J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, presents her first non-fantasy novel, which has been adapted into a miniseries by the OCS channel. A visit to the heart of Pagford, a small English town where everyone is ready to take the place of councilor and journalist Barry Fairbrother, who has just passed away.
Pagford is a small town attached to the mother city of Yarvil. The two towns have coexisted forever, but the residents of Pagford wish to free themselves from the tutelage imposed by the attachment to the Fields City, a popular area where delinquency is developing and where the Bellchapel rehabilitation clinic is located. For Howard Mollison, president of the Parish Council, it is urgent to separate from them because these two places mar the idyllic landscape of Pagford, with its bourgeois houses, perfectly maintained gardens, and its small fine grocery store…
Barry Fairbrother, a fervent defender of Fields City and its residents, dies suddenly. Howard Mollison and other council members see this disappearance as the perfect opportunity to achieve their goals.
A notable dies and passions flare. The facade of the perfect little town doesn’t last long, and beneath respectable appearances, a sordid backdrop is revealed.
J.K. Rowling, revealed with the Harry Potter saga, delivers a novel that scrutinizes the bourgeois society of a peaceful village. Her writing perfectly describes the manipulation, hypocrisy, and scheming that rhythm life in Pagford. The author brings a whole milieu to life with great accuracy, and the opposition between the residents of Pagford and those of Fields City is very intense. Although adults are at the heart of this novel, teenagers also have a very significant place. Her characters, Krystal, Fats, Andrew, Sukhvinder, are described with tenderness and benevolence, without complacency, and the author doesn’t forget their dark sides and vulnerabilities.
The adults are not left out, Shirley, Howard, Miles, Samantha, Tessa, Parminder, Colin, clans form, alliances are made, and all await with impatience the result of the vote that will name Barry’s replacement. For some residents, the Pagford Parish Council election is almost as important as a presidential election, so when a troublemaker stirs up issues, the tension rises.
The narrative alternates the stories of different characters that cross paths, interweave, always with incredible attention to detail. The tension mounts, the day of the election approaches, and the reader draws inexorably closer to a tragic outcome.
A very social novel – exploring many themes such as child abuse, drugs, mistreatment, abandonment – “A Casual Vacancy” is a fierce satire, and J.K. Rowling succeeds in creating an uncompromising portrait of Pagford where the intelligence of her writing makes it all believable, gripping, and moving.
Marion Boné
