J.K. Rowling's 'The Casual Vacancy' Turns 'Harry Potter' on its Head
The famed author takes an unflinching look at British society in her first novel for adults.
The Harry Potter series famously opens with a chapter called "The Boy Who Lived," which any of J.K. Rowling's millions of fans would tell you refers to Harry's miraculous survival after the dark wizard Voldemort attacked and killed his parents. In Rowling's new novel for adults, the first chapter could easily be titled "The Man Who Died," since the entire novel subsequently revolves around the death of the one fairly likable character. Just as Harry's status as a miraculous survivor gives him an elevated position in the fantasy series, Barry Fairbrother's status as a revered corpse reverberates through "The Casual Vacancy." The premise of "The Casual Vacancy" is that one man's death sets into motion a series of escalating events in a small…
