True to the series

A review of "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows", (final in a long series), by Joanne Rowling

First, the good:

I have read all the books in this series and consider this to be as good as any of them and probably the best. The worst would have to be "The Order of the Phoenix" where Joanne Rowling lost her way and turned Hogwarts into just another high-school soap opera, instead of a feel-good, ripping English yarn about school children and magic.

The good news for devotees of Harry Potter is that this novel is FULL of action: full of magic, full of danger, full of puzzles and intrigue, full of friends and family, and of course it contains the final showdown with Lord Voldemort. In short it is full of most of what made the Potter series so popular. Sadly there is little humour in this volume and not much in the way of the cosy comforts of home, but this is only to be expected given the grim situation that is the setting for this book, namely the rise to power of a brutal, elitist, autocratic regime.

I am pleased to say, that unlike Lemony Snicket, Joanne Rowling has capped off her famous series well. She has done justice to the 6 volume build up and tied off all the loose threads in an appropriate and satisfying way. She has risen to the occasion and I think very few would find the ending an anticlimax.

Now the bad:

Firstly - the "Deathly Hallows". This means the "Treasures of Death", where Death is the personification of death... you know, the guy with the robe and scythe. The treasures are: the Cloak of Invisibility, the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone. This title is too obscure. Few people looking at this title without having read the book are going to have the faintest idea of what it means. More importantly however, the Deathly Hallows in this book are a red herring. Voldemort doesn't know about them, Harry doesn't use them and neither did Dumbledore. They are never united and have no effect on the main plot which is the destruction of Voldemort. They are brought into the plot merely to demonstrate that Harry is not interested in power for its own sake. The device of these treasures never really works and just gets in the way of the real story. It would have been better left out all together. Similarly the book should have been titled "Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort" or "Harry Potter and the Last Horcrux" or something similar.

Secondly - The characterization of the main players is as cardboard cut-out as ever. The teenage random angst, storm outs and reunifications, the simple, predictable love affairs, the benevolent wisdom and loyalty of the loved adults. This is all to be expected from this cheesy series. However, in this ultimate installment Rowling reveals an obsession with the inner flaw: No one is all good, not even Dumbledore. She goes to great lengths to show the cost of Dumbledore's pride in his youth and his sentimentality in old age that leads to his death. The same disease is evident in Harry's short-lived struggle against his lust for power, or in Ron's struggle with his jealousy. Funny how it is only the male characters that have to struggle against their inner demons. Anyway, these struggles that are no doubt supposed to deepen the character of the main players and show Jo's maturity as a serious writer just look weak and artificial, and have unbalanced effects far beyond their seriousness, (such as Dumbledore's death). The book sags at these points and only picks up again when these 2D characters resume their normal behaviour.

Don't fool yourself Joanne. You're a comic book writer, (and a very good one). Your talent is for plot devices and funny little objects, puzzles and pictures and the unexpected, the wholesome English life and above all for lovable and loathable 2D characters. You are the Enid Blyton of the 21st century, and Harry Potter and his friends a remake of the Famous Five. What you are not is a writer of serious fiction, and nor should you be. Your comics have sold like nothing else and even I have enjoyed them. It is a mistake to try to turn a 2D character into a 3D one, like the Hulk endlessly questioning his existence, it just looks stupid and people only put up with it to get to the part where he goes on the attack again.

Thirdly - We now see the truth about Snape and it turns out he was only doing Dumbledore's bidding all along. So all his vicious ways were just an act to allow him to infiltrate Voldemort's camp were they? Sorry Joanne, not good enough! His actions over 7 books have gone beyond any possible need to publicly show his allegiance, and have, like Dolores Umbridge, become a tool for metering out pain to the reader. The use of pain as a perversion to appeal to the twisted is an American device and quite out of place in the British tradition. I am grateful we were not treated to twisted sexuality in this series as we might have been, had the writer been Guy Kay or Clive Barker. You can't have it both ways Joanne. Snape is a sadist and genuinely evil, or he is full of compassion and prepared to sacrifice himself for the greater good. One or the other, not both. Uniting these opposites just doesn't ring true. He could have been left bitter, twisted and pure evil and there would have been no difference to the story.

Finding the good in evil people is just the converse of finding the evil in good people. It comes across as a laboured and arbitrary literary tactic. Such an approach might have attracted more credence had others on the bad side shown a bit of compassion, such as Voldemort himself, or Lucius Malfoy, but no, they are all black.

In conclusion:

This book is an appropriate and satisfying end to a famous series. It is not serious fiction and should not be judged as such. It is an entertaining romp through magical myth and English boarding school culture with a dark and dangerous overlay. Most importantly it was a breath of fresh air, a new genre that took the world by storm.

The genius of this conception is that it brings the magic into the every day. Instead of having to go to a magic kingdom it's right here at the local station and at the local school. You get the best of both worlds and an immediacy that makes you want to keep reading. Sure it's a simple idea when you see it, but that's the hallmark of genius: simplicity!

This book has its flaws, but they don't get in the way of the plot too much so the reader is free to enjoy all the delights that Joanne Rowling has confected over the years. This is a great series for what it is, not for what others might want it to be, and it is true to itself. The series is well paced, although some of the action from the last book might have been better used to liven up the dull 5th.

I give this book 4 stars, not because it is great literature, but because it is a great idea that is consistently and charmingly realised. I might have given it 5 stars had the Hallows been left out. If you turn up your nose at this work because it lacks the grandeur and credibility of Tolkien, the language of Shakespeare and the characterization of Scott then you are missing the point and denying yourself a good read.

Good Work Joanne!

4/5

Warren Mars - July 27, 2007