THE CASUAL VACANCY
The Casual Vacancy is no masterpiece, but it's not bad at all: intelligent, workmanlike, and often funny. I could imagine it doing well without any association to the Rowling brand, perhaps creeping into the Richard and Judy Book Club, or being made into a three-part TV serial. The fanbase may find it a bit sour, as it lacks the Harry Potter books' warmth and charm; all the characters are fairly horrible or suicidally miserable or dead.There are some superficial excitements here, in that the younger characters get up to things that Harry probably never dreamed of.
| Author(s) | J. K. Rowling |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Genre(s) | Fiction, tragicomedy |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
| Publication date | 27 September 2012 |
| Pages | 512 |
| ISBN | 9781408704202 |
The Casual Vacancy is a tragicomedy novel written by British author J.K. Rowling. The book was published worldwide by Little, Brown Book Group on 27 September 2012. It was Rowling's first publication since the Harry Potter series, her first apart from that series, and her first novel for adults Major themes in the novel are class, politics and social issues like that of drugs, prostitution and rape. The novel was the fastest-selling in the United Kingdom in three years.and had the second best-selling opening week there since Dan Brown's Symbol It became the 15th best-selling book of 2012 during its first week of release. The book also set a Good reads record for the all-time biggest "started reading" day
Plot summary
The novel is split into seven parts, the first depicting the aftermath of the death of local Pagford Parish Councilor, Barry Fairbrother, who suffers an aneurysm in the car park of a local golf course. The inhabitants of the town share the news with their friends and relatives and chaos ensues. The problem arises in deciding whether local council estate "The Fields" (which includes methadone rehabilitation clinic, Bell chapel )should remain as part of Pagford, or instead join local city Yarvil.After the election date is announced, the children of those who are standing for election decide to make damaging posts on the Parish Council online forum. Andrew, son of Simon Price, is the first person to do so, operating under the name "The_Ghost_Of_Barry_Fairbrother" and informing everyone that his father had bought a stolen computer. Sukhvinder (who, like Andrew, learns about hacking in ICT class) follows, posting that her mother, Dr. Parminder Jawanda, was in love with Barry. Thirdly, Fats Wall posts, claiming his adoptive father Cubby (a Deputy Head teacher) molested a child. Finally, in a desperate attempt to relieve the guilt weighing on him for costing his father his job, Andrew confides in Simon and posts that Council leader, Howard Mollison, is having an affair with his business partner Maureen. Howard's son, Miles Mollison, is the winning candidate much to the displeasure of his wife, Samantha, who confesses she no longer loves him, only to eventually reconcile. Another focus of the novel is the traumatic life of Krystal Weedon. Krystal lives in The Fields with her mother Terri who is a prostitute and heroin addict and brother Robbie. Social-worker Kay is determined for Terri to stop her drug-use and take responsibility for the care of Robbie, however, Terri relapses and her drug-dealer Obbo rapes Krystal. Spurred on to start a family elsewhere, Krystal has unprotected sex with Fats in an attempt to become pregnant. It is during one of these instances that Robbie runs away from the pair in a park, eventually falling and drowning in a river, despite Sukhvinder's attempt to save him. Krystal is so distraught she commits suicide by taking a heroin overdose, the novel culminating with her funeral.
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Dipali
Nice presentation :)
ReplyDeleteI'd be glad if you can put up a similar post for my book too! :D