A Casual Vacancy

[~Lc~]

I'm a quarter way through the book and i'm finding it interesting so far. I do agree with most of the reviews though that it's alarmingly different to the magical imagination Rowling put into Harry Potter. This one is just so... British Townsfolk drama. Sort of below her if anything!

It is still well written I think, and it is a page turner so far.

Has anyone else read it yet? No spoilers please!

[Captain Jeeves]

I've read it recently. It really is worlds away, isn't it? I think the complexity of having so many characters is very Rowling, but I'm still a bit iffy on whether I liked the plot [and some of the characters, especially Fats]. Don't worry, no spoilers :]

What bit are you on?

[~Lc~]

I'm actually at the beginning of the chapter where you get into Fats' head.

As an american, did you understand the whole idea of the council housing problematic government leechers? I think it's a very Britain oriented social issue because benefits like that don't exist in the US?

[Captain Jeeves]

I did, yes. That may have something to do with the fact that I have a number of British friends that like to discuss culture differences with me! To me it kind of seemed like colonial-esque fighting over territory, which is certainly something I have to study ad nauseam. Except kind of inverted? Anyway, the point is, it didn't seem especially confusing.

I kind of wish that we could have seen Barry as a character for more than like the first three pages. He seems interesting. Also, what do you think of the Mollisons? Especially Howard and Shirley.

[~Lc~]

I'm reading it very slowly, just finished the part where Colin tells Tessa he wants to take over Barry's role. I wish we met Barry as well, he seemed interestingly controversial, and I don't know how much I agree with his self sacrificial fight for society's leeches.

I'm very empathetic myself, so I do try to help people as much as I can, but I do see people taking the piss all the time and then decide not to help for a while. From Krystal's mom's perspective, it seems like these people are taking the piss!

Howard and Shirley seem like idealists so far. The typical suburban type who want to keep order. I'm saying this because I just read the dinner party where they discuss filling the vacancy with one of their own. Very self righteous!

[Captain Jeeves]

I kind of feel bad for Colin and Tessa. They seem the most... human? of the characters, if that makes any sense. The Weedons are definitely thought-provoking for me, since I kind of get both sides of the argument. You know, why aren't they making more of an effort, but also they need people who care about them to do better.

I thought the same thing about Howard and Shirley at the beginning, but it seems like they get pretty vicious later on. You'll have to tell me if your opinion changes later on.

I've kind of forgotten what happens when exactly - have you met Kay yet? And Gavin?

[~Lc~]

I kind of feel bad for Colin and Tessa. They seem the most... human? of the characters, if that makes any sense. The Weedons are definitely thought-provoking for me, since I kind of get both sides of the argument. You know, why aren't they making more of an effort, but also they need people who care about them to do better.

I thought the same thing about Howard and Shirley at the beginning, but it seems like they get pretty vicious later on. You'll have to tell me if your opinion changes later on.

I've kind of forgotten what happens when exactly - have you met Kay yet? And Gavin?

I didn't understand why Fats hated them so much until he told Krystal that he's been adopted. Basically he's a cool kid at school and his parents don't fit that persona, so he's de-attaching himself from them for the sake of maintaining that identity. He's pathetic, but teenagers do strange things sometimes!

I don't like Howard and Shirley, self righteous upper class wanna bes!

I have indeed met both of them, Kay was silly to move to Pagford for Gav, but then again all the signals he was giving her while she was in London were showing that he was into the long term commitment. He's an affection seeking fool who cannot be honest with her in fear of appearing as the bad guy. The way that Lisa left him made him the victim, which he liked. He's too worried about coming out of the situation as the winner to actually stop digging himself a hole.

I'm at the part where Simon is beating Ruth, Andrew and Paul for the post on the council page! I'm a very slow reader

That being said, I didn't get into the book until I got to 40% of it (I'm reading it on a kindle), there are far too many characters for me to keep up, but I'm fickle with these things.

[don't you wish]

I found it pretty moving... perhaps mostly because I go to an inner-city school, but all the same it was marvelous. I did have a bit of a hard time keeping track of characters at the start, though...

[Captain Jeeves]

Yeah, there are SO MANY PEOPLE. I kind of thought I would like the vast majority of the characters, but my slow loathing of Shirley and Howard has led me to hate Miles as well simply for going along with them. Sam's behaviour kind of scares me as well. Just kind of staying away from that entire thing.

I thought Sukhvinder and her family really have it rough, plot wise. Sure, the Weedons are sort of the heartbreakers of the book, but Sukhvinder just faces nonstop crap from everybody. Sigh. The plot really kicks up for you soon, though!

[~Lc~]

Sam angers me. My perspective on marriage is do not settle unless you are sure, and she settled with the father of her child because of being impregnated. Teenage pregnancy is always a difficult issue, and it may be very self righteous of me to judge her for marrying the father, but she's gone and put herself in charge of 2 children at the time, Lexie and Miles!

It just angers me.

I just got to the part where Kay goes to help Collin Might try and finish it on my night flight

[Captain Jeeves]

I feel like the whole Mollison family is messed up. I wonder what Lexie and her sister [Libby?] think about their warped family dynamic. I do agree that Miles and Sam probably shouldn't have gotten married. They seem like they don't really work that well together as some of the other couples in the book do.

The thing about this book is that nobody has an entirely good or entirely bad side [Mollisons possibly excepted]. Just when you start to actually like a character they say or do something that makes you re-evaluate them completely. And I suppose that's a good thing, as that's how it works in the real world, but it definitely makes it rough on the reader.

[~Lc~]

That's a very good point actually, although the only know I liked from the beginning was Andrew.

I finished the book last night, and I understand why there has been criticism of it because it comes from J.K. Rowling. I don't think I would have read it if it wasn't written by her to be honest.

I don't know how I feel about Kyrstal and Robbie's death... I didn't feel sympathy or a connection to either of them but it does make me want to foster a child to avoid it happening to someone in the future.

[Captain Jeeves]

I didn't really know how to feel after reading it. I still don't, really. Somehow I felt more affected by Barry's death than by either of the others. It's still a very interesting book, but it's so radically different from her previous work that there isn't really a way to compare them.

It's something I might have read, because I like reading books with such complex dynamics, but I don't know if I would have been so interested in it from the start - I knew it was JKR's new book, and I had a feeling it would be worlds away from HP. Somehow, this feels like she's writing about the Dursley's neighbourhood. Petty quibbling, gossip, prim and proper on the outside but very different underneath.

I grew up reading Austen-era novels, so this type of plot where not much happens but at the same time so much happens behind the scenes is nothing new to me. I like the book because it presents differing views on a very real issue [personally I sided with Parminder and her crew if only because of my hatred of the Mollisons] with neither side being the 'good guys' or the 'bad guys'. I just think that everything after the blowout at the meeting seems sort of anticlimactic. If that makes sense.

[~Lc~]

It does, I don't think I sided with either. I'm quite attentive with the political arguments on the benefit leeching community that exists in the UK and I find it both ridiculous how much these people take advantage of the system, and how nice it is that the society maintains itself by supporting people in need.

I don't know if it was purposeful, but politically there has been a lot of review of the benefits system in the UK by the Tory government. They slashed a lot of child benefits the past few months and are looking to make things harder yet on people taking advantage of the system. It seems as though the book coincides these discussions in a commutative way looking at all perspectives in the good, bad and evil of the system. I do doubt that she meant for it to happen, but let's hope it makes people better aware to make better decisions.

[Captain Jeeves]

It reminds me of something my dad and I were talking about recently. For the US welfare system [essentially the same premise], you've got people who dropped out of high school and work at McDonalds or Walmart or something, but you've also got people who have genuinely done all they can - perhaps people who have constant medical bills, things like that, and still can't find a steady job because their skills are outdated or something. How do you decide who gets to get benefits when there's no time to look over each case individually?

It cripples the unemployment rate and the economy when you have people who just didn't feel like finishing high school getting the same amount as a family of six who has to deal with cancer or something similar. The ideal solution is to make welfare more restrictive, but with Congress being as ...slow being the only polite word I can think of, as it is, who knows if or when that would even be feasible?

[~Lc~]

You mean with Republicans having a personal vendetta against Obama, and voting against him despite the rationality of the bill he's trying to pass (the specific reference to the background check on gun sales).

I had a think about it after making that post and I think one way to go about filtering the good/bad benefit seeker is to have a minimum years of work before being able to claim. So in Cyprus for example, you have to have worked at least 2 years and contributed a certain amount to social security before you can claim unemployment benefits and when you do it's only allowed for 6 months then you're on your own until you work for at least 6 more months. There still is a way around it by bumming around on jobs just to claim I suppose.

The mere fact that health care costs so much in the US bewilders and upsets me.

[Captain Jeeves]

That's such a reasonable solution. So naturally no one in the US pays the slightest attention to it. Sigh. Sometimes I wish it was a requirement that all politicians had to live on minimum wage sometime during their adulthood. Somehow I think it would be a learning experience for the vast majority of them.

"Imagine if someone invented a way to transfer pregnancies to men. How fast do you think abortions would stop being an issue?" Possibly the best thing I've ever seen on the internet.

I agree wholeheartedly about health care. I'll admit I'm not the most knowledgeable about the whole situation, as I'm sixteen. However, I'm kind of worried as I have a chronic condition and hearing aids. This is going to be fun for me in the future.