▲ By J.K. Rowling, 503 Pages, Little Brown and Company

“How many of us are able to expand our minds beyond our own personal experience?” said J.K. Rowling in an interview with the Guardian. “… the idea that other people might have had such a different life experience that their choices and beliefs and behaviours would be completely different from your own seems to escape a lot of otherwise intelligent people.” These remarks hold true for so many out there, those who quarrel with their family, those who fight over money, and those who condemn others.

This is a review on the first adult book of “the” author, whose first series of books for children sold over 450 million copies worldwide, translated in more than 73 languages. J.K. Rowling is on her way to write another record with this tragicomedy, The Casual Vacancy. Just a heads up, it deals with politics, along with social issues such as prostitution and rape.

Depicting a typical small English town, the story revolves around Pagford. There are around 34 characters, each with one’s own story to tell. The story starts as the death of a Parish Councillor named Barry Fairbrother leaves a vacant seat in the council. The election starts getting ugly as children living in the town take this chance to reveal some covert secrets on the Parish Council online forum, leaving a devastating ending. As the genre itself suggests, the whole book is dark and gloomy, dotted with bits of Rowling-ish humours.

However hard we try not to, Rowling cannot be thought separately from the Harry Potter series. Harry lives in the hearts and minds of most of her readers, and the readers of The Casual Vacancy would also have been influenced by such acclaimed reputation. Still, the fact that every media seemed to be focused on the word “adult” seems weird. People might have been surprised, skeptical, or eager in reading this so-called “adult” fiction.

But what is so different between literature for adults and for children? The overall atmosphere? Think back carefully and you will notice that the Harry Potter series have not been so rosy. It was quite adventurous, with the society split into good and evil, numerous lives taken, and every step the characters take splattered with adversities. Not as gloomy as The Casual Vacancy might be, but still dark enough.

Then, is the difference in the themes? Harry Potter, of course, was a fantasy novel about a heroic wizard. However, during the process of becoming a hero, it deals with the ugliness of power struggles and the lifelong question of what is right and wrong. Harry stands his ground while so many of those who once praised him turn their backs on him. It is the same in The Casual Vacancy. Snapshots of power struggles also appear inside the book, as the aftermath of the death of Barry Fairbrother is as ugly.

One possible distinction would be the blunt descriptions on sexual topics. The hundreds of reviewers are most shocked by this part, saying this is definitely not a book they will let their children read. Though full of swear words and frankness on sexuality, it can be overlooked as the means to show the raw cruelty of human beings; but, by the way, who decided that children could not read such books? After all, it is teenagers who utter sentences full of swear words.

Ironically, this new, attention grabbing, adult book goes to prove that people cannot “expand their minds beyond their own personal experience.” Just take off the fantasy cover of Harry Potter, and here comes The Casual Vacancy. Whatever you say, Rowling is Rowling.

저작권자 © The Granite Tower 무단전재 및 재배포 금지