Books, Books, Books

It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to pull the plug on this one.  I hate to be a quitter but life is too short for boring books, which is what this turned out to be for me.  And it kills me to say that about any work of J.K. Rowling.

When I found out that she was writing another book after the Harry Potter series, I was thrilled.  And when I discovered that the new book was for adults, and did not have to do with witches or sorcery or magic, I was even more intrigued.  As much as I enjoyed the HP series, I thought bravo for her, branching out and doing something different when she could so easily lean on her past successes.

But.

Even with what I believe were realistic expectations on my part, I was too disappointed in this book to continue reading it.  I made it into the 200-page mark and pulled the plug.  The book is about a small English town, and begins with the death of a likable, prominent member of the local society.  The reader is introduced to various personalities and struggles and ambitions of the town folk and how they each face life in light of this death.

I believe that what makes Rowling a good writer is her use of language and her ability to craft sentences.  She is witty with words, particularly descriptions of people and their actions and thoughts.  She is a master of wit and of the classic British understatement.  But she is also a master of plot, which is absent from this book.  Maybe that's a little strong: technically, there is a plot, but it is not compelling enough to hold my attention.  Let me put it this way: if the book had been by any other author besides Rowling, I would have quit reading after about page 50.  Because it was her, I hung on for another 150+ pages.

I was an English major in college and I can remember plodding through certain books, barely able to stay awake, hardly able at all to recount anything I just read.  And after spending an hour or two in lecture, I gained a whole new appreciation for the work.  A few times, I have even gone back and re-read some of these books with a new outlook (or bias?) and enjoyed the experience.  I keep thinking that is what I need in this case.  I need to go to a Works of Rowling class this week and actually deconstruct the book with others and I would probably write a much better review.  But alas.

I would be very interested if any of you read the book and have a different opinion of it!  If so, let me know!  But for now, this is going in the "trade in" pile for those bookstores around the corner.