jk rowling the casual vacancy first edition

Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” books, this shifting perspective erases distinctions between heroes and villains. Rowling rotates chapters among many characters’ points of view and brings the omniscient voice to play in large ensemble scenes where we jump from character to character, enjoying a panoramic view of the community and its individual, interrelated conflicts. Andrew Price, son of the abusive Simon, finds courage and agency while he pursues the beautiful newcomer Gaia. Krystal Weedon struggles to hold her disintegrating family together without the support of her mentor. Colin dissolves into anxiety and paranoia while his son Stuart, aka “Fats,” acts out in the name of “authenticity.” Sukhvinder Jawanda, daughter of the town doctor, suffers under the weight of bullying and parental ignorance. Miles’ wife, Samantha, drowns her discontent in wine and her daughter’s boy-band DVDs. With the election looming, the parish council website is infiltrated by an entity calling itself “The Ghost of Barry Fairbrother,” dragging the candidates’ and councilors’ dirty laundry into public view and straining the already tense relationships between husbands and wives, parents and their teenage children. Three candidates emerge to fill Barry’s seat: Miles Mollison, son of First Citizen Howard (“If only Pagford District had been granted borough status, he would have been able to call himself Mayor”) Colin “Cubby” Wall, the local high school’s deputy headmaster and one of Barry’s closest friends and Simon Price, a relative outsider among Pagford’s tight-knit community. Barry, who grew up in the Fields, led the opposition. One faction aims to shut down the clinic and shunt responsibility for the Fields onto the neighboring, larger town of Yarvil. Pagford has jurisdiction over an addiction clinic and a nearby public housing project called the Fields. His death leaves a vacancy on the parish council, just as this town board is poised to vote on a decades-long debate.

Jk rowling the casual vacancy first edition