JK Rowling’s new ‘adult book’ includes gay subplot

Released today, JK Rowling’s long-awaited new adult book The Casual Vacancy is firmly aimed at those in the grown-up world, with the writer’s pen dissecting social inequality, small-town politics and snobbery – with sex, abuse, lots of swearing and a gay subplot.

Set in the fictional town of Pagford, in western England, it centers on a local election following the death of a parish councilman – and relies on what reviewers agree is a cast of finely drawn but generally unpleasant characters to bring this insular world to life. Among the characters a mother is ‘struck dumb’ when her daughter announces she is gay.

It already tops the British bestseller lists, with 2.6 million copies sold on pre-order.

But the novel, has divided opinion among the critics.

“We are firmly in Muggle-land – about as far from the enchanted world of Harry Potter as we can get,” wrote Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times.

“There is no magic in this book – in terms of wizarding or in terms of narrative sorcery. Instead, this novel for adults is filled with a variety of people like Harry’s aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley: self-absorbed, small-minded, snobbish and judgmental folks, whose stories neither engage nor transport us.”

The first print run in the United States is 2 million copies, the publisher said.

But with limited information leaked beforehand, many parents will probably be wondering Thursday if the book will appeal to – or perhaps be suitable for – children who have grown up loving Harry Potter‘s world of muggles and magic.

Kakutani continues, “This is definitely not a book for children: suicide, rape, heroin addiction, beatings and thoughts of patricide percolate through its pages; there is a sex scene set in a cemetery, a grotesque description of a used condom … and alarming scenes of violent domestic abuse.

“The novel contains moments of genuine drama and flashes here and there of humor, but it ends on such a disheartening note with two more abrupt, crudely stage-managed deaths that the reader is left stumbling about with whatever is the opposite of the emotions evoked by the end of the Harry Potter series.”

As for Rowling, she told the BBC that she had written the book by choice, rather than necessity, since the success of the Potter series has made her wealthy.

“I had nothing to prove. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way. I can pay my bills every day, I am grateful for that fact. I don’t need to publish,” she said.

But while the novel was born of an idea that excited her and is “personal in the sense that it deals with broad themes that have affected my life in a very real sense –  poverty for example,” Rowling thinks it likely her next book will be for children.

For those yearning for a return to the more familiar territory of Hogwarts, however, the British author has little hope to offer. “It was murder saying goodbye, but I truly – where Harry’s story is concerned, I’m done. Now if I had a fabulous idea, I would do it. But I’ve got to have a great idea.”