A review of Deathly Hallows that (more articulately) mirrors my thoughts.

[amanuensis1]

(Uncut as per my "not cutting for spoilers any longer" warning, but not that spoilery.)

From The Atlantic's review of DH by Ross Douthat:


(Rowling's) genius is for crossing genres, mixing the sword-and-sorcery tale with the boarding-school novel, and merging both with the intricate plotting of an Agatha Christie story. And this is the first problem with her saga’s grand finale – it’s more of a straightforward high-fantasy novel than any of its predecessors, and Rowling isn’t quite up to the task. She needs the Stover at Yale structure, it turns out, and the Ten Little Indians plot mechanisms; without the “something fishy at Hogwarts” framework, her story sprawls and meanders through a baggy quest narrative. The more time Harry and Ron and Hermione spend hopscotching around England, the more the reader misses the familiar rhythms of a school year at the wizarding academy...


I'm more enthusiastic about Rowling's work than this reviewer is overall (he's liked the series but feels the last book compromises the series' ability to hold together as a classic-to-be), but he describes a lot of my dissatisfactions with DH.

But! I am on my second go-through of it, via audiobook, and I'll see how it feels to me this time through.

Comments

[nimblelads.livejournal.com]

I thought the time spent away from Hogwarts was refreshing and ultimately essential in order to gain a broader picture of the world at large, and I can't say I missed Hogwarts. I was too drawn into the story and the characters' developments/struggles and found it held itself together very well. So, can't agree with the gentleman at all, but it was an interesting opinion to read.

Peoples' reaction to books of this nature are very personal: it either works for you or it doesn't. It happened to work very well for me, but that doesn't mean the feelings of people it didn't work for are invalid. Books are tricky like that. It's almost like a chemical reaction between the book and the reader. Some people's reactions will be more favorable than others depending on the personal variables involved.

/lame analogies :p

[fuschia.livejournal.com]

I agree that there is a sort of free-fall feeling that enters both the text and Harry's perception of the world once he is removed from the rhythms and mundanities of Hogwarts. Although I initially missed Hogwarts immensely, I'm starting to come around to feeling that this removal of routine was a necessary shock, that Harry needed to be left without a map or a syllabus. I loved the moment when he wished he was back in Hogwarts like Neville, where his role would be clear, where he could be the student rebelling against the unfair regime. It's easier to be a rebel than to be in charge)

(Of course, he also wished he could be back at Hogwarts getting detentions from Snape...hopefully detentions similar to the ones about which you have written. *g*)

[fabularasa.livejournal.com]

Don't you think "baggy" is just the win adjective there? If I were his beta I would be all over that with the capslock squee.

[silentauror.livejournal.com]

I agree. I particularly liked his point about the things JKR pointed to and then never followed up on. He cited Ron's jealousy of Harry and Draco's foreshadowed redemption, and those were two of the things I was particularly frustrated that she didn't pursue. Not because I like them as plot points (though I do) so much as the fact that she made gestures in those directions and just left them hanging. It's unsatisfactory. And yeah, I felt like she chickened out of Hagrid's death, too. The "huh, a children's book after all" reaction just about summarizes it for me. I feel like she could have gone so much further into many of the points and just didn't, for whatever reason. Too many plot threads to keep up in the air? An inability to focus on plot vs. interpersonal stuff and sort of leaving both a little incomplete? I liked the book a lot. I liked the series a lot. But yeah, there were things that should have resolved more, or gone more deeply in before resolving. So much felt like it wasn't quite done. All that, and then the epilogue to add insult to injury. :/

[oddnari.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. I don't know the gentleman but I found his review interesting, lucid and of such a nice tone that it would be difficult for most people to take offense (most, not all). The book's utter predictability was what saddened me... too much fanfic I guess :)
Thanks again.

[jeddy83.livejournal.com]

I missed Hogwarts and the structure, but at the same time I thought the biggest problem with HBP was the fact that Harry was still at Hogwarts. The book felt a bit stagnant to me because Harry needed to be elsewhere and JKR was just using excuses to keep him there.

I agree though the DH had an unecessarily messy plot. I wish it has been simpler and that Harry had been given more time to dwell on the consequences of the action sequences.

[elanna9.livejournal.com]

That was an awesome review; thanks for posting. Ross is a great writer, and I enjoyed reading it just for that alone, but even more so because he managed to express thoughts I'd had but completely failed to articulate.

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

That was an interesting review - thanks for the link. He's right about the last thing; if I ever were to have children, I wouldn't bother reading HP to them. You don't happen to know what the Ten Little Indians thing is, do you? (Sounds like something I could use.)