The Casual Vacancy

By: J.K. Rowling

Narrated by: Tom Hollander

Length: 17 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early 40s, 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 at first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the town's 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.

©2012 J.K. Rowling (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Pagford- a zillion light years away from Hogwarts

I love and admire JK Rowling, & she is an incredibly talented writer with a vast range. Even before our son was born, my wife & I read the Potter books, and loved the movies. I'd finished the second Robert Galbraith novel before realizing it was a pseudonymous way to publish a new series for Rowling. And I've been jonesing for the next novel of that series.

I'm not sure why I've waited so long to tackle The Casual Vacancy. It is undoubtedly a superior piece of writing with deep, deeeeeep characters and storylines. Quality is top tier.

But I'd be lying if I didn't say it was a difficult read, at many junctures. I had to walk away a couple of times due to its deepest darkest - but it's very, very real ("Fats" would say "authentic")- subject matter.

Still, it manages to lay bare many of the festering facts that bubble up in every community, without ever preaching or presenting anyone as unscathed or truly innocent. It's a powerful, often painful, book. I see Wikipedia has labeled it as a "tragicomedy", which goes to show how foolish labels often are. There's not much comedy here. Prepare yourself for a whole heaping of reality, though. And do not doubt JK...she has serious mojo in those writing chops, and she can tackle anything. But "feel good" this is not. Excellent. But not heart warming.

slow to start... finishes with a bang

I started this on the heels of a Strike novel. The style is somewhat different and the intro to characters was lackluster and I almost gave up. I couldn't believe there was anything Rowling wrote that I didn't like. Glad I hung on. By the second hour I was hooked.
I don't know how much of an accurate reflection this is of rural Britian, but it is an awful lot like my small town in Nevada. I'm a social worker and this portrayal could have been based right here. I was honestly surprised by that. Such a deep and moving story. I was yelling at the characters throughout. Which means it's good!

Don't read if you're depressed

Would you try another book from J. K. Rowling and/or Tom Hollander?

Maybe, but I'd probably like to know if it was a little less depressing

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It was actually what I expected, no surprises

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance was allright..consistent with the tenor of the book

Do you think The Casual Vacancy needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No, I really don't need more information on these people

Any additional comments?

This book had no redeemable characters. I would never want to meet any of them. This book might actually make for a good mini-series, but as a book to read, these people were ugly inside and out.

Unlike the Potter series where you cared about a lot of the characters, in this book you kinda wish they'd all go away.

Befuddled

I read a slew of reviews before launching into this book, so I knew what I was tackling.

I don't know if I dislike it because it is good or if I dislike it because it is bad or somehow...both.

While I definitely do not need or want stories to be puppies and unicorns, I am not sure what the point is of writing a story in which everyone is miserable.

I've been pretty darn miserable during sad lengths of my life, but I still knew plenty of people who were fundamentally happy. I made it through the dark patches and proceeded to be pretty happy. If there are communities out there in which every single person is completely miserable, the citizens should consider moving!

It's not a wonderful life.

What made the experience of listening to The Casual Vacancy the most enjoyable?

Rowling is really good at character. There are several characters that should have been cliche, but were instead rendered in shades of grey. A couple of the characters I found utterly vile, but in a three dimensional and interesting way. Rowling's also good at making readers cry.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Krystal, Sukhvinder, and Barry are my favorites. Barry because of his good heart, and Krystal because she's trying to hard with the unfair responsibilities placed on her young shoulders. And Sukhvinder because she steps up and does some good, brave things.

Any additional comments?

People compare this to the Potter books, but I think they're forgetting how dark the Potter books are when they do. The Potter books have murder, child abuse, racism, etc., and she's dealing with similar dark issues in this book. Her admiration of courage, her dislike of pettiness, and her horror at children being mistreated shine through in all Rowling's work.

What happens behind the net curtains

Read to perfection by Tom Hollander, narrating in an understated way to allow the listener to feel the full impact of the words and deeds of the characters in this small town.

As has been said before this is very different in many ways from Harry Potter. However, the later HP books were darker and dealt with people's prejudices, festering emotional baggage, jealousies, abuse etc and all the novels share JKRs extreme attention to details so that I could really see the characters and the town so clearly as she cleverly describes through the eyes of the other characters. The themes in this novel can be seen in Harry Potter, depression, dominance, betrayal, homosexuality, anarchy, they simply are not so much at the fore.

This is a further iteration of the English village novel, however, it is not the usual bustling celebration but more the cracks that lay ugly and seeping below the beautiful chocolate box like veneer. The complacency, hypocrisy , selfishness, narrow-mindedness, ignorance, prejudice, abuse, double standards, ignorance and sheer unpleasantness of the great majority of the inhabitants of Pagford,nr Bristol, is a constant challenge to your senses. I found the story to be somewhat of a large heavy boulder slowly rolling down the hill. It starts off with the death of Councillor Barry Fairbrother and we are shown how his death impacts on certain members of the town in less than flattering ways. It takes quite a long time to get into all the characters and what they are about but suddenly, about 100 pages in, you begin to see what is going on and the boulder moves along swiftly.

JKR brings forward some characters who are rarely encountered, and insists we notice them standing blinking in the spot light. Most notable is Krystal, school age daughter of a drug addict, resident of a 'sink estate' as other people in the village would term it, foul mouthed, sexually promiscuous, and the carer of her 3 year old brother. She is both brave and desperately in need of affection. She is so very vulnerable and sadly misjudged by most of the village. Her expectations and dreams are so small and basic hey alone shout at the reader to care and open their eyes to what goes on around them. Krystal is one of a range of teenage characters who JKR is able to present persuasively, as if from the inside. Others include Sukhinder, a self-harming Sikh girl, from the only Asian family in the village; Andrew whose crush on Gaia is brought to life with complete conviction and who brings back vivid memories for the non-teenage reader; Gaia herself, exiled from London by her single parent mother's move from Hackney, privileged by good looks and sense of coolness is enraged by her mother's unpleasant boyfriend and uprooting her at the age of 16; and 'Fats', whose lacerating wit covers his unhappy home and hatred of his father. The families that these young people live in are mercilessly exposed by JKR as nests of mutual dislike, infidelity, abuse, rape, backstabbing and cruelty. Spattered amongst these parents are more likeable and emphatic characters who help cement you there.

JKR shows through the characters treatment of each other both sympathy and often contempt. Rowling's authorial presence dominates the narrative, imposing moral judgement, left and right. The narrative deliver's punishment to the wicked and then to the innocent as is JKR's way... she does not shy from gritty subjects. Most of the characters descriptions come from other peoples' minds and can be rather unflattering at times but extremely vivid. These descriptions become layered throughout the book as more people describe the character.

By the end of the book I really did care, especially about the children for whom JKR has a special insight and for the 'Fields' folk, who are so completely p******d on by the comfortably off. Judged and abandoned they were getting by as best as they could, surviving being victims of victims. No one walks out of this novel unscathed but there are some surprises in there. As we saw people's malice spring up from jealousy, avarice, anger and fear of what others might think, I had to pull back and just observe ... letting all judgements go was necessary. The last chapters of the book were especially real to me as they were told through the eyes of one of the teenagers, we were led away from the facade of an adult ritual and into the truth of who Krystal really was, her essence and more importantly what she could have been if more Barry Fairbrothers were out there championing and believing in people. Krystal's expectations and dreams are so small and basic they alone shout at the reader to open their eyes.

There is a wellspring of compassion in this author that is welcome in the world of contemporary fiction. While JKR has joined the higher echelons of wealth, her attitude appears to have not been altered. She no longer has to write, a nd is brave to set out after Harry Potter to stake a new claim, although I felt this is a cathartic process for her at some level. I hope she does so again, as she has something to tell us and hopefully if even the smallest part of these adults resides within us we will recognise them and ask the to leave the building..

A fascinating journey

In exquisite detail this books takes the reader on an adventure through the inner thoughts of a diverse and rarely explored class of people. Beautifully written and read it took what could have been a mundane tale of small town politics and turned it into a suspenseful and compelling story of human frailty and redemption.

Words

The only reason this is a 4 star is because it was so well written it was difficult to get through. The lives of these characters intermingle and align in such true to life and surprising ways I had to stop reading and take a breath. Remembering that these are fictional lives, with fictional ends and struggles, not next door neighbors.

Big World in a Small Town

J.K. Rowling’s follow-up novel to the Harry Potter series doesn't have a witch, wizard, house elf or centaur in sight. The setting for this book is completely earth-bound. The only garden gnomes you’ll find are of the ceramic variety, sitting on the (mostly) well-manicured lawns in the tiny fictional West Country parish of Pagford. This is where Rowling sets her latest book, which chronicles the pandemonium that ensues when one of its well-placed citizens, Barry Fairbrother, dies suddenly, leaving his parish council seat vacant in the midst of a polarizing boundary dispute that has the townsfolk warring amongst themselves.

The ensuing scramble for Barry’s empty council seat becomes as dirty a campaign as any sprawling metropolis can proffer. Pagford’s citizens have plenty of secrets and dark sides, indiscretions (past and present), family feuds, class warfare, high school bullying and dire domestic circumstances which, thanks to some computer hacking and an ever-present small-town gossip brigade, don’t stay hidden for long.

Rowling’s deft ability to draw complete, multidimensional characters, who are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, is legendary from the Potter books (was there ever a more flawed, occasionally feckless hero than Harry Potter?). She continues that tradition here. Every character is perched on the brink of destruction and/or redemption, and the story moves quickly through the events that seem designed to test them all to capacity. She cleverly uses the mundanity of very small town life to set off real problems that real people have every day, that when you’re seeing them from the inside, seem bigger than one life can hold. The voices of her characters are true and believable, especially among the teenagers. She doesn’t get overly cute with her descriptions of their world (she is most certainly personally acquainted with the experience of raising a teen), and she manages in the end to avoid an ending that’s pat and definitive. The book begins in media res and ends pretty much the same way, presumably because that’s how life begins and ends.

Tom Hollander's narration is seamless and consistent, and his character voices are well acted and easy to listen to.

A satisfying, face-paced novel with humor and intelligence, Rowling has proven she can write outside of Hogwarts, with an eye for an older audience.

J.K. Rowling's Brave Move

A good friend of mine refuses to read (or listen to) this novel because--as an avid Harry Potter fan--she is afraid that doing so might taint her positive perception of J.K. Rowling's authorial talents. I had the opposite response: being a fan made it impossible for me NOT to find out what The Casual Vacancy was all about. At the outset, I want to say that I very much appreciate the irony of the title. The vacancy of the Pagford parish council seat generates a ripple effect through the "pretty little town" and its citizenry that is anything but casual.

In a recent interview with Cynthia McFadden, Ms. Rowling said that the themes in which she is most interested as a writer are "morality and mortality." Certainly, readers of the Harry Potter series are familiar with her treatment of these themes, and we see them again in The Casual Vacancy--which begins with the latter and resonates throughout with the former. We also witness again Rowling's skill at creating characters that quickly capture and maintain our interest, and we recognize her sometimes subtle, but at other times rather didactic, social commentary.

J.K. Rowling did not need to write this book for the money it might make, and she definitely ran the risk of compromising her authorial reputation in publishing it. I'm sure there will be some readers who do not appreciate a few of her less savory characters and dark, not in the least fantastic, plot twists or the decidedly non-Harry Potterish language. However, given her background as a woman who once lived on the "benefits" that the U.K. provided her, I have to believe that writing this novel was a labor of love, and I, for one, am an even bigger Rowling fan than before.