After months of hype and anticipation, J.K. Rowling'sfirst novel for adults has appeared, swept into the arms of hopeful booksellersand an army of grown-up Harry Potter fans eager to find out what his creatorhas done next.
A gritty and darkly humorous tale of ugly realities in apretty English village, "The Casual Vacancy" seems a long way fromthe Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and reviewers gave it a mixedreception. But Rowling said Thursday she wasn't worried about the response.
"I've had my books burnt," said the author, whosemagical stories were condemned as Satanist by some Christian groups. "I'vegot quite a way to go to upset people that much with 'A Casual Vacancy.'"
A story of ambition, envy and rivalry, the novel recounts thecivic warfare sparked in the fictional Pagford when the unexpected death of atown official leaves a vacancy on the governing body. Characters set on acollision course range from the affluent lawyer Miles Mollison to the Weedons,a ramshackle clan living in The Fields, the run-down housing project on theedge of town.
Rowling told a 1,000-strong audience at London's SouthbankCentre that the idea for the book — "Local election sabotaged byteenagers, basically" — came to her on a plane several years ago.
Writing for a more adult readership, she said, had been"freeing" — though "in other senses it's a challengingbook," told from multiple viewpoints.
Rowling said the book's focus on teenagers, the heart ofPagford and of the novel, was not a million miles from her previous work —although these troubled and profane youngsters are "not Harry, Ron andHermione."
"They are very different teenagers," Rowling said."They are contemporary teenagers."
The book's sex and swearing have drawn the most comment so far— some audience members were startled to hear the F-word pass Rowling's lipsduring Thursday's reading. But the presence of death is perhaps the book's mostadult element, and one that loomed over Harry Potter's world, too.
"Death obsesses me," Rowling said. "I can'tunderstand why it doesn't obsess everyone. Think it does. I'm just a littlemore 'out.'"
Five years after the last Potter book appeared, Rowlingremains the world's most successful living writer. The lines were shorter and thewizard costumes missing, but "The Casual Vacancy" appeared to some ofthe same fanfare that greeted each Potter tome, with stores wheeling out cratesof the books precisely at 8 a.m. as part of a finely honed marketing strategy.
And Rowling retains the intense loyalty of Potter fans. Incontrast to the tight security that preceded the book's release, the atmosphereat Thursday' reading was warm; it felt like a reunion. Several audience membersasked Potter-related questions, which Rowling answered at length. One youngman, wearing a "Rowling is our Queen" T-shirt, asked if her couldgive her a present. Rowling accepted it graciously.
Many in the crowd were young adults who had grown up on HarryPotter and we keen to follow her wherever she wanted to go.
"She's been such an inspiration to everyone," said18-year-old university student Milly Anderson. "She's not just influencedpeople's childhoods — she's molded them."
Anderson said she was loving "The Casual Vacancy" —once she'd got over the change from stories of the boy wizard and his Hogwartschums.
"There's swearing and sex," she said. "It's abit of a shock."
"The Casual Vacancy" is already at No. 1 on Amazon'sU.S. chart, and bookmaker William Hill put 2-1 odds on it outselling"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which shifted 2.6 millioncopies in Britain on its first day.
Reviews have been mixed. The Associated Press judged it achallenging but rewarding read full of emotion and heart.
However, The New York Times' influential critic, MichikoKakutani, was damning.
"The real-life world she has limned in these pages is sowillfully banal, so depressingly cliched that 'The Casual Vacancy' is not onlydisappointing — it's dull," she said.
The Guardian newspaper's reviewer, Theo Tait, said it was"no masterpiece, but it's not bad at all: intelligent, workmanlike, andoften funny."
The Independent's Boyd Tonkin found the sometimes"long-winded and laborious" writing soared when Rowling focused onher teenage characters.
Others, though, felt the lack of likable characters mightalienate readers and Daily Mail reviewer Jan Moir slammed Rowling's stark focuson Pagford's haves and have-nots as the work of a "left-leaningdemagogue" painting "a bleak and rather one-sided vision of life inmodern England."
Technical problems also arose Thursday. Kindle readers andother e-book users in the U.S. complained that the font was so small they couldhardly read it. The American publisher, Little, Brown and Company, issued astatement late Thursday afternoon acknowledging "there were issues withthat file, including the adjustability of font color and size and adjustabilityof margins." The publisher said the problem had been fixed and that thosewith a flawed text should ask retailers to send a new one. Some readers alsowere unhappy with the e-book's list price, $17.99, although that didn't keepthe digital version from topping the Kindle charts.
It's likely nothing Rowling publishes will ever match thesuccess of the Potter books, which have sold more than 450 million copiesaround the world.
But booksellers are confident "The Casual Vacancy"will be one of the year's best-sellers, whatever reviewers say.
"A lot of children have grown up with Harry Potter.They're now adults who love books," Susan Sinclair, divisional manager forthe Foyles bookstore chain, said.
"I think it's going to be a really big seller at Christmas.It'll be an easy gift — but also a good one."