I have heard about The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling from a friend of mine from the States and decided I should get my hands on it. I did eventually…and the first reaction was …shock! The tragicomedy was published in 2012 by the very same lady who created Harry Potter. I have read one of the Harry Potter books (because I was never a fan of fantasy, I didn’t care much to read them all). But The Casual Vacancy is…well, totally different, and I knew I should expect that.

At first, the too many characters kind of made me …hazy …and took me a while to figure them out and the relationships. The book starts with the death of a member of the Parish Council of Pagfort. Ironically, it ends with the funeral of his favorite girl (and her brother) from an ill-famed area of the same city.

I did not know what to expect of the action because there was a wealth of characters and nothing was…well, easy to figure out. Even by the end, the turn of events barely gave any info on what could happen at the end. And probably that’s why I actually liked the book despite not exactly being a fan when I started reading it.

The major themes deal with class, political issues, rape, drug and prostitution. So well written by Rowling that you can mentally put yourself in the city and have a visual of what is going on. I felt sorry for Krystal at the end (why did she have to die? she was supposed to show how people from ill-famed areas can grow out of all the crap!).

The book is being adapted for television (by BBC so keep your eyes and ears on it in 2014).

I would recommend the book to those who like to read about the real life. It’s harsh at times and filled with foul language (so 18+ please!) but it’s also a very good excuse to polish your British English (and learn some “street”-style of talking).

My favorite quotes:

“Yes, she had always expected that some day they would pack up and leave, in search of heat and freedom, half the globe away from Pagford, Shirley, Mollison and Lowe, the rain, the pettiness and the sameness. Perhaps she had not thought of the white sands of Australia and Singapore with longing for many years, but she would rather be there, even with her heavy thighs and her stretch marks, than here, trapped in Pagford, forced to watch as Miles turned slowly into Howard.’

“‘Fucking and dying. That’s it, innit? Fucking and dying. That’s life.’
‘Trying to get a fuck and trying not to die.’

About the author:

J K Rowling is a British Novelist, best known for the Harry Potter series. The idea of the series appeared when she was in a delayed train from Manchester to London back in 1990. It wasn’t until 1997 that the first book had been printed.

In 2012 she resumed work in the form of a tragicomedy , The Casual Vacancy. Currently she is working on two books (one for adults and one for children).

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