liquidluck

Also posted on my Goodreads account, March 6, 2015.

While I was reading this book, I couldn't help but feel myself transferred back to my high school days... reading a book that I had little invested interest in but felt an obligation to finish. This book definitely has the feeling of the kind of book a school would choose to give their students a proper introduction to other cultures. (If you don't read about other cultures you won't be cultured enough for us to let you graduate!)

And this book is heavy with the feeling that it is trying to inform you about the wide world of peoples out there that have suffered in unimaginable ways. Now, I have no problem with a book that is written with that purpose, I have enjoyed many books like that, (Kaffir Boy, for instance). The problem I had with this book and its message, was that it portrayed it badly, in many ways.

The first thing that really bothered me was the main character, Okonkwo. If you're going to write a book where you're trying to emphasize the suffering a character is going through, you would think you'd write him as a character someone could empathize with.

Secondly, the book was quite honestly... boring. A sizable chunk of the novel is spent talking about yams, farming yams, and all the bad things that have happened to the yams and the yam farms. More detail is put into yams than character development. I understand Achebe must be trying to show a piece of the culture he grew up with... but it was honestly just boring. And I know it's possible to make farming sound interesting in books... Achebe didn't do that.

But it wasn't just the farming in the book that was boring – quite frankly not a lot of interesting things happen in this book. There are a few intriguing scenes but they are so minor, and lacking in conclusion, that they aren't enough to make up for the scenes that are dull.

The last thing that I had a big problem with was the cookie-cutter stereotypes of the characters. It is a story about how white colonizers negatively affected an African tribe. This is not a type of story I have a problem with. What I did have a problem with was how the white and African characters pretty much followed a very predictable scenario –

I find this ironic because I believe I read somewhere, that as a young man, Achebe was angry at stories of Africa depicting "savage Africans." (Such as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.) Is he making a stab at that literature through this book? Or maybe this really was a situation he encountered in his youth?? I'm sure a lot of clashes really did happen between white colonizers/missionaries and the tribespeople of Africa. But the way it was in this book was just so predictable I could almost tell you what would happen on the next page. And it surprised me that someone who seems to have experienced this kind of situation firsthand wrote it in such a seemingly generic, predictable manner.

This is a really hard book to give a bad review, too. It's easy to think that someone must be racist because of giving this book a bad review... but there are so many parts of this book that I personally think are dangerously on the edge of being racist, and work to prolong stereotypes. And to add on top of that problem – it has bad characters and is generally just boring. Perhaps, in the end, I am thinking about this book in too simple of terms, that I'm under-analyzing it. Maybe it's the sort of book where you have to look even deeper than you might think to try and get the "true message" out of it. Maybe. But then maybe there are a million other books out there that I could be better spending my time on.

Review originally from my Goodreads account, written June 2013.

There are three things that I especially love in literature: epistolary writing, Victorian setting, and a gripping mystery. The Woman in White provides one with all of these things, and it does it quite well. Wilkie Collins gets you so sucked in to wanting to know the secrets and what's going to happen, that I could hardly put it down. I can see why (as the back cover states) it has "never been out of print."

The story centers around Walter Hartright and Marian Halcombe, who are vying to protect the innocence of Marian's sister Laura from her groom-to-be: the menacing Sir Percival Glyde and his (pretty slimy) friend/conspirator, Count Fosco. But for the majority of the novel, the biggest mystery surrounds the enigmatic Anne Catherick. She is connected to both Laura and Percival, and bears a dark, condemning secret about the latter. Laura needs all the protection she can get – because Sir Percival and Count Fosco both have sinister, ulterior motives for her marriage.

Overall, I found the story to be very compelling, and I had a blast reading it. However, there were a few things that bothered me, and also made me chuckle a bit. First of all, the story definitely does drag on in parts. Whether it was a character going off on a tirade about their good morals, their reasoning behind actions, or just generally being flowery. But I would attribute it to satirical purposes and the period it was written in. The other few things that bothered me, begin with the really obvious, satirical-to-the-point-of-insulting descriptions and characterizations of foreigners. Of course I had no problem with Count Fosco being described in this manner because he was a disgusting creep through the whole story anyways. But, with other characters, it just seemed unnecessary! And, most of all, the way Collins depicts women in his writing. I wasn't sure, however, if it was meant to satirize the mindset that existed about women in those days, with the contrast of Marian just generally being awesome. But, if he wasn't satirizing it, clearly to him, all of womankind are frail creatures, prone to fainting... and the more they faint, the more likely it is they are crazy! And therefore it will be totally legit to throw them into an insane asylum.

Now, don't mistake my mini-rant for dislike of the novel, I really did love it. I actually find reading about these old-age mindsets to be somewhat hilarious and quite a kick, because it is so ridiculous and we know how untrue it is these days. His depiction of Marian quite made up for the frailty of the other female characters, (whether it was meant for satire or not), and the multi-layered mystery topples over any character-flaws and make it a worthwhile read. I would recommend it to fans of mysteries, especially those who loved reading the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Review originally from my Goodreads account, written April 2013.

I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book, but in the end I really ended up liking it. A lot of other reviewers advised, "Pretend it's NOT written by J.K. Rowling!!" Which I tried, but just couldn't. It IS J.K. Rowling, and powerfully so.
The book is definitely an uncomfortable read. It was kind of shocking to have my childhood hero's writing include cussing, "shagging," and drugs. But it isn't just shocking because of what we're used to Rowling writing – the book covers a lot of dark subject matter: rape, drug addiction, sex, death, failing marriages, self-harm, mental illness, guilt. Also, for me, the book had this rather nostalgic feeling of reading the beginning of a Harry Potter book, where the Dursleys are terrible and awful but you know that soon Harry will be able to escape to Hogwarts where everything is great and happy! Not so in The Casual Vacancy. The Casual Vacancy is reality. There are terrible people and the characters have to learn to deal with them or get them out of their lives.

Set in the quaint little English countryside town of Pagford, the book centers around the death of Parish councilor, Barry Fairbrother. Right away you get the idea that Barry is some kind of ~saint~ to the local population, except maybe for jolly ol' Howard Mollison. Howard is delighted, because this means he can finally help get rid of the blight of Pagford – a housing development called "The Fields." Nobody likes the Fields, because what started as affordable housing ended up being a community of drug addicts and "layabouts." Barry fought to keep The Fields a part of Pagford, as well as keeping the addiction clinic, Bellchapel, open. Howard and his crew want to slough off the burden that is The Fields onto the neighboring town.
Pretty much right away you get the idea that the adult population of Pagford are all kind of creeps, in their own way. Sure, a few of them have their good qualities, but most of them are self-centered and materialistic. This is only exacerbated by the contrast of Krystal Weedon and her heroin-addicted mother, Terri. Krystal lives pretty much in what we who watch reality TV would consider a "Hoarder's house." Beyond her crass façade, you discover a girl who's barely hanging on to the threads of a happy home life – Terri is barely human anymore, and can't really survive as a person without heroin. Krystal wants nothing more than to keep her little brother Robbie in her possession, which is hard because Terri can't even get out of her clouded, drugged-out state enough to take Robbie to daycare or change his "nappies." Krystal Weedon's life gives us a stark contrast to the people of Pagford, who's lives and worries suddenly seem petty. However, Rowling's talent as an author is proved great as she makes us side – or at least sympathize – with even the slimiest characters in the book. (How many of you remember feeling at least teary when creepy mean Dudley apologized to Harry in The Deathly Hallows??)

Rowling did a really great job of creating wonderful, multi-layered characters, most of whom I ended up having a love-hate relationship with. And although I think the book was very dark and not what I expected from Rowling, the characters' personalities and interweaved stories made the book very interesting and worth reading – not to mention the intense climax to the novel. I think for those of you who are afraid of reading this novel, you should at least give it a go. You might be surprised. Just remember, it's NOT Harry Potter! I'm not saying read it like it's not written by Rowling, but don't go into reading it expecting an escape into a fantasy world of happiness. It's definitely not an escape novel, but what it is, is an extremely powerful novel. I would definitely recommend reading it.

I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book, but in the end I really ended up liking it. A lot of other reviewers advised, "Pretend it's NOT written by J.K. Rowling!!" Which I tried, but just couldn't. It IS J.K. Rowling, and powerfully so.
The book is definitely an uncomfortable read. It was kind of shocking to have my childhood hero's writing include cussing, "shagging," and drugs. But it isn't just shocking because of what we're used to Rowling writing – the book covers a lot of dark subject matter: rape, drug addiction, sex, death, failing marriages, self-harm, mental illness, guilt. Also, for me, the book had this rather nostalgic feeling of reading the beginning of a Harry Potter book, where the Dursleys are terrible and awful but you know that soon Harry will be able to escape to Hogwarts where everything is great and happy! Not so in The Casual Vacancy. The Casual Vacancy is reality. There are terrible people and the characters have to learn to deal with them or get them out of their lives. 

Set in the quaint little English countryside town of Pagford, the book centers around the death of Parish councillor, Barry Fairbrother. Right away you get the idea that Barry is some kind of ~saint~ to the local population, except maybe for jolly ol' Howard Mollison. Howard is delighted, because this means he can finally help get rid of the blight of Pagford – a housing development called "The Fields." Nobody likes the Fields, because what started as affordable housing ended up being a community of drug addicts and "layabouts." Barry fought to keep The Fields a part of Pagford, as well as keeping the addiction clinic, Bellchapel, open. Howard and his crew want to sluff off the burden that is The Fields onto the neighboring town. 
Pretty much right away you get the idea that the adult population of Pagford are all kind of creeps, in their own way. Sure, a few of them have their good qualities, but most of them are self-centered and materialistic. This is only exacerbated by the contrast of Krystal Weedon and her heroin-addicted mother, Terri. Krystal lives pretty much in what we who watch reality TV would consider a "Hoarder's house." Beyond her crass façade, you discover a girl who's barely hanging on to the threads of a happy home life – Terri is barely human anymore, and can't really survive as a person without heroin. Krystal wants nothing more than to keep her little brother Robbie in her possession, which is hard because Terri can't even get out of her clouded, drugged-out state enough to take Robbie to daycare or change his "nappies." Krystal Weedon's life gives us a stark contrast to the people of Pagford, who's lives and worries suddenly seem petty. However, Rowling's talent as an author is proved great as she makes us side – or at least sympathize – with even the slimiest characters in the book. (How many of you remember feeling at least teary when creepy mean Dudley apologized to Harry in The Deathly Hallows??) 
Rowling did a really great job of creating wonderful, multi-layered characters, most of whom I ended up having a love-hate relationship with. And although I think the book was very dark and not what I expected from Rowling, the characters' personalities and interweaved stories made the book very interesting and worth reading – not to mention the intense climax to the novel. I think for those of you who are afraid of reading this novel, you should at least give it a go. You might be surprised. Just remember, it's NOT Harry Potter! I'm not saying read it like it's not written by Rowling, but don't go into reading it expecting an escape into a fantasy world of happiness. It's definitely not an escape novel, but what it is, is an extremelypowerful novel. I would definitely recommend reading it.