 people suburb to a 45 000 town) and I can't even relate to it.

I really want to like this book. I really, really do. But right now, 33% in, I really, really don't. I'm not in the "let's bash Rowling" camp and I'd say that the 2.8 average she got on Amazon is about right. For every 1 star she got from a HP die-hard, there's also a 5 star because she is J.K. Rowling. How many people would buy that exact same book (inside and out) if it were written by an unknown?

jhanic
10-08-2012, 05:26 AM
I've got about 20 pages to go. The book DOES get some better, but, if it hadn't been written by Rowling, I'd NEVER have read it. I disagree with WeDealInLead in the fact that I didn't find any of the characters sympathetic. Yes, they were also boring and predictable also, but I couldn't find any sympathy for any of them whatsoever.

John

WeDealInLead
10-08-2012, 05:49 AM
Hey John, we agree on them being unsympathetic. I wrote "not just unsympathetic".. it's OK, it's still early in the morning. :-)

jhanic
10-08-2012, 06:08 AM
:D

John

Ka-mai
10-08-2012, 07:04 AM
I honestly think it would have been better for her to release it under a pseudonym so she could have gotten around all the HP comparisons. Unfortunately, this would have meant all those people asking her "when's your next book coming out?" would have badgered her for life.

DoctorDodge
10-08-2012, 07:09 AM
I think she should've just released it under her name of "Joanne Rowling", tbh. Just to show that this isn't remotely intended to be the next Harry Potter and aiming for a different direction with her writing.

mae
10-08-2012, 07:46 AM
I thought it was obvious this book has nothing to do with Harry Potter, so why the comparison?

DoctorDodge
10-08-2012, 08:06 AM
In a rational world, a comparison wouldn't be made at all. However, the fact is that JK Rowling has been incredibly successful due to (arguably) one story or material spun off from it. Effectively, Harry Potter is all people have known JK Rowling for for 15 years. This is her first major attempt to move away from that. Let's be honest: the biggest draw for this book is the name of an author who has written a series that a lot of people loved and has been a huge part of some of their lives. People, therefore, will make comparisons, whether they should or not. It's sad, but it's definitely one of the disadvantages to Rowling's success, imo.

sgc1999
10-08-2012, 11:26 AM
the story is actually growing on me. It did take until 75% way through the book but its actually starting to effect me somewhat. Worth a read i would say at this point.
warning: definitely an ADULT novel!!!

jhanic
10-09-2012, 04:20 AM
Well, I finished it last night. I still don't like any of the characters, but the ending was okay. If you want a really "downer" of a book, this is the one.

John

DoctorDodge
10-09-2012, 04:33 AM
If you want a really "downer" of a book, this is the one.

Jean-ey boy, this definitely sounds right up your street! :lol:

Jean
10-09-2012, 10:07 AM
: giggling bear :

sgc1999
10-09-2012, 03:43 PM
downer??? i dont even knower:emot-roflolmao:

jhanic
10-09-2012, 04:28 PM
downer??? i dont even knower:emot-roflolmao:

<Groan>

John

WeDealInLead
10-12-2012, 05:08 PM
Just finished it. It was a page turner for the last 50 pages. That's not saying much though because other 450 were tedious. The writting itself was really good but the story (HA.HA.HA.) was almost non-existant. I'll echo what John said, I wouldn't have read this if it were anyone else. 2.8/5 (let's round up to 3, shall we?) on Amazon is about right to me too.

Mattrick
10-15-2012, 03:23 PM
I read a few pages of this book at my used book store...I've never seen the word truant used as a past tense verb and it was really awkward to read, 'Jimmy truanted'...That's all I've ever read of Rowling. It seems this books is getting very average-at-best reviews from all over the place. I bet it will sell enough publishers and herself will think it's a success but it seems to be a very, very average and unengaging book. My stance is feeling a little more vindicated. Writing about wizards and magic is one thing, but writing real, reflecting human stories is a whole other monster and separates writers from authors, if I'm not the only one that feels a writer and an author are two different things.

Ka-mai
10-15-2012, 06:23 PM
Did you ever read Harry Potter?

Jean
10-16-2012, 01:21 AM
no, as far as I know he didn't

and I think I understand very well what caused this question. HP is not about "wizards and magic" - if it was, I would have never made it past the first dozen pages

DoctorDodge
10-16-2012, 01:55 AM
Damn, I think I do need to read the HP series again. I do know what you mean, bears: if there's plenty of other themes within a work of fiction, that'll be more appealing to me than a simple label like "fantasy" or "science fiction". I never thought my favourite film would be about a pair of struggling actors with barely any plot whatsoever, and I somehow doubt that you'd have imagined a show about a time travelling cop becoming one of your favourites. It's why I'm pretty keen to hear your thoughts on The Casual Vacancy: I've heard plenty of stuff about there being no plot and unlikeable characters, but I need to know if that really is as bad as everyone makes it sound (for example, is the comedy good? The commentary on society? Is it something stupidly-yet-endlessly quoteable?). If you give the good word on it, I'll rush out and get it asap.

Jean
10-16-2012, 02:01 AM
: drops everything and starts reading TCV :

Jean
10-16-2012, 02:09 AM
This "about" thing is really very deceitful. In addition to the ones you've mentioned:

A movie about the development of building loan in a small American Town
It's a Wonderful Life
A movie about someone teaching someone phonetics
My Fair Lady
A book about a governess who fell in love with her employer
Jane Eyre

etc

DoctorDodge
10-16-2012, 02:15 AM
Very fair point. Perhaps "seems to be about" would be more accurate. Maybe not quite spot-on, but still, slightly more accurate, anyway.

alkanto
10-16-2012, 05:30 AM
When I get the chance, I am going to read this book. I found a .pdf of it, so it's here on my computer. I kinda feel bad about not actually buying it, but it's a bit pricey on a student's budget :lol: If I like it, I'll buy it when it comes out in paperback. I do the same thing for tv shows I get....I always buy the DVD after the fact, if it's available in my country

sgc1999
10-16-2012, 05:33 AM
my feeling on the final impact ..


"The end failed to have any impact on me, do to very little attachement to anyone in the story" It was a decent soap opera though:)

WeDealInLead
10-16-2012, 06:19 AM
If that's really how it is in small towns in England, someone should drop a nuke there and put them out of their misery.

This book wins the award for the highest number of loose ends.

DoctorDodge
10-16-2012, 06:38 AM
If that's really how it is in small towns in England, someone should drop a nuke there and put them out of their misery.

Perhaps, but on the plus side, there are guys like me within those small towns filled with just about enough awesomeness to act as a living nucleur deterrant.
http://images.wikia.com/glee/images/1/10/True_story_barney.jpg

Then again, I am half Scottish, so that probably explains it.

sgc1999
10-16-2012, 06:40 AM
:emot-roflolmao::emot-roflolmao::emot-roflolmao:

If that's really how it is in small towns in England, someone should drop a nuke there and put them out of their misery.

Perhaps, but on the plus side, there are guys like me within those small towns filled with just about enough awesomeness to act as a living nucleur deterrant.
http://images.wikia.com/glee/images/1/10/True_story_barney.jpg

Then again, I am half Scottish, so that probably explains it.



Thats awesome :emot-roflolmao:

WeDealInLead
10-16-2012, 06:47 AM
You get the TDT advance warning for awesomeness.

Ka-mai
10-16-2012, 03:19 PM
no, as far as I know he didn't

and I think I understand very well what caused this question. HP is not about "wizards and magic" - if it was, I would have never made it past the first dozen pages

Bears understand perfectly. :D

There are plenty of "real, reflecting human stories" in Harry Potter. They just happen to take place while everyone's wearing robes and casting spells with little practical value. :P

Jean
10-19-2012, 08:07 AM
Now I'm 20% into TCV, and still waiting for it to get worse.

Only it doesn't!!! it only gets better, if possible

really, really relishing it

mae
10-19-2012, 08:16 AM
I think all the negative reviews and comments were from people reading it with Harry Potter glasses on.

Jean
10-24-2012, 10:51 AM
80% in

now, even if, by some foul chance, she fucks up the other 20, it will remain one of my favorite novels ever, anyway

James - read it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I don't want it to end!! I want it to go on for ever!!)

DoctorDodge
10-24-2012, 12:54 PM
Awesome! That's the only opinion I needed to check it out myself!

Mattrick
10-29-2012, 05:24 PM
no, as far as I know he didn't

and I think I understand very well what caused this question. HP is not about "wizards and magic" - if it was, I would have never made it past the first dozen pages

The series is about a group of kids in a fantasy world aside from our own in a school for teaching kids to be wizards using magic. That is what the series is about. Character interactions, themes, commentaries are aside from the plot. Some books and movies are great for their commentary, some are great for their plot or their characters and settings and atmosphere. In my opinion if the characters can't make me care about the plot then I don't give two shits on the commentary because the writer can't make me care about the characters personifying the commentary then why should I invest my time? Take Lord of the Flies for instance, the commentary all comes through the actions of the characters and with weak characters that commentary would be moot. I've heard a lot of the same things about this book and it exemplifies the things I don't look for in books. Without strong characters to me the entire ship is already sinking. A book is about the characters, they fuel the plot, the commentary and the dialogue and give the settings their power: with bad characters you have nothing. But that's just how I see things. I saw the first three Harry Potter movies, granted obviously not the same as the books, but all I saw was a bunch of wizards, no commentary and characters who annoyed me more than anything else. My issue isn't with Harry Potter but Rowling herself, she is such a merchandising whore. I can understand some merchandise but with the things I've seen Harry Potter slapped on in my life...it's absolutely shameless. The world is definitely losing all it's Bill Wattersons.

Mattrick
10-29-2012, 05:25 PM
I think all the negative reviews and comments were from people reading it with Harry Potter glasses on.

This statement could easily be reversed :P

Jean
10-30-2012, 01:46 AM
The series is about a group of kids in a fantasy world aside from our own in a school for teaching kids to be wizards using magic. That is what the series is about.
Well, no, it isn't; no more than Hamlet is about fighting for the throne in a fantasy country misnamed Danemark. I am afraid there still is confusion between what something is "about" and where the action is set. HP is about the same things all really good books are: good and evil, development of human soul, loyalty and betrayal, victory and defeat, choice, death. Just like The Dark Tower, by the way - which is not "about" a man who walks towards some imaginary goal in a nonexistent land. In many ways, HP is exactly it - TDT for kids and teens, where "for kids and teens" only means that some points are emphasized more bluntly than in a book for "adults".

BROWNINGS CHILDE
11-02-2012, 04:11 PM
Well stated, Jean.

jhanic
11-13-2012, 07:13 AM
Just finishing a reread of King's Desperation. I lent my daughter Rowling's The Casual Vacancy and she loved it, so I think I'm going to try a reread of that next.

John

Jean
11-13-2012, 11:33 AM
I absolutely adored The Casual Vacancy.

mae
11-13-2012, 02:12 PM
I absolutely adored The Casual Vacancy.

Wonder why it was met so lukewarmly.

fernandito
11-13-2012, 02:27 PM
I think I'll probably get around to reading that .. eventually.

WeDealInLead
11-13-2012, 03:01 PM
I absolutely adored The Casual Vacancy.

Wonder why it was met so lukewarmly.

Because a lot of people didn't like it. It's unfair to say people read the book through HP goggles (or whatever). Maybe the book just isn't a captivating read or is a specific style that not many people like.

John Blaze
11-13-2012, 08:07 PM
I absolutely adored The Casual Vacancy.

Wonder why it was met so lukewarmly.

It's unfair to say people read the book through HP goggles (or whatever). Maybe the book just isn't a captivating read or is a specific style that not many people like.
I don't see why it's unfair to say it. Although I agree that maybe it just isn't a captivating read, I think the majority of her fans, the younger ones, *did* read it through hp goggles. They wanted to read grown up HP and Ginny in an alternate universe, and got a pseudo-Pride and Prejudice instead.

This is all based on reviews i've read by friends on FB, I myself haven't gotten around to reading it, although I will.

Jean
11-13-2012, 11:38 PM
I don't know how TCV isn't "captivating". It kept me totally riveted for the two or three days it took me to read it. I will post a review in Rowling thread soon.

WeDealInLead
11-14-2012, 07:18 AM
I don't know how TCV isn't "captivating". It kept me totally riveted for the two or three days it took me to read it. I will post a review in Rowling thread soon.

"Captivating" is highly subjective. The book doesn't need non-stop action to be interesting. I love Misery and FAB8 I liked too and as far as "action" goes, those two are pretty slow. It's not that Rowling wrote unlikeable characters either. I like unlikeable characters (UTD, BoB, The Shining) but the difference between Rowling and King is that King makes me feel something for his unlikeable characters. I would drive home from work thinking of ways I want to see a certain someone from UTD die. He's capable of making me feel disgust, anger etc for his baddies/unlikeable characters. That's good writting, when you care about what happens to fictional characters. CV left me feeling absolutely nothing. Characters fell flat and I couldn't give two shits who won the seat, what happened to the doctor, the junkie mother etc. The ending was also VERY predictable. Of course that the only person I felt had a shred of decency and selflessness in her would end up that way.

Let's talk about HP goggles, shall we? If we're to believe that she's getting bad reviews because it's mostly her HP fans feeling disappointed, let us for the moment accept that, OK? Shouldn't they feel disappointed? I mean, really? She DID write six kids' books, didn't she? Maybe they just didn't get the memo, right? And how is a HP fan's disappointment in CV not a valid opinion/review? They paid their money, they're entitled to their opinion. Now, let's go to a completely different extreme: people who haven't read the HP books. I (and MANY other people) fall into that category, just check the reviews. I bought the book specifically because it was J.K. Rowling and I thought this was a (sort of) monumental moment in publishing history. So you could say, I'm the polar opposite of an HP fan and I still didn't like the book. Again, there are many others like me (hard to believe, I know) but the reviews are out there. It's not that I didn't like the book, it's not that I had any sort of reference to any previous works, it just didn't interest me.

Look at the reviews at Amazon. She hasn't moved from 2.9/5 in a month. That's still pretty high. The first page of reviews is pretty polarizing: you have someone give her five stars based on the blurb alone, you have two stars because it's not HP. Close to 1500 reviews give her a nearly 3 star average. I belive that's an accurate rating. The writting is solid but I didn't care what happened at all. It didn't work to her favour that she went from HP to child abuse, child neglect, teen pregnancy, rape, pedophilia, drugs, suicide, cunt this and cunt that. It felt phony.

jhanic
11-14-2012, 09:46 AM
WeDeal, I agree with almost everything you have said about the book. I just didn't care one bit about the characters--any of them. And while I didn't care about the characters, I wasn't being "blinded" by the HP goggles, I was just disappointed in them. I only kept reading because I felt a desire to see if any of them would change in a positive way. This never happened.

I agree that an Amazon rating of 2.9/5 is decent, but it's far from an accomplishment to be proud of. I agree the over-all writing is more solid (actually better) than that of Harry Potter, but the characterization was terrible. I didn't expect a sweetness and light book, but I wasn't prepared for such a dark vision.

As I said elsewhere, I plan on rereading the book very soon. I lent my copy to my daughter, who loved it. On that basis, I'm giving it another try.

You've never read the Harry Potter series?!? Try them! The first three are definitely "children's" books, but then the series turns darker and more adult. They're just darn good stories!

John

Jean
11-14-2012, 10:12 AM
<...>

As I said elsewhere<...>now it's right here, I copied the posts

jhanic
11-14-2012, 11:20 AM
Okey dokey.

John

mae
12-04-2012, 05:14 PM
http://www.indiewire.com/article/television/j-k-rowlings-the-casual-vacancy-being-adapted-for-tv

"The Casual Vacancy," the first grown-up novel from Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, is being made into a BBC series.

BBC announced that it was commissioning the adaptation through an independent production company operated by Neil Blair, Rowling's literary agent, and Rick Senat, formerly of Warner Bros. How many episodes and how long they'll be has yet to be determined, though it has been established that Rowling will be closely involved in the project, which will air in 2014.

Rowling published "The Casual Vacany" in September. Her first non-Potter novel as well as her first intended for an adult audience, the book is a tragicomedy set in the suburban West Country town of Pagford, a place torn apart after the death of a Parish Councillor leads to an ugly debate and election to replace him, calling up issues of class and politics. Reviewing the novel in the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani described it as "an odd mash-up of a dark soap opera like 'Peyton Place' with one of those very British Barbara Pym novels, depicting small-town, circumscribed lives."

The book is global best-seller despite its lack of magic and themes of rape and drug addiction -- not surprising given it's from the author of the best-selling books in history, ones that have birthed a gigantically successful film franchise. Per Rowling, "I’m thrilled that the BBC has commissioned 'The Casual Vacancy.' I always felt that, if it were to be adapted, this novel was best suited to television and I think the BBC is the perfect home."

WeDealInLead
12-04-2012, 05:51 PM
The book is global best-seller despite its lack of magic and themes of rape and drug addiction -- not surprising given it's from the author of the best-selling books in history, ones that have birthed a gigantically successful film franchise.

This clusterfuck of a sentence makes my head hurt.

I'll watch the show. I think it might be better suited for TV than it was in novel form.

Ka-mai
12-26-2012, 12:41 PM
I definitely didn't want it to be grown-up Harry Potter, but it was just too dark. Everyone was miserable and it was only the first few pages. I mean, geez, isn't anyone happy? It was just such a terrible downer I couldn't relax and enjoy it.

DoctorDodge
12-26-2012, 12:53 PM
I definitely didn't want it to be grown-up Harry Potter, but it was just too dark. Everyone was miserable and it was only the first few pages. I mean, geez, isn't anyone happy? It was just such a terrible downer I couldn't relax and enjoy it.

Ok, I've definitely gotta read this now! :lol:

Ka-mai
12-26-2012, 01:20 PM
:lol: I should really try to restart it. I feel terrible that I have it sitting on my Kindle virtually untouched (although that might be because I paid $17 for it).

Darkthoughts
01-02-2013, 08:45 AM
I just found it didn't captivate me on any level, I didn't care about any of the characters, any of the events, the setting - and it's not because it was dark or depressing, it was just dull and not that well written. The swearing in the dialogue was so unnatural/forced it was hilarious. I didn't finish it.

mae
01-02-2013, 08:51 AM
Cue bemused bear in three... two....

Jean
01-03-2013, 12:00 AM
: bemused bear appears :

Darkthoughts
01-04-2013, 06:49 AM
:lol:

I hate to bemuse Bears, but I was very disappointed. I know from HP that JK Rowling is a good storyteller, I was hoping she could apply that to any genre.

mae
07-17-2013, 01:15 AM
I wonder, Jean, if you're planning on reading Rowling's newly discovered pseudonymous detective novel and if will like it better than this effort.

Jean
07-17-2013, 06:12 AM
oh! I didn't know! will look for it now

which reminds me - I was going to reread TCV, and post a review here. Hope to be able to do it some time soon; really really look forward to the re-reading...

mae
07-17-2013, 06:15 AM
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/07/15/jk-rowling-stephen-king-pseudonym/2519133/

Early in his career, Stephen King wrote several novels under a pseudonym, Richard Bachman.

When J.K. Rowling tried it, publishing The Cuckoo's Calling as Robert Galbraith, she didn't ask King's advice, but if she had, King says, "I would have told her it's an impossible secret to keep for long."

In an e-mail to USA TODAY, he notes he "got outed as Bachman by someone who recognized my style, and in these days of the Internet, that becomes more and more likely."

But, he adds, "Jo is right about one big thing — what a pleasure, what a blessed relief, to write in anonymity, just for the joy of it. Now that I know, I can't wait to read the book."

King also recalls a story about Paul McCartney suggesting to the other Beatles that "they try playing as Randy and the Raiders — or some such — and come onstage dressed in capes and masks. (John) Lennon laughed at him and said, 'They'd know who it was as soon as we opened our mouths.' "

Jean
07-17-2013, 06:16 AM
thank you!

Ka-mai
07-17-2013, 06:22 AM
I'd love to hear what people think of it... I was going to buy it, but I paid way too much for TCV and I don't want to make that mistake again. I really hope this new one is good.

Bev Vincent
07-17-2013, 06:56 AM
I like the new one a lot better than TCV -- the characters are more interesting and likable, and the story makes for a good mystery.

jhanic
07-17-2013, 08:06 AM
I'm looking forward to reading the new one. I read The Constant Visitor and didn't care much for it. I didn't care for ANY of the characters and therefore didn't care what happened to them.

John