It is difficult to say what makes the greatest impression of J.K. Rowling’s "The Casual Vacancy". Perhaps it is a teenage boy’s reference to his father with labels which, amidst the repulsive squall of profanity that concludes the second chapter, stand out only because they are italicized. The cloud of bad or obscene language is meanwhile becoming ever thicker, on occasion becoming so abrasive and predictable that one flinches as one flips, each page promising a new eyeful of dirt. Keep going, and readers will encounter everything from wife and child-beating through drug addiction and self-mutilation to suicide and rape (two rapes, actually – one, graphically described, another inflicted on a 3-year-old boy. Even Rowling demurs at describing this one). Pick a page: locating such material in “The Casual Vacancy” is as simple as spinning a roulette wheel. About the only thing missing is cannibalism. Vices are tragic manifestations of victimhood, men – particularly fathers – are pathetic, negligent, and/or abusive. For those who would object that a well-written novel about misery and depravity will indeed come across as miserable and depraved, “The Casual Vacancy” isn’t well written, either.
H.J.S. (2012)