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The Casual Vacancy followup with Mugglecast
I was listening to Mugglecast episode 259, which continues their coverage of The Casual Vacancy, and their reaction was pretty similar to mine.
I was a little surprised that even with the additional time, only one of the podcasters had managed to finish the book. Andrew (who coincidentally shares the same name as a Vacancy character) even said that he wasn't going to finish it, since there was no point in forcing himself to read a book he isn't interested in. (Although he did look up spoilers to see how the book ended.) Most of them, like me, found the adult characters difficult to sympathize with, although they did like the teenage characters. (I still think they're the most interesting part of the book.) They agreed that there's not really a hero figure like Harry in the book, although one character does act heroically towards the end. One person said that Barry, whose death drives the plot of the book, is the closest thing to a heroic figure (he tries to help the troubled teen Krystal and champions the rights of the people in the Fields, the underprivileged part of town that Krystal comes from). However, even he is flawed, since his work with Crystal and the Fields has caused him to neglect his family, something that his wife is very bitter about. In fact, pretty much everyone in the book is flawed. (Obviously, flaws help to make a character interesting, but as I said in the first post, the problem is that most of the adult characters have flaws without any redeeming qualities that would help the reader to care about them.)
So for what it's worth, the Mugglecasters' opinion of the book mostly lines up with mine, although podcast listeners also weighed in with their reviews, and some of them said that they loved the book. If you're curious about the book and want to check it out for yourself, I'd recommend borrowing it from your local public library if possible, considering that the list price of the book is $35 (and even heavily discounted at Amazon, it's still about $20), which is a lot to spend on a book that you might or might not like.
I was a little surprised that even with the additional time, only one of the podcasters had managed to finish the book. Andrew (who coincidentally shares the same name as a Vacancy character) even said that he wasn't going to finish it, since there was no point in forcing himself to read a book he isn't interested in. (Although he did look up spoilers to see how the book ended.) Most of them, like me, found the adult characters difficult to sympathize with, although they did like the teenage characters. (I still think they're the most interesting part of the book.) They agreed that there's not really a hero figure like Harry in the book, although one character does act heroically towards the end. One person said that Barry, whose death drives the plot of the book, is the closest thing to a heroic figure (he tries to help the troubled teen Krystal and champions the rights of the people in the Fields, the underprivileged part of town that Krystal comes from). However, even he is flawed, since his work with Crystal and the Fields has caused him to neglect his family, something that his wife is very bitter about. In fact, pretty much everyone in the book is flawed. (Obviously, flaws help to make a character interesting, but as I said in the first post, the problem is that most of the adult characters have flaws without any redeeming qualities that would help the reader to care about them.)
So for what it's worth, the Mugglecasters' opinion of the book mostly lines up with mine, although podcast listeners also weighed in with their reviews, and some of them said that they loved the book. If you're curious about the book and want to check it out for yourself, I'd recommend borrowing it from your local public library if possible, considering that the list price of the book is $35 (and even heavily discounted at Amazon, it's still about $20), which is a lot to spend on a book that you might or might not like.