The Casual Vacancy -- A Review

Well, I did it. I finished all 503 pages of J.K. Rowling's first adult  novel, The Casual Vacancy.
If I rated books out of 5 stars, I'd give this one 3 stars. The first 100 pages were deadly dull and confusing with all the unrelated characters. As the characters came together, the plot moved along more quickly.
People who've read the Harry Potter series might think Rowling didn't veer that far from her original series with this book. Some of the main characters are two teenage boys (one of whom is an orphan who was adopted) and two teenage girls. They're all unhappy with their lives and find ways to get back at their parents.
But the main focus of the book was truly income and education inequality. One of the characters is a crass, poor teenage girl with a drug-addicted mom. The girl is made more lovable with her devotion to her toddler brother.
The middle and upper class characters have these fake worries in their life, like who will win the open seat on the town council, while the poor characters struggle to survive. The teenagers are self-absorbed and cruel.
Rowling's book did not become preachy, but perhaps it was her effort to avoid preachiness that caused it to be devoid of emotions. A good book should make the reader feel many things. This one didn't, even as tragedies unfolded at the end.
Although the book didn't evoke emotions, it did make me think more about what the middle and upper classes owe the struggling lower class. Rowling lived a life on the British equivalent of welfare, so she understands the differences between surviving and thriving. Here, she makes a point of showing us that the poor live a very different lifestyle, one that most middle-class people judge and can't begin to imagine.
If I saw a kid drowning, I would definitely save him. Shouldn't I reach out to those kids who I might not see drowning, but who are still struggling in a different kind of river?

When to Put a Book Down

Reading can be tricky.
I won't keep reading a book that doesn't interest me. There are too many other good books out there.
So my first 100 pages of J.K. Rowling's novel The Casual Vacancy plodded past. Because the book wasn't interesting, I wasn't compelled to pick it up in my few spare minutes. Because I didn't pick it up at every opportunity, each time I had to try to remember who this character was or who that character was. There are lots of characters and none of them is the protagonist. None of them is the one character you are pulling for or rooting against.
In addition to lots of characters, the book didn't evoke any emotion in me. It was dull.
So why didn't I stop it?
I made the mistake of looking at the Amazon reviews. It has bad and good reviews. The bad reviews, unfortunately, said intellectual things like, "This book sucks." or "What a waste of time." The good reviews, of course, went into detail about how this is a great saga and that just because it is difficult reading does not mean that  the reader should put it down. The good reviewers were claiming that the rest of us were lightweights.
So I determined to keep reading, even if I don't like it. Maybe I'll change my mind by the time I get to the end, or maybe I won't, but I'll be able to give an honest review of it.
What I think so far is that editors are too bowled over by Rowling's fame to tell her to tighten her writing at the beginning of the book.
How about you? How far do  you read before giving up on a book? Or are you one of those who never gives up? You'll read to the end no matter what.

First Paragraph, Tuesday Teaser -- The Casual Vacancy

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.
I'm reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.

Has everyone already read the intro?
Here it is:

Barry Fairbrother did not want to go out to dinner. He had endured a thumping headache for most of the weekend and was struggling to make a deadline for the local newspaper.

Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays. Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Open to a random page of your current read and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
Here's my teaser from page 73:

The mistake ninety-nine percent of humanity made, as far as Fats could see, was being ashamed of what they were; lying about it, trying to be somebody else.
 

What do you think? Have you read it? Do you plan to? Should I keep going? On page 93 now and it is a bit of a struggle to keep all the characters straight and to figure out who I should be rooting for.