The Casual Vacancy

A tiger never changes its stripes. This is the great problem of flat characters: they do not change, they do not evolve, which may end up giving little purpose to their journeys. They are usually stereotyped or mnemonic characters, being defined by only one striking feature even after the end of their stories. The great problem of The Casual Vacancy is investing in several characters of this type, hoping that to observe their chores and personal problems is enough.

The book begins with the death of Barry Fairbrother, a member of the District Council of the small town of Pagford. The fatality opens a vacancy in the city’s council, initiating a dispute to occupy the place. The plot circulates both around the routine of the competitors and current council members as well as that of their children, aiming to tell the story not only of the political dispute but also of the personal life of the main members of that society.

Howard Mollison, the council leader, is an extravagantly fat guy, owner of a delicatessen, and a booming voice. Parminder Jawanda is a stressed doctor who nurtures a secret love for Barry and hates antibiotics. Kay is a dedicated social worker who moved to Pagford to stay with her boyfriend Gavin, who cannot stand her anymore. Fats is a troubled kid who believes that the authenticity of his actions is his most admirable trait. Andrew is a young man full of pimples who falls in love with the most beautiful girl in his school and who is regularly beaten and mistreated by his insane father at home. And the list goes on.

The biggest mistake of The Casual Vacancy is to devote a lot of time to such characters without making them interesting enough. They are defined by similar shallow descriptions whenever they appear in the narrative. Howard is incessantly described as obese and with a powerful voice until the end of the book. In addition to its one-dimensional political position, there is no other personality trait in him. In other words, his initial description, instead of serving to introduce him to the reader, limits the character by setting the essence of what he is and will always be. And this is a design spotted in virtually every character. Even by the end of the novel, Andrew is just a kid who suffers from acne and has a crazy dad. Fats still wants to be authentic even after the emotional shock of the climax. They learn nothing, are static, and therefore considerably uninteresting characters.

The issues they have to deal with are rarely more exciting. Samantha Mollison is a woman who is sexually frustrated in her marriage and, because of that, she wants to travel to watch a show of her daughter’s favorite band after realizing she likes to masturbate while imagining its singer. And no one could care less about her. Gavin cannot dare to end his relationship with his control-freak girlfriend and reveal his love for Barry’s widow, and no one could find him more unbearable than us readers, after all, no human being can handle a one-dimensional character for about five hundred pages expecting him to make only one decision.

It is a universally known truth that a story can contain only flat characters and still be quite efficient, but to achieve such a feat it is necessary for the author to be aware of the limitation of the story and focus the narrative on a certain theme or have tons of plot twists and surprises – or question the lack of them – all based on a specific idea or discussion. J. K. Rowling does just the opposite, placing the characters in the spotlight, relegating the rest of the story elements to the background.

The plot, the political problem involving the Council, is certainly more attractive in comparison to the characters, although this is obviously not a great compliment. The main conflict of Pagford’s inhabitants concerns the proposal to aggregate the community of Fields to the city. Fields is described as a dirty, decrepit place, infested by poor, drugged, and mischievous people, serving as a perfect counterpoint to Pagford’s apparent civility and quietness. A part of the council, led by Horward Mollison, therefore abhors such a union, as it would mean a huge economic and cultural upheaval in Pagford. The other, formerly commanded by the late Barry, sees humanitarian benefits to the inhabitants of Fields in the union.

The political disputes resulting from this conflict, however, move in an almost lethargic pace, since Rowling seems more willing to write about the unchanging routine of her characters than anything else. Every time Kay is at home, she will discuss with her daughter Gaia about having her move to Pagford. Krystal will always curse her drugged mother and worry about her little brother Robbie. Samantha will complain about her life and think lasciviously about her daughter’s favorite band. Always. Every time. Making the narrative exhaustive and tiresome.

Nevertheless, it is the children of the competitors to Barry’s position and not the competitors themselves who decide to cause some discord in the city and, thus, move the story forward. While this strategy justifies their constant presence in the story, the device they use doesn’t take too much time to become boring, as it also never changes: they invade the council’s official website and post some truths about their parents with Barry’s account. It is easy to see when a book has serious narrative problems when the only minimally interesting event per hundred pages is gossip.

But all these problems could still have been made less irksome if the narrative had something to say with such repetition. That is, if only the narrator had some kind of voice. However, in The Casual Vacancy questions and discussions are never raised. Rowling prefers to use a narrator that borrows the consciousness of each character for a certain time, which adds nothing to the book but more repetition.

It is also bothersome that Rowling gives the impression that she has just discovered the magical power of parentheses since she uses them constantly but without rhyme or reason: if initially, it seems that she uses them whenever there is a change in time – flashbacks, for example – one eventually realizes that this is not the case when several similar passages don’t contain them.

In addition, the author also makes the climax of the book overly melodramatic and forced. Completely ignoring the political plot, the narrative focuses on the best character, Krystal Weedon, who is the only one who has any trace of individuality. However, the events that occur to her are not properly prepared by the narrative, because, in addition to being completely sudden, they have the sole purpose of shocking the reader. In fact, the author seems to realize the futility that affects the main characters, as she constantly uses exaggeration to produce any sentiment on the part of the reader: Simon, Andrew’s father, for example, is an irremediable psychopath who kicks the mouth of his little son, calls him a faggot and watches him bleed. At another moment, readers will even have to observe a pedophile rape that – be stupefied – manages to be of no consequence to the plot.

Neither the political conflicts, nor the characters, Pagford, absolutely nothing in The Casual Vacancy presents any trace of change after its five hundred pages. A tiger can never change its stripes, but at least it is a majestic, cunning, and dangerous creature, characteristics that certainly cannot be applied to any character in this book. Just imagine, Harry Potter fan, the seven books without Hogwarts. Without Dumbledore, Harry himself, the Malfoys, and Snape. Without the magic. Without the fun lessons and the exciting twists. Imagine, therefore, a universe completely dominated by Dursleys. Yeah. The horror.

December 07, 2018.

Originally published in Portuguese on March 17, 2015.