Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix goes on sale tonight at 12:01, a fitting kickoff to the summer vacation season in my family, with the solstice upon us and school having ended for my 9-year-old son yesterday afternoon. He and I will be at the Children’s Bookstore for the Harry Potter gala tonight, culminating in a 12:01 trip to the cash register.
One of my recurring pleasures since the first Harry Potter book came out has been that we have read them aloud together, feverishly at times. But my son gingerly approached me this morning and let me know that he wants to read the book himself this time, he hopes I don’t mind. His rationale is that he will be able to read it more rapidly not having to wait for the limited evening-times we have to read together. The Artemis Fowl series, which we are reading aloud together, will go on hold (as Lord of the Rings did once, to my amazement, at my son’s receipt of a previous Potter release). There certainly is something bittersweet in this rite of passage. [Not to mention I will have to wait for him to be done with it before I can read it!]
Will the massive tome be worth the three-year wait? Literary critic Harold Bloom predicted the series will have no lasting appeal because it is atrocious writing. I have wondered whether, because of the phenomenal success of her film contracts and other tie-ins (Rowling is highly touted as now having a net worth greater than the Queen of England) the books would increasingly sacrifice subtlety for cinematic appeal. And, finally, I have misgivings about the remarkable growth in length from tome to tome (at this rate, the seventh book will have to appear in two volumes, someone quipped). Only exceptional books avoid collapsing under the weight of their own verbosity at this length; among recent ones, Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, which I recommend to everyone as an engrossing and complex read, comes to mind. What could Rowling possibly have to say that would take more than 800 pages?
This book is such a potential bonanza for its publisher (if not booksellers, although on the basis of HPOP alone, it is reportedly like Christmas rush at amazon.com this week) that I am not sure I trust the gushing early reviews that have appeared today. But they are suggesting that Rowling’s writing has grown in nuance and sophistication as well as mere voluminousness. The book reportedly has a far broader geographic and emotional scope. This adolescent Potter, having grown a year from each volume to the next, is manifestly a much more tormented and angst-ridden character than the innocent wizard discovering his power and heroism my son and I had previously gotten to know. It would have been fun to read aloud and discuss with a quick-minded 9-year-old something with this depth…
As everybody knows by now, a major character is rumored to die in this novel. Rowling has undoubtedly made it difficult for Harry to bear, but my son and his peers have a good idea, from the buzz on the street, who it is and are prepared for the death, they say. Perhaps this too will be an important rite of passage experienced through the literary lens…
