When the The Casual Vacancy was chosen for book group I was quietly pleased I was going to be made to read it. It’s not a book I would normally pick off the shelf myself – I enjoyed Harry Potter but that’s because it’s a really exciting series I got hooked on when I was younger, surely, not because JK Rowling is such a remarkable author? Anyone can write children’s books, no? Or even if they can do that well, it’s no sign they can transfer to adult writing too?
Well no, of course that’s not true. I should have learned that from reading Roald Dahl’s short stories. And what I should also have remembered is just how engaging the Harry Potter books are, how well the characters are written and developed and how the story draws you in so you just can’t put the books down. Much the same for JK Rowling’s adult fiction then – and that shouldn’t really be a surprise.
The body politic
The story central to Casual Vacancy concerns the death of a very active Parish Councillor and the council’s petty political grapples to find his successor. Always seeing the best in everyone, Barry Fairbrother, was an ardent champion of keeping a particularly unpopular council estate within the political boundaries of his council. The council, however, is desperate to hand over responsibility for it to the neighbouring town. Barry grew up in the estate and valued the opportunities its links to the better off town of Pagford gave him to get to a good school and thrive despite a difficult upbringing. Hence he wants it to stay.
Those who feel similarly want to appoint a sympathetic replacement for Barry, while his political enemies want to seize their chance both to cut the offending estate loose and establish full council control. Nothing is of course that simple though. Adding emotional grist to the mill are family ambitions (father wants son to follow in his footsteps) and family disputes (including several incidences of online sabotage by children of their parent’s promotional campaigns). The issue is also taken down to a personal level through the character of Crystal and her brother Robbie. Children of a drug-addicted mother, they live in the disputed estate. Drawing on the support and resources many council members want to cut off, they attend school, compete in rowing teams and sleep with those same council members’ children.
Character piece
What makes this a really good read are the great characters JKR has created. This goes for both the council and the council members’ families. It includes children being bullied who self harm, children who bully and want to kick back at their parents, and children being beaten by abusive parents. Add to that wives being cheated on, wives fantasising about members of the boy bands their daughters love and daughters being ostracised for not loving boys at all. And of course that particular kind of teenager who wants to be ‘genuine’ and ‘keep it real’ by generally being a self-absorbed pain in the ass to everyone who genuinely wants the best for him.
The political arguments raised did make me think. For example, like Barry, I believe that choosing to live in a society comes with responsibilities to take care of all members of that society, for the greater general good. We can’t always make that someone else’s problem. However, the book does wear its politics clearly on its sleeve; it isn’t the most subtle investigation into class differences, domestic abuse or any of the other issues it covers. Nor does it dwell long on them – a particularly effective way of demonstrating that for some people awful things are just a part of life.
In a few places I wondered if the mentions of sex, drugs and rock and roll were at least on some level a deliberate attempt to break the link to JKR’s children’s books (although in places Harry Potter and Co do deal with some pretty dark goings on). Such occurrences generally rang true with the story and characters though.
Overall the book made me think about ‘normal life’ and how no matter how picture-perfect this might appear to be in Pagford, no-one there is really happy. Cutting off the apparently troublesome estate won’t really make anyone’s lives easier. Only the dead Barry is ever really presented as content and he’s dead.
Once I got into it I couldn’t put it down. Although a number of the characters annoyed me immensely, that was really because they’re so well written; I wanted them all to get their comeuppance (which they generally do – this is JKR after all). It was a good holiday read – entertaining and very English, reminding me of home, while containing just enough meat to get your grey matter moving; worth reading without being too dark and depressing. Yes, life isn’t always easy but it goes on regardless and we can all contribute to making it easier for each other.
wisestisshe 