J.K. Rowling's next book, The Casual Vacancy, will be released at 8:00 am British Summer Time, so no midnight release and attendant parties as with her Harry Potter books.
The Casual Vacancy seems quite the departure from her previous work; for starters, it was written for adults and is described as "blackly comic". Here is how her publisher, Little Brown Book Group, describes it:
When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations? (Wikipedia, The Casual Vacancy)J.K. Rowling is a marvelous writer and I admire her striking out into a different area. I expect The Casual Vacancy will be every bit as well written and engaging as her Harry Potter books. I'm looking forward to reading it.
Other reading:
- 10 Tips For Decluttering Your Life and Increasing Creativity
- The Lawsuit Against Harlequin In Plain English
- Ripley Patton: The Self-Validated Writer
I like JK Rowling, but I wonder if this book would even get a look from a publisher if not for her name. It's a wild departure from her past stuff and seems very "slice of life." Nothing wrong with that, and there may be an audience for it, but it seems to me to be the kind of book that has to be written by an established author because no newbie could get it past the gate.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's just my personal tastes talking.
I haven't read a casual vacancy so of course I don't know, but it seems to me that's a fair question. It doesn't seem, I'm not sure how to put this, 'commercial'. Of course the fact that Rowling has a massive following factors in, how could it not. I don't think it's a bad thing. She's earned her stripes, now she has a blank cheque, basically, to write whatever she wants.
DeleteI'm sure Vacancy will turn out to be a good book, what I wonder is ... will it be a good read.