A VeRy Brief Review of "The Casual Vacancy"

[dianeb_047]

I suspect J.K.'s "metaphor thing" drove people crazy, but I thought most of 'em were darned clever. Besides the one quoted in my previous post (about a goat through a snake), the other one I liked was this: "....her thoughts scurrying like mice in a glass bowl, trying to escape, but there was no way out...." With a metaphor like that, it was not

Comments

[reefermadniss]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. Interesting. Can't say I'm interested in reading it, but nice to know something about it.

[dianeb_047]

Well, here's the thing. I didn't give you much about the book in that review, so let me try again. It's about the lives of several very disparate families in a small English village after one man abruptly falls down dead, creating what's called a "casual vacancy" on the town council, of which the man is a member. A number of people want to fill that vacancy, and no one is really who they seem on the outside - or at least everyone has some kind of secret, and some are downright vicious. Mmm...I'm finding it hard to describe now that I'm trying to! I noticed some reviews saying it was funny at times, but I didn't find anything too funny in it.

As I said, there's little chance I'll ever re-read this one, but I'm not sorry I read it once.

[dianeb_047]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Rowling doesn't "Americanize" the book, like she did for the Potter series, so if you don't get British slang, you might be lost on a couple of things. Still, the ef word is used quite a bit, and that one's the same no matter what side of the pond you're on.