The Casual Vacancy (J.K. Rowling)

****

         In the small town of Pagford, the death of a man does not go unnoticed.  Barry Fairbrother's premature death by aneurysm leads to chaos within the village's social circles.  A seat on the parish council is now vacant, and there are unexpected candidates for the upcoming election.  Beneath the obvious political battle lurk many other conflicts that create confusion as the townspeople prepare to vote.  Several teens are battling with their parents and with themselves.  Spouses are facing deep-rooted conflicts that they have been trying to disguise.  The residents of Pagford would like to think that theirs is a perfect town, but as they try to fill the casual vacancy, they are forced to accept that their lives are anything but perfect.

         The Casual Vacancy was an interesting book.  In some ways I feel like it's bad to compare it to Potter, but in other ways it's sort of inevitable.  After all, Harry Potter is a huge part of the reason I picked this book up in the first place.  The two books are very different, though.  Whereas Harry Potter tends to focus on the humanity and vulnerability in people, The Casual Vacancy focuses on the darker side of the residents of Pagford.  It's heavy on the social satire as well.  So it wasn't a light read, and it wasn't very speedy, either.  But it was interesting to get into the heads of each character and see who they really are.  J.K. Rowling did a good job of developing all of the characters and their personal demons.  Although I didn't always love her negative portrayal of humanity in this book, I can at least say that it was well-executed.  The verdict: it was really good, but I liked Harry Potter better.

Rating: 4/5
Completed: October 26, 2012

Did anybody read this book?  What did you think?