On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 10:23:16 -0400, Frank Ney <n4zhg.DeleteThis@icqmail.com>
wrote:
>http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/libe231-20030713-03.html
>
>For those interested, my review of The Order of the Phoenix has finally
>been published. Warning: political content.
[SPOILER SPACE FOR ORDER OF THE PHOENIX]
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Well, I won't touch on the political commentary; while
interesting and full of some insights I hadn't thought of, I don't
think current events were conciously informing Ms. Rowling TOO much.
Incompetent government and malignant civil servants have regrettably
always been with us so it's not like she needs to look at current
headlines to imagine this. I can't recall anything you could point to
specifically and say "This was obviously a thinly viewed jab at
such-and-so current figure", and as I recall the general plotline of
all 7 books she already had anyway. Of course, it's possible some
stuff did seep into her writing by osmosis, which I suppose might
actually be a more telling indictment of its prevalence these days,
but I digress.
As for the book, I actually like it almost the best of the
series thus far simply because it takes some real risks with
children's literature. Harry has definitely aged to teenager by this
book, and has obvious growth from the child Harry in book 1, and this
successful portrayal of real growing up is rather hard to write in my
experience with child protagagonists in series; too often they're just
bigger versions of the original kid. But the bit I actually love about
this one is it's a children's book where the main character and all
the good guys completely and utterly screw up. Absolutely none of the
events in the climax NEEDED to happen except for the fact ALL of the
good guys utterly loused it up by the numbers, right down to Harry
trying to play hero and walking stupidly into a trap that never would
have been sprung if he'd worked on his mental defenses. This is
EXTRAORDINARY to me; how many books at all, let alone children's
books, take a successful hero, his friends, and his mentors and have
them pretty much fail and suffer horribly for it? Even his father, one
of those saintly deceased parents that always shows up in these books,
gets knocked down quite a bit. Showing them mess up so much really
sold these characters to me as real people, and made empathizing with
them much easier.
I also need to praise Ms. Rowling for being able to introduce
good characters even this late into the series. I'm still torn between
Tonks and Luna as my favorite new character because both left me in
stitches so much (and I think Luna is just adorable in that chapter
pic with her wearing her lion hat). Umbridge was so evil a villainess
she even replaced Voldemort as my most despised person of the series,
probably because she went for the utterly petty evils which are the
most infuriating. By the end of the book I was practically screaming
"FOR GOD'S SAKES KILL THE F--KING B---H, KILL HER NOW!!!!!!!!" at the
pages. She got off way too lightly at the end though for her misdeeds;
I rather hope she reappears in later books so we can see her burned
alive in a fire veeeerrrryyy slowly, preferably while tied to
Bellatrix Lestrange of course
.
The book also manages to maintain the humor and good
characterization of the previous works. While Hagrid and Dumbledore
are AWOL for most of the book for plot reasons, both continue to be
great when present, and the rest of the core cast gets their moments
in the sun. The everpresent wit lightens the dark atmosphere a lot;
whether it's Hagrid's latest misadventures with Care of Magical
Creatures (I still love Hermione's "She's not getting Hagrid!" line),
the various oddities we get glimpses of in the adult wizard world,
Luna's tabloid view of the world, or the twins in rare prankster form
(when they declared they weren't holding back anymore, I was
irresistably reminded of Bugs Bunny announcing "Of course you know,
THIS means war..."
), I found myself still laughing out loud at
several points in the book.
All in all, a worthy addition to this fine series and well
worth the wait for it.
P.S. One obvious plot convenience though; note how all of the classes
Harry needs to become an Auror just happen to be the ones we see him
in most often? Good thing he didn't need something new, huh? Still,
given the requirements Harry will need to beat to stay in Potions,
watching Snape's face if Harry makes it into his N.E.W.T. course
should be worth the price of admission
. I must also say, Professor
McGonagall's ringing statement she would help Harry achieve his dreams
if it was the last thing she ever did was a warm reminder of all the
teachers who've done the same for me all these long years of school;
THAT thankfully is not all that fictional a detail yet
.
--
Mike Bruner - mbruner18.DeleteThis@WANTNOSPAMcomcast.net
Yes, I am a servant of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial
Get a life? I'm scared my life's gonna get ME!<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: My book review 
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