The Casual Vacancy: Rowling Tackles the Real World

As a huge Harry Potter fan, it was inevitable that I would read The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling's latest novel for Adults with a capital "A." (Seriously, this is not a book for children.) The novel features an intriguing cast of characters and a compelling story, but it isn't a book I will ever want to re-read. It's certainly a departure from Hogwarts.

The title refers to an opening on the Pagford Parish Council, after Barry Fairbrother, a council member of long standing, drops dead from a stroke. His death comes at a particularly crucial juncture because the Council is deeply divided on the issue of the Fields, an estate filled with cheap housing for low-income families that encroached on the prim and proper Pagford's boundaries in the 1950s and has served as a blight on the populace ever since. Barry was a boy from the Fields who was able to attend Pagford's good schools instead of the more run-down schools in the city of Yarvil and became a successful man with a lovely house and family in Pagford. As a result, he was keen to ensure that the Fields remained in Pagford's district so that future low-income youth could make good like he did. Unfortunately, the current Fields youth don't emulate Barry's hardworking attitude and good behavior, and most of the Pagford Parish Council espouse a thoroughly anti-Fields sentiment.

Barry's death sparks a fight for the open Council seat, with three candidates entering the election race for markedly different reasons. We get an insight into these candidates, their families, and the wider populace of Pagford and the Fields, who are a bunch of insular small town folk that thrive on gossip and rumor. Things start getting vicious and it becomes clear that there are no happy families in Pagford. And throughout the narrative, there's the bleak reality of the fight between the haves and the have-nots, neither of whom seem to have right on their side.

The Casual Vacancy is a remarkably relevant book, all about what society owes to its more downtrodden members and the role of the fortunate in helping those less fortunate. Rowling has a talent for portraying everyday people and each character is vivid and memorable. The novel is chock-full of interconnected story lines and tangled relationships that build up to a thundering finale. But don't expect to feel any joy or elation upon reaching the conclusion. Unlike the Potter series, this is not a tale where good triumphs over evil. That's what makes it a story about the real world and not a fantasy.