Aug 24, 2005

Book Review

Half-Blood Hokum

Approximately 40,000 Pensacolans were still without electricity, a failed multi-million dollar missile sat idly on the coast of Florida and a rangy Texan was slowly clamping his fangs down on the throat of French cycling. But what was closest to the hearts of suburban America as the news week wound down on July 15? Just ask the four-foot papier-mâché owl that passed me en route the coffee bar just before midnight.

Oh yes, the streets were Super Bowl quiet come Saturday morning. Unfed pets howled through brunch, weekend chores were forgotten and televisions went strangely dark. Harry Potter is closing in on his destiny, and while only the collateral damage is honestly in question, the release of J.K. Rowling's sixth novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was the sort of global publishing phenomenon not seen since… um… since the last one was released. It was an event so newsworthy that the London Times actually enlisted the services of a champion speed reader to ensure their review made deadline just 45 minutes after the book went on sale.

But all this hubbub was a good thing for booksellers and the publishing industry, which were staring down a nearly 17 percent drop in last year's sales of children's hardcovers. But is it enough? The series still tops the New York Times Best Seller list in the children's category, but as of their July 30 accounting, it was nowhere to be seen on hardcover fiction (meanwhile The DaVinci Code is clawing its way back to the top).

And even though the Holy See and other assorted clergy are probably not pleased with either development (reports show that the Pope was apparently not keen on our Harry during his pre-Papal life), there were no book burners or anti-witchcraft zealots of any sort outside either of our local Borders and Barnes & Nobles when the book was unveiled. Just before midnight clerks brought scores of boxes clearly marked "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL JULY 16, 2005" up from the deep, underground bunkers where they were undoubtedly stowed. At 12:01 a.m., orderly lines of black-hatted, lightning-scarred fans began to form and the only sound heard above their anxious muttering was the warm electronic rush of royalties into the Ms. Rowling's accounts.

And although she has possibly outstripped many authors in the Western canon in terms of sheer production volume, her work has hardly grown richer for it. Without dabbling in spoilers, the book's occasional humor, standard adolescent woes ("Does he/ she like me? He/ she likes me! Why doesn't he she like me anymore?), and semi-predictable plot development doesn't add up to much in the prose department. Rowling may have walked off with an Order of the British Empire for her efforts, but the runaway popularity and scheduled commercialization of her material have laid a hardcore "Avada Kedavra" spell on any chance of her flourishing artistically. But her achievement in creating a fictional world where her readers are cozy and impulsively drawn to is inarguable. She is the J.R.R. Lucas of modern children's literature, carving out the 'ol light from the dark with an adolescent wand as opposed to a light sabre or a single ring to rule them all. The points she gets for making this installment "darker," much like Lucas' limp Vader denouement, are gimmes (and mostly hype). Likewise for the plot strands she's left twisting in the wind. The only real creative victory in this series goes to Jim Dale, the actor who's been able to wring emotional complexity from Rowling's thin prose when recording the series' audiobooks.

Admittedly, we may all be curious to hear how the deal will eventually go down between Harry and the Dark Lord (provided, of course, that "He Who Must Not Be Named" does not accept the RNC's nomination in 2008...), but there'll be few readers hovering over the artful semiotics of whose... er, wand... was indeed more potent.
JoE Silva

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