Beauty, goodness, hope, drams, feats of heroism, compassion, the world is full of those things but remains a tough place for those striving for recognition. As writers, we’ve learned how inhospitable the world can be. Yes, there are stories; a few have made it to the top almost as an afterthought. Some writers crafted a book in their spare time and one blink later their prose topped the bestseller’s list while publishers with fat wallets camped outside their door. But these are oddities, quirks rarer than a self-conscious hooker. Were we to ask them about the hard road to the library shelves they would probably contend that publishing is as easy as pie.
J.K. Rowling didn’t have it easy; she had to run the gauntlet of agents, editors and countless rejections before making it. This is why, when the press announced that she would try her hand at a different genre with The Casual Vacancy I had mixed feelings and foreboding.
I had mixed feelings because it would mean a zillion copies being pre-sold, sight unseen and on the strength of the J.K. Rowling brand name, before an unbiased beta reader had even seen the book, let alone review it. Had she wanted to have The Casual Vacancy judged on its own merit she would have written it under a pen name. Of course, that wouldn't have given her ultra-hyped, marketing rollout, but if she truly wanted to test herself as a writer of anything but Harry Potter books, a pseudonym was the way to go.
Intelligence is a gift, but it can also be a curse. A dimwit can get away with murder under the excuse of denseness, but someone with the talent to create Harry Potter can’t seek refuge in ignorance. Ms. Rowling knew that her foray into writing for adults, far from a gamble was a well-orchestrated maneuver to rake a few more millions for her publishing machine.
And I had foreboding because it would be naïve to expect that critics and readers would be kind when assessing her work; her prose would be reviewed in the harshest of lights by literary critics, not pet journalists, or starry-eyed fans.
Michiko Kakutani is no lightweight, and certainly someone whose opinions carry well-deserved weight. A Pulitzer Prize-winner, she’s worked at the New York Times for thirty years and is considered a leading literary critic in the United States.
This is what Ms. Kakutani wrote about The Casual Vacancy in The New York Times:
Darkness and Death, No Magic to Help
Book Review: ‘The Casual Vacancy’ by J. K. Rowling
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
It’s easy to understand why Ms. Rowling wanted to try something totally different after spending a decade and a half inventing and complicating the fantasy world that Harry and company inhabited, and one can only admire her gumption in facing up to the overwhelming expectations created by the global phenomenon that was Harry Potter. Unfortunately, the real-life world she has limned in these pages is so willfully banal, so depressingly clichéd that “The Casual Vacancy” is not only disappointing — it’s dull.
Ouch!
Ms. Rowling has sold 2.5 million pre-order copies of The Casual Vacancy, and here’s where the unfairness of it all kicks in. Had we penned such a book, we would have sold twenty copies to family and friends. Furthermore, had our book fielded such acerbic flack from the likes of Ms. Kakutani, chances are no publisher would ever again let us come closer than the proverbial barge pole length.
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Susan Elizabeth Curnow Monday, 15 Oct 2012 11:49 AM
In the dog world we call this 'kennel blindness'. In other words Fifi and Froufou were champions, so you bred them and got Finangle. Now you fend off the cats standing around the show ring because of course, Finangle is perfect and they should be able to see this as you can. Unfortunately you didn't do your genetic research and Finangle's ear might be a little longer than it should be, and his curly tail when the breed standard says straight? Poof, doesn't matter, because his breeding is perfect.
I applaud others' successes. My children adored the Harry Potter stories, and it saddens me that Ms Rowling's adult novel isn't a success also. Like you I haven't read it because that kind of story isn't my cup of tea anyway. So it makes one wonder, given the reviews, was she given the right advice? It is a reflection of the whole industry when a publisher has kennel blindness in favour of raking in dosh.
The one thing about genetics is that often the results of mating don't produce champions until three or four breedings down the road. But will consumers wait that long to find out?
Intelligence is a gift, but it can also be a curse. A dimwit can get away with murder under the excuse of denseness, but someone with the talent to create Harry Potter can’t seek refuge in ignorance. Ms. Rowling knew that her foray into writing for adults, far from a gamble was a well-orchestrated maneuver to rake a few more millions for her publishing machine.
Monday, 15 Oct 2012 11:49 AM
In the dog world we call this 'kennel blindness'. In other words Fifi and Froufou were champions, so you bred them and got Finangle. Now you fend off the cats standing around the show ring because of course, Finangle is perfect and they should be able to see this as you can. Unfortunately you didn't do your genetic research and Finangle's ear might be a little longer than it should be, and his curly tail when the breed standard says straight? Poof, doesn't matter, because his breeding is perfect.
I applaud others' successes. My children adored the Harry Potter stories, and it saddens me that Ms Rowling's adult novel isn't a success also. Like you I haven't read it because that kind of story isn't my cup of tea anyway. So it makes one wonder, given the reviews, was she given the right advice? It is a reflection of the whole industry when a publisher has kennel blindness in favour of raking in dosh.
The one thing about genetics is that often the results of mating don't produce champions until three or four breedings down the road. But will consumers wait that long to find out?
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