As predicted, I'm full of overwhelming emotions, strong opinions, and a general sense of contentment. The book was wonderful (with a few things I'd like to scream about), and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Some more thoughts are below. But only go there if you're prepared for spoilers. You've been warned.
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On Harry Potter and the Death Hallows (A+)
On Harry Potter and the Death Hallows (A+)Overall, I loved the book, and the last four days have been very happy, exciting, touching, and sometimes, anxiety-ridden ones for me. I'm sure I made good use of my high blood pressure medication. And as I said to a friend, work was only something I had to do in between opportunities to read the book.
I thought it was beautifully written, and I agree that J.K. Rowling has definitely matured and improved her writing style since the first book, though I still think every book is a pure classic (and came to love Book 6 much more after the second reading - the first time I found it disappointing - simply serving as a bridge to Book 7).
I'd like to give a big fat shout out to her also for her action scenes, particularly those of Harry's repeated just-barely-escapes from the various "bad guys," of which there were MANY. I found all of these to be well-written, exciting, and easy to conceptualize in bright, magnificent colors. They were downright fun to read and had me panting and gasping with every line. Bravo!
My biggest gob of praise though goes out to the author for her use, to use a term we all learned in high school, of making the majority of the main characters, so incredibly ROUND. No one, particularly Dumbledore, the almost saint-like figure from past books, has clean hands. This is, after all, a war, and everyone has a past which they all seek to hide while simultaneously enduring personal guilt and remorse like prison sentences. Nearly every loveable "good guy" in the book has a moment when s/he is completely unadmirable, unreliable, or just an outright asshole. Dumbledore, Lupin, Harry, Ron, James and Lilly Potter, Sirius, Xeno Lovegood, etc. all are "good" people who have their moments of darkness, for their own reasons (justify them if you will). It made the book, and the characters, so much more real to me, and signifies the "maturity" I mentioned earlier. These are all people, good people, but people nonetheless, who live moments of shame and weakness - who are not perfect. The good guys aren't dressed in white with unflappable moral fiber - they are humans who succumb to temptation, and also, have great triumphs.
Continuing on with that, others are redeemed, some more so. Snape is nearly canonized by the end, just when I was beginning to finally doubt my own innate belief in his hidden "goodness," and made all the more sympathetic for his agonizing unrequited love for the beautiful, willful, but truly kind, Lilly Evans. I admit having NO CLUE that the Patronus that appeared to Harry's was Snape's. (Whom I almost want to call Severus now in respect). Additionally, Draco and his parents find some redemption, showing that in the end, even for them, love is thicker than power. Shit, even fucking Kreacher turns out to be a hero, with his own heart-wrenching past and feelings of guilt and loss!
The book is a god damn bloodbath, but the reality is, it's war. And war is full of death and grief. Heroes and villains. And everyone has their own agenda. It is no different here. Kinda still wish she hadn't killed off Dobby. And can you imagine the rest of George's life?? You could write an entire book on that itself. That's going to be one fucked-up ex-twin.
And wasn't Neville just fucking awesome?
Now to the criticism. My biggest complaint: I hated the epilogue. I think Rowling could have simply ended the book as it was, with Harry going off to bed. We could have easily imagined how things would have ended up in the future -- we all pretty much knew, didn't we? Reading the "Nineteen Years Later," it was almost as if it was written by another person. The entire book was dark, exciting, and VERY adult - no longer a children's book in my opinion, in the American/English sense anyway. There's even a Mrs. Weasley screaming out the word "BITCH!" in all caps! And then you read this epilogue which is all sunny and perfect and so very bland. Yuck. I think it was an unnecessary and unpalatable way to end the book, like a long-running TV series that tries to happily tie up all loose ends (like Friends and Charmed did when they ended).
As for the what many other readers had problems with - the role of women in the book - particularly the dismissal of Ginny at the end, I agree. I could go on about it, but others have done it much better (see Fuschia here to read hers - excellent). I thought it silly that by being 16 instead of 17, Ginny was unable to decide for herself whether she could fight, and instead, is relegated to the sidelines for protection (and as I commented off of Fuschia's "womb" remark, to protect Harry's future progeny).
And lastly, my beloved Lupin and Tonks. *sigh* How I looked forward to this book, in a big part because I KNEW that Lupin would be featured prominently. I just assumed that since I know he's sort of the underground favorite of die-hard fans and figured Rowling would not ignore that in the end. So Lupin and Tonks get married, okay, nice, I didn't need for the book to explore that, though it was perfunctory. And then he knocks her up and freaks out because he might have a wolf baby. Ugly, but understandable. But what was so utterly disappointing (besides Tonks limited appearances), is that unlike what Rowling does so beautifully in the rest of the book - fleshing out the characters into real human beings with all their complexities - is mysteriously neglected here. You somehow leave the book feeling that Lupin and Tonks were not granted that privilege. It's not like the movies where you have to worry about it being "too long" and editing out bits that would explain such things. This is one of her shorter books, and I've never heard a single soul complain about the length of a single volume, despite their undeniable girth.
I think she could have added another 25 pages in order to do these two adored characters justice. There's a deep feeling of dissatisfaction there for me, though I'm having trouble articulating it well. Tonks, who as I've said, always was more deeply devoted to Lupin than he to her, joins him, despite an infant at home, for the final battle. The next thing you are notified about are their dead bodies on the ground. Waaah? Even Professor McGonagall (who kicks ass in this book) has more "screen time" as a defiant teacher and a valiant fighter (including the fantastic image of her running down the hallway leading a dashing charge of school desks in attack). In the end, all you can say is, "oh well."
Yet, despite the bitchings of above, I adored this book and relished every page. It was a delight to read and worth the wait. How wonderful it will be to see this book come to life on the screen, hopefully in much the same way as OotP which I thought was very well-done. Only about a three years wait, eh?
5 comments:
It's funny that you praised the action scenes, although I agree that they were well-written. I was just thinking this morning how every fight ends up just like every cliched gun battle in the movies; a hail of bullets whistles just past our hero's ear, while the good guys manage to plug countless anonymous baddies squarely in the chest (as the head bad guy escapes to fight another day, most often).
Another cliche that I felt really got overused in this volume was the expository conversation that just goes on and on and on. The classic example is when they're camping in the middle of nowhere and who should happen to set up camp right next to them but Dean Thomas, Tonks' father, and the rest, who proceed to have a long conversation that just happens to catch us all up to speed on what's happening in the world. You can only get away with this so many times!
That said, I don't mean to suggest that I didn't like the book, because of course I did. The epilogue was super-cheesy, of course, but I was fine with it. They've all suffered enough, let them enjoy their happy ending for God's sakes!
I didn't end up feeling like Snape was sanctified in the end (although I guess Harry disagrees!). In fact, I thought it was pretty masterful how she made Snape into a good guy after all, but really didn't change a thing about his personality or the essence of his character. He's still the same nasty-tempered guy with all sorts of emotional issues. The thing with Snape and the Pensieve was really great and not part of my criticism of the expository passages at all. Oh, and the line about Snape fleeing from a shampoo bottle was one of the best.
I certainly agree that some of the characters got short shrift; I never got into Tonks' character the least bit, but I still felt their death was alarmingly gratuitous. It's like the author suddenly felt the need to stack a couple more bodies on the pile. And while I agree that Ginny didn't get much authorial love - she just basically hung around the whole time as a prize for Harry to claim at the end - I'm not sure how much I agree with the overall feminist criticisms of the series. There's certainly no shortage of strong female characters, including Professor McGonagall who completely stole every Hogwarts scene. I can only think of one significant character (Mrs. Weasley) who's a stay-at-home mom (not that there's anything wrong with that, ahem), and even she ends up getting one of the great ass-kicking moments of all. So I mean, in terms of books full of pernicious messages that I need to keep my daughter far away from, I really don't think this series is on the list.
Oh, and I think my favorite minor character from this book might be Dumbledore's brother. That scene where he runs off the Death Eaters ("It was a GOAT!") was classic, and then 5 minutes later Harry is like "Hey, is your Patronus a doe?" and he's like "you idiot, weren't you paying attention 5 minutes ago?" (The scene where we find out Snape's Patronus was a great OMG moment, incidentally.) I like how Dumbledore ends up as a more complicated character than the standard omniscient Gandalf-type. I still don't get how his brother worked in Hogsmeade all those years and no one ever commented on his astonishing resemblance to Dumbledore, most particularly the eyes. Jillian says "it's dark in a barroom!" Smart woman.
Lovely! As usual, I love reading your thoughts. Thanks.
And I totally loved the Snape-shampoo comment too. Classic Fred/George
I don't feel quite as alarmed either about the 'feminist' aspects, with the exception of Ginny, which was just weird. I never could get totally into them as a couple. It was kind of like "Well, it's a female Ron, and you know how much he loves and has always wanted to be part of the Weasley famiiy." Kind of like that guy in Little Women..."Laurie" who "always knew he was to be a part of the March family" and instead of marrying Jo, marries her little sister.
Oh yeah, and as for the action scenes being so cliche, well, I'm really fine with that. If you look at this book as "classic children's literature," isn't it okay to have classic themes/styles/scenes? I think we are ready to criticize if everything in the book is not DIFFERENT from the way books have been written for all time, but isn't that a little silly? Do we do that with literature from 100 or 1000 years ago? I dunno, I'm not even sure I feel that strongly about it really, I just had fun reading those scenes.
If it wasn't for Hermione though, they'd all be toast. She's the one who saved their ass EVERY time. Go on with your bad self, girl!
Oh dear, I thought I made another comment but it's not here. Anyway, I wasn't really complaining about the action scenes, I just thought it was funny!
One of my favorite things about Hermione is when she finds it necessary to educate the boys about feelings and emotions and why people react a certain way or what have you. She typically goes on for like 5 pages and the boys are just sitting there slack-jawed. I relate to the clueless guys in this scenario, of course.
Of course ;)
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