Has anyone finished reading this yet??

I think I might have put up a Deathly Hallows post right before we lost that month's worth of posts. Oh, well. I'm glad someone thought to put it up, again. I've been busy with cleaning and getting ready for the big move.

I finished it the day I got it. I read most of it on the train ride from Aschaffenburg to Berlin.

It wasn't bad. All my old Harry Potter series gripes are applicable to the new text, though to a lesser extent. Rowling has really developed as a writer of action.

I ordered the British edition (it was cheaper for me that way), which presents the words in a normal-sized font and brings the page count down to a sleeker 607 pages.

[SPOILERS]

Most of what pretty much everyone was expecting to happen (e.g., Harry being revealed as the final Horcrux, Snape being revealed as a good guy) happened, and things were tied up fairly satisfactorily.

There were some surprisingly keen descriptions on occasion. Consider the following description of Dobby's last moment:

"And then with a little shudder the elf became quite still, and his eyes were nothing more than great, glassy orbs sprinkled with light from the stars they could not see." (385 in the British edition)

I got really tired of the bickering among Harry, Hermione and Ron. I realize they are supposed to be teenagers, and I realize they are under duress, but they've spent the better part of four books at one another's throats. Sheesh. It's exhausting.

I think this book may help some children (especially those who read nothing else but Harry Potter books) question what they have been taught to believe. This bit, in particular, may cause some to stop and ask themselves some existential questions: "How can I possibly prove it doesn't exist? . . . I mean, you could claim that anything's real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody's proved it doesn't exist!" (374).

More than a couple times Rowling annoyed me with some univentive modifications of common phrases (Such as, "I'll be there in two shakes of a Dronghul's glambush." This is not an actual example, as I didn't think to mark any, but it is along the lines of something one might find). She still sometimes writes like a person writing a first novel. She will tell us that a person is feeling a certain way, and she will go to some length to tell us that, though the temperature or setting could account for this feeling, the feeling exists beyond this temperature or setting. In one instance, for example, she tells us that Harry experiences "a chill that had nothing to do with the iced champagne" (128). There are more, but that was the one that found its way into my notebook.

She continues her trend of clumsily introducing characters. Dumbledore's brother is the glaring exemplar, here.* He is brought up early on in such an obvious manner that the reader is forced to roll the eyes and ask aloud, "Do you think there's a possibility we might just spend some time with this character before the book is over?" I was actually a little surprised (and a little proud of Rowling) that she didn't write in an eleventh-hour visitation from Regulus.

The wedding scene, though it contains some necessary exposition, seems to have been written solely because Rowling realized she had yet to give her readers a good description of what a wedding is supposed to be like in the wizarding world. It gives Harry yet another chance to gaze around in wonderment at what he sees before him (at this point, you'd think he'd be slightly less impressed by, well, everything).

Some nice-though-un-subtle parallels were drawn to history's witch trials, the Holocaust, fascist governments and unreliable press.

From a strictly visual point of view, I think the Polyjuice Potion was really, really overused as a device. Come movie time, half the cast is going to be spending half the movie looking like other people.

All in all, it was an enjoyable book and a quick read.


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* I realize he was introduced earlier on in the series, but considering we are never really hit over the head with him the way we are in The Deathly Hallows, I don't really consider the earlier introduction of him (and the occasional mention) to be a proper introduction. Doge, Bathilda Bagshot Papa Lovegood would be other examples. When I speak of clumsy introductions, I really mean clumsy introductions into the current book.

[/SPOILERS]

Thanks for your review, Thursty. I agreed with pretty much everything you have said. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and was quite impressed at how Rowling was able to write herself out of the corner she was in with regards to Harry's fate. The little things that annoyed me were far dwarfed by the genuinely exciting and engrossing read that was provided, and I was somewhat shocked by just how much the characters have come to mean to me (was sobbing through a few parts). Maybe, when I have more time, I'll post a review as well.

I thought it was the best of the series and a rare final installment that actually delivers.

The middle dragged a bit with all the camp site hopping (I would imagine that will be the first place for cuts when the movie is made) but the first and last 3rd more than made up for it.

I just finished it last night. I had a few people tell me that when you got to about 200 pages left you wouldn't be able to put it down. When I got to that point, I didn't want to put it down, but it was late on Sunday, and I read way too slow to have finished it in a reasonable time that night. So I dragged those last 200 pages out over 3 more nights until I finished last night. That was tough.

My initial thoughts:
I loved it. It was a great conclusion to the series. I had a few problems with it, but they were minor. Overall I really enjoyed it. It was an emotional roller-coaster from start to finish. I think I'm going to re-read it again, but probably in a few months when I've had time to distance myself from it a little and don't remember all the details like I do now.

I'll post more later after I get a chance to discuss it with some friends and my brother...

What will people read now? Are there other books out there that aren't Harry Potter books?

I've heard rumors of other books. Fairy tales, likely.

* * *

I've read or heard that at least a quarter of the Potter books' readers have never read a non-Potter book from start to finish. It would be interesting to see some real statistics.

Finished and pretty much agree with what was written above.

Funny because the NY Times reviewer called the book "Satisfying," which annoyed a lot of readers who felt that this one word was a "spoiler."

But when I finished reading (all in one sitting, like most of you), my first thought was, "Wow. That was satisfying." I mean, the last book let me down somewhat, but this one didn't. Oh, sure, the Ginny Weasly epilogue thing seemed silly, but it didn't upset me as it did so many other people.

I thought the whole sacrifice element was a little bit daring, actually. This is teen reading after all, and Rowling is making a case for sacrifice . . . I find it interesting that more critics haven't picked up on this case.

Trying to find something to read that excites me now.

You can always try George Martin's A Game of Thrones. His A Song of Ice and Fire series is a favorite amongst this Board.

violet wrote:This is teen reading after all, and Rowling is making a case for sacrifice . . . I find it interesting that more critics haven't picked up on this case.

I don't know. I think somewhere along the way it occurred to Rowling that her audience is somewhat broader than the "intended" fan base.

I could recommend all sorts of stuff outside the area of fantasy fiction, if your are interested.

If you want serious (and seriously funny) literature with a fantastic element to it, there's always Flann O'Brien.

The rest of my suggestions would steer you closer toward pre-Second World War Germanic literature than you'd probably care to be steered.

Thurston McQ wrote:

violet wrote:This is teen reading after all, and Rowling is making a case for sacrifice . . . I find it interesting that more critics haven't picked up on this case.

I don't know. I think somewhere along the way it occurred to Rowling that her audience is somewhat broader than the "intended" fan base.

I could recommend all sorts of stuff outside the area of fantasy fiction, if your are interested.

If you want serious (and seriously funny) literature with a fantastic element to it, there's always Flann O'Brien.

The rest of my suggestions would steer you closer toward pre-Second World War Germanic literature than you'd probably care to be steered.

Well, I'm curious which way your tastes lie.

I'm a fairly broad reader, though my fantasy reading has lapsed in adulthood. Shameful, I know. The Fire/Ice books have been recommended to me in the past, but I have yet to give them a fair shake. As for the Germans, I'm keen to dive into Gunther Grass (sorry, no umlaut) some time this year. His recent scandal aside, someone I respect recently told me what a superb writer he is and, since we are, after all, living in a time of war, I'm keen to take a look at his books.

Thurston McQ wrote:I don't know. I think somewhere along the way it occurred to Rowling that her audience is somewhat broader than the "intended" fan base.

I could recommend all sorts of stuff outside the area of fantasy fiction, if your are interested.

If you want serious (and seriously funny) literature with a fantastic element to it, there's always Flann O'Brien.

The rest of my suggestions would steer you closer toward pre-Second World War Germanic literature than you'd probably care to be steered.

Well, I'm curious which way your tastes lie.

I'm a fairly broad reader, though my fantasy reading has lapsed in adulthood. Shameful, I know. The Fire/Ice books have been recommended to me in the past, but I have yet to give them a fair shake. As for the Germans, I'm keen to dive into Gunther Grass (sorry, no umlaut) some time this year. His recent scandal aside, someone I respect recently told me what a superb writer he is and, since we are, after all, living in a time of war, I'm keen to take a look at his books.

Holy spoiler alert, Batman.

I might have to steer clear of this thread, now (no offense to you, of course, violet. Welcome, by the way...)

Yeah, well. It went off-topic. So, you know. It can go back on topic so you can stick around!

Sorry about the double post, by the way. I got some kind of wierd error and thought the original post hadn't gone through.

Yeah, those come up once in a while. Your post does go through, anyway, though.

Ipsilon wrote:Your post does go through, anyway, though.

I think she knows that already now.

My post always goes through, despite the meddlings of Renaissance-era metallurgists.

violet wrote:As for the Germans, I'm keen to dive into Gunther Grass (sorry, no umlaut) some time this year. His recent scandal aside, someone I respect recently told me what a superb writer he is and, since we are, after all, living in a time of war, I'm keen to take a look at his books.

Grass can be tedious, and his later writings teeter toward falsely modest self importance. He can also be quite funny, though, and occasionally brilliant.

Most people will recommend The Tin Drum (and it is well worth recommending), so there's really no reason for me to bother with recommending it. All three books in the Danzig trilogy are worth checking out. I think I might like Cat and Mouse the most. The Rats and The Flounder have sections to recommend them, but they get a little too heavy at times.

Heinrich Böll, one of Grass's contemporaries, has some novels worth checking out. I think Billiards at Half-past Nine is probably the cream of his oeuvre's crop.

I'm going to do my best to make sure any recommendations following are available in English. I can't speak for all of the translations. When I say I strongly recommend something, I mean I strongly recommend the version I read. In some cases, I have read both the original and the translation. I think following up a reading with a translation can be a pretty useful tool. It's like reading a book-length critique of the work through the eyes of the translator.

Speaking of which . . .

I strongly recommend Anna Segher's Transit, Joseph Roth's Leviathan, Zweig's The Royal Game, Hilsenrath's The Nazi and the Barber, Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, Mörike's Mozart on the Way to Prague, Heinrich Mann's The Man of Straw (may also be available as The Loyal Subject), Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain (the Woods translation, I must say, is pretty decent) and Hauptmann's Island of the Great Mother.

If you've read Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther, a fun follow-up is Plenzdorf's The New Sorrows of Young W.

There's probably no point in recommending Kafka's The Trial since pretty much every one has already read it, but I can recommend that you seek out the Willa and Edwin Muir translation, specifically. Most of the later translations (from what I can tell), while they admittedly concentrate more on literal accuracy than the Muirs, do a poor job of translating the humorous aspects of The Trial. Edwin was a poet and a fine writer in his own right (or "write," as Lennon would write it), so he was more attuned to the comic subtleties and absurdities than those who translated the text in his wake. Willa, too, was a solid writer. I've only glanced at snippets of her Imagined Corners, but I hope to return to it some day.

If you want straightforward, Old School (really Old School, in fact) fantasy, the best place to go is Hatto's prose translation of Nibelungenlied.

Keep in mind that Thursty watched Little Man. Willingly. AND admitted to it.

I'm just sayin'...

Granted.

Are you a Wagner fan?

I'm not a raving Wagner fan, though I do like sections of his Ring cycle quite a bit. I also have a fondness for large chunks of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

I'm not a raving Mahler fan, either. Some people who like Wagner but refuse to admit it will express their affinity for (and preference of) Mahler. Don't let them fool you, though. Wagner's better, and they know it.

Grieg, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Liszt, Schubert and Dvorák all had a greater impact on me than Wagner or Mahler.

Why do you ask? Is it the Nibelungen connection?

Yes.