? The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, Little, Brown and Company, 503 pages, $36.99.
When the popular councilor Barry Fairbrother drops dead outside the clubhouse restaurant of the local golf course an unprecedented power struggle is set in motion.
The sleepy town of Pagford is the setting for J.K. Rowling's first book of adult fiction. There is no magic or wizards populating this town, just struggling middle class families, teenage rebellion, and the darkness of an impoverished lower class living just beyond the town's boundary.
Rowling's examination of an English small town pulls back the curtains to reveal a range of sins: pride, prejudice, racism, lust and greed all factor into her depiction. In her rush to show us the English underbelly she pushes aside good manners and plunges headlong into graphic descriptions that sometimes feel included for their shock value.
As the lives of more and more residents intertwine in the race to shift the balance of power in the town council a pervading feeling of gloom sets over the characters and with no Harry Potter there to save the day they are faced with cleaning up their own mess.
In leaving the safe surroundings of her children's books, Rowling has marched straight into a ring of adult problems and come out swinging. Not every punch finds its target but the crowd will definitely be behind the champ as she looks to stake her claim in a new arena of adult prose.
