The Casual Vacancy (read by a devoted HP fan)

    The Casual Vacancy is set in a small parish (Pagford) in the fictional town of Yarvil where cordial and sincere communication is potentially problematic. Its inhabitants, though different in so many ways, still manage to have something in common: their unwillingness to accept a different point of view or to see behind their own prejudice. In my opinion Pagford is a miniature of England and even the world with its perennial misunderstanding and disagreements. On the one hand there is the conflict between the rich (mostly people from Pagford) and the poor (people living in a neighbouring area, referred to as The Fields) and the shocking contrast in their lifestyle. On the other hand there is the misunderstanding between parents and their children based on their mutual unwillingness to be in each other’s shoes.
     As a lot of Rowling’s fans write on Goodreads, she is quite good at depicting characters and since there are plenty of such in the novel, there is little place for action on the pages of the book.  However Pagford itself is not really a place for action, so I don’t see its lack as a real drawback of the novel.
    The story begins with the death of Barry Fairbrother (a well-off member of the City Council who happened to have been born in The Fields). Since Barry has managed to achieve success after living in poverty as a child, he believes that people from The Fields should get support from the City Council and has been trying to get people from Pagford round his view. Moreover, Barry has his own family: a wife (Mary) and four children (Fergus, Declan, Niamn and Siobhan) who feel neglected and abandoned by him because of his constant social engagements. His death, nevertheless, leaves The Fields without its most passionate defender.
    The most serious opponent of Barry is Howard Mollison (“an extravagantly obese man of sixty-four”) who is the chairman of the Council and desperately tries to get rid of The Fields and its junkies (the rehab clinic Belchapel occupies a building of Pagford’s) and criminals (it is a notorious area where everyone can find drugs or stolen goods). Moreover Mollison does not want children from The Fields to go to school in Pagford or to socialize with Pagfordian children in any ways. He is supported by his wife Shirley who has spent her whole life acting as his husband’ s assistant, servant and an absolute puppet who tries to be the best role model of a wife. Howard wants his son Miles to take Barry’s casual vacancy. Miles’ wife is Samantha (a domestic alcoholic) who is actually sick and tired of Pagford and her boring and obedient-to-his mother husband. As the fabula goes on, it becomes clear that the Mollisons are hypocrites who live only for people’s opinion but detest their successful daughter Patricia just because she is homosexual. In addition, it turns out that Howard Mollison has been having an adulterous affair with his business partner Moureen. Howard and Shirley’s granddaughters Libby and Lexie are mentioned only several times but it is enough to get the idea that, especially Lexie is a real successor of all appalling Mollison’s inclinations.
    The middle class in the novel is represented by the families of two teenage best friends – Andrew ‘Arf” Price and Stuart ‘Fats’ Wall. Fats is adopted by the school deputy principal Collin ‘Cubby’ Wall and his wife, the guidance teacher Tessa. Fats cannot stand his father and his mental illness so he constantly tries to irritate and enrage him by all means possible. His parents, however, seem very patient and understanding, which leads to Stuart’s total disregard of them. His best friend’s family is quite different in that respect – his father Simon Price is a very ill-spirited and easily-irritable man who beats his sons Arf and Paul and even their mother – Ruth.
    Representatives of foreign cultures are very common for Rowling in Harry Potter. In The Casual Vacancy they are the Jawanda family – Sikhs who are both doctors and work at the local hospital. ('Old Pagford, let by Howard Mollison, generally forgave Vikram the crimes that it could not forget in his wife: brownness, cleverness and affluence (all of which, to Shirley Mollison's nostrils, had the whiff of a gloat")(291).  They have three children the youngest of whom – Sukhvinder, is a victim of bullying at school and cuts her flesh for comfort in secret. As a matter of fact the least attractive character turns out to be the strongest when everyone else fails to take responsibility for their actions or indifference.
    In an interview about the novel the author says that the meaning of the whole book can be summarized by one question: ‘ What do we do with Krystal Weedon?’ Actually, the 16-year-old misfit can be defined as the main character of the novel. She was born in The Fields by a heroine-addict mother (Terri). She can barely read but she knows everything about drugs, social workers and abandonment. Everyone tries to avoid associating with her since children are afraid of her attitude and adults are disgusted. The only person who believes in her and gives her a chance is Barry Fairbrother, but after his death followed by the death of her favourite grandma Nana Cath nobody bothers to pay attention to Krystal’s family issues. Her mother tries to break the habit and rehab for her little brother Robbie’s sake but she is always tempted to use again by the drug dealer Obbo, who even rapes Krystal when she tries to chase him away.
    The novel has definitely nothing to do with the Harry Potter series and it takes some time for the reader to get used to Rowling’s adult writing. A lot of people criticize her language, her style and her social topic but once you manage to pass through all that, the work is not that bad. It is genuinely depressive though. Or that is how I felt it. Social injustice and selfishness have always been some of the most significant issues worldwide. The problem of self-involvement and indifference to other people is the main theme of the book. Death comes so unnecessarily and the fact that it is caused by neglection makes it even more cruel. Nonetheless Rowling doesn't escape the mentor voice (Dickensian maybe?) which accuses us as a society for these unsolved issues.Well, it won't hurt to think about it anyway...