J. K Rowling’s first book since the Harry Potter series comes out today and it is most certainly NOT for children.
The Casual Vacancy, a rural comedy of manners, is set in the town of Pagford in the southwest of England. Glimpses of the plot have been rare although the New Yorker has a lengthy profile piece out in this week’s issue.
After “Harry Potter,” J. K. Rowling’s First Novel for Adults : The New Yorker
This tight clampdown on advance peeks has sent reporters into a tizzy of outrage as they squirrel around trying to figure out just how to cover what is sure to be a publishing phenomenon. Journalists who did get access to the book were asked to sign non disclosure agreements until today and many have complained the legalese is heavy handed.
Rowling has been declared a publishing despot by one British columnist; others are pointing fingers at her controlling behaviour over publicity interviews and quotes.
The assumption here is that Rowling cannot control the media if she indeed wants them to help sell her book.
The lady doesn’t need to play in the sandbox.
She owns the sandbox. Here is a writer who, from a spark of creative genius, lit up a generation before they got sucked away by little white earphones and text messaging. My children consider Mister Potter a family member and would surely have a place at our table for their beloved hero. Rowling’s tales of Potter gave birth to an industry of children’s series and a new crop of writers eager for her kind of wizardry. Potter was hers. She has a right to be litigious, and to be private, unheard of in today’s Twitter mad kingdom.
“I’m not a natural joiner”, says Rowling, to the New Yorker’s Ian Parker.
Let the book stand on its own merit.
I, for one, will be reading.
