Harry’s last stand

>> J.K. Rowling closes the Harry Potter
saga with a bang. No spoilers

by Madeleine Partous

A magical thing happened last Saturday. As I stepped out on my porch with my late-morning coffee, it was obvious something was weird. It took a while, but finally it struck me: my normally bustling neighbourhood was as quiet as a tomb. No cars, no pedestrians, and more significantly, no kids. I mean, it’s summer for God’s sake; they’re normally out there at seven, screaming, playing and generally running around. Nada.

Then it hit: the latest—and last—instalment of the Harry Potter saga was released at midnight. The kids, and probably quite a few adults, were barricaded indoors, immersed in an arcane and almost forgotten exercise: reading.

This, in a nutshell, is at the heart of the Harry Potter phenomenon. Millions of people worldwide reading the same book at the same time, so much so that entire neighbourhoods grind to a halt.

Critics habitually slam J.K. Rowling as a mediocre writer. Her prose is repetitive, her constructions lame, her metaphors forced. All this misses the point. For Rowling to even warrant this level of criticism as a “children’s” book author proves that her creation has left the critics in the dust. She’s not a literary auteur—who’s ever claimed she was? What she is, however, is a master storyteller.

What’s especially remarkable is that Rowling, who’s already rich beyond our wildest dreams, could’ve easily slacked off on the final book. She didn’t. Not only has Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows already sold more in its opening few days than any other book in history, but it’s also bloody fantastic. It’s a rollercoaster romp, a breathtaking adventure, an epic coming-of-age story, a cautionary tale, you name it. It’s Grimm’s Fairy Tales before Disney got its big white four-fingered mitt on it.

It’s almost impossible to discuss this particular book without spoiling something, which is why so many reviews have sounded hopelessly vague. But you really don’t want to know anything specific until you’ve read it for yourself—or until enough time has passed to make spoilers irrelevant. Here, then, rather vaguely, is the deal.

One caveat: you can’t fully appreciate the Potter universe in this one unless you’ve read at least a few of the former books. Deathly Hallows is in many ways the best of the bunch. The action is relentless and yet it’s also complex, raising archetypal issues that reflect the pressures felt by all young adults in history trying to find their way. Archetypes have always been Rowling’s strength, as they have been for C.S. Lewis (Narnia), J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan) and more recently, George Lucas (Star Wars), among others. What makes archetypes so attractive is, obviously, that they don’t age—they apply from one generation to the next, and we can all recognize ourselves in them.

We’ve all heard that major characters die in this book. It’s much more complicated than that. This book will shock loyal readers. Plot-wise, Hamlet’s life story was lame in comparison. Virtually every character you’ve known and loathed or loved is back in this one. As promised by Rowling, most loose ends are tied and a few are surprising. You even get a chance to find out if your predictions were right: is Snape a good guy or a bad guy? Is Dumbledore really dead? What’s Voldemort’s Achilles’ heel? Why is he so blind to it? And if the Dark Lord’s greatest fear is death, what in fact is death?

Nothing is as it seems, yet in the end, everything is pretty much as it should be. Without giving anything away, I think it’s safe to say that it’s the epilogue and not the ending per se that’ll surprise readers. It’s clear that Rowling is making a point, as did Lewis and Barrie before her. Childhood, with all its mysteries and magic, eventually gives way to something else. Adulthood is often seen as bereft of wonder, at least at first glance, but there are rewards there too. Every generation needs to pass the torch. While it’s not necessarily a loss, it’s a change—and not every kid is going to like it.

Kudos to J.K. Rowling: she’s going out with a bang, not with a whimper.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows By J.K.
Rowling, Raincoast Books, HC, 607PP, $45.