The funny thing about Harry Potter is that he was famous from the
start. ''''There will be books written about Harry
-- every child in our
world will know his name!'''' J. K. Rowling announced with spooky
accuracy in the opening chapter of her first novel, ''''Harry Potter and
the Sorcerer''s Stone.'''' No doubt she meant this as a reflection of
Harry''s awesome powers of wizardry, not of his ability to land on
magazine covers and lure children to bookstores at the witching hour.
But the fact is that Ms. Rowling''s gifts of prophecy have proved nearly
as amazing as all the magical feats she ascribes to Harry and company.
Still, not even she could have predicted this. The frenzy that
has greeted the fourth book in the
series, ''''Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire,'''' would seem to go beyond any reasonable response to
fiction, no matter how genuinely delightful that fiction happens to be.
Instead, the current wave of Harrymania brings the Potter series to a
fever pitch better associated with movie hype, major sports events and
hot new Christmas toys. And it has placed Ms. Rowling, already the
golden goose of publishing, in the dicey position of having to outdo
herself with a sequel written under huge commercial pressure at twice
the length of any of her previous books. We know what happens to talent
when the tie-ins hit the Happy Meals, and the stakes get this high.It is not immediately clear that ''''Goblet of Fire'''' is a step
forward for the series, since it gets off to a shaky opening.
Displaying her only real Achilles'' heel, Ms. Rowling starts the book
with a sinister, tacked-on prologue hinting at the whereabouts of evil
Lord Voldemort, who is the Darth Vader of this enterprise and is so
wicked that others fearfully refer to him as ''''You-Know-Who.'''' When
she cuts cinematically from this whiff of peril to Harry''s awakening
with a start, she resorts to the kind of predictable storytelling
signals that her narrative doesn''t need. When you can dream up an idea
like the Pensieve, a basin to hold one''s excess thoughts until they can
be dealt with at leisure, or a household clock that indicates family
members'' whereabouts (''''home,'''' ''''work,'''' ''''traveling,'''' ''''prison,''''
''''mortal peril'''') instead of the mere time, there''s no excuse for
falling back on the humdrum. The new book starts off with some
explaining to do (and handles it expeditiously enough to be inviting
and accessible to first-time Potter readers). Then like the three
volumes before it it rescues Harry from his miserable foster parents
(who this time will send him a single tissue as a Christmas gift) and
restores him to the Weasley family, where he is warmly welcomed and
where Mrs. Weasley cooks dinner with the help of magic (''''pointing her
wand a little more vigorously than she had intended at a pile of
potatoes in the sink, which shot out of their skins so fast that they
ricocheted off the walls and ceiling'''').Harry and most of the Weasley children are headed for Hogwarts, the
academy of magic that Ms. Rowling has turned into the series'' most
seductive attraction, what with mischievous, mobile portraits on the
walls and studies like Potions and Care of Magical Creatures. Never has
one
author done so much to make readers of all ages long to be at
school.The series''s first book served primarily as an introduction, though
its intrigue involved a three-headed monster guarding the Sorcerer''s
Stone of the title. Then, in the weaker ''''Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets,'''' Ms. Rowling drifted into a ghastly special effects
denouement, replete with giant spiders, that provided the books'' most
unappetizing scenario. With ''''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban,'''' she arrived at a more trickily convoluted finale, to the
point where you might have fried an egg on the forehead of anyone
trying to sort out the book''s climactic moves. This time she
achieves her most lucid, well-plotted and exciting conclusion, complete
with a spectacular wand-on-wand confrontation to recall Luke, Darth and
their light sabers, enhanced by the identity-twisting tricks in which
Ms. Rowling specializes. The book ends on a mournful note with the loss
of one character, and with ominous, cliff-hanging hints of a next
installment. Two things seem certain: it will involve giants and be
awaited with justifiably bated breath. Twice as hefty as its
predecessors, ''''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'''' is an uncommonly
good-looking book, with a substantial feel and artful chapter
illustrations that anticipate the narrative. Today''s readers are bound
to appreciate that. Future generations, for whom the Harry Potter books
will be classics, should like it, too.GET THIS BOOK FREE.BUY SELL RENT BOOKS ONLINE - ON MY BLOG.http://workfromhomedepot.blogspot.com/2008/01/review-books-summary-abstracts.html