So, here it is at last: The final confrontation between Harry Potter,
the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the “symbol
of hope” for both the
Wizard and Muggle worlds, and Lord Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named,
the nefarious leader of the Death Eaters and would-be ruler of all.
Good versus Evil. Love versus Hate. The Seeker versus the Dark Lord.J. K. Rowling''s
monumental, spellbinding epic, 10 years in the making, is deeply rooted
in traditional literature and Hollywood sagas — from the Greek myths to
Dickens and Tolkien to “Star Wars.” And true to its roots, it ends not
with modernist, “Soprano”-esque equivocation, but with good
old-fashioned closure: a big-screen, heart-racing, bone-chilling
confrontation and an epilogue that clearly lays out people’s fates.
Getting to the finish line is not seamless — the last part of “Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and
final book in the
series, has some lumpy passages of exposition and a couple of clunky
detours — but the overall conclusion and its determination of the main
characters’ story lines possess a convincing inevitability that make
some of the prepublication speculation seem curiously blinkered in
retrospect.With each installment, the “Potter” series has grown
increasingly dark, and this volume — a copy of which was purchased at a
New York City store yesterday, though the book is embargoed for release
until 12:01 a.m. on Saturday — is no exception. While Ms. Rowling’s
astonishingly limber voice still moves effortlessly between Ron’s
adolescent sarcasm and Harry’s growing solemnity, from youthful
exuberance to more philosophical gravity, “Deathly Hallows” is, for the
most part, a somber book that marks Harry’s final initiation into the
complexities and sadnesses of adulthood.From his first days at
Hogwarts, the young, green-eyed boy bore the burden of his destiny as a
leader, coping with the expectations and duties of his role, and in
this volume he is clearly more Henry V than Prince Hal, more King
Arthur than young Wart: high-spirited war games of Quidditch have given
way to real war, and Harry often wishes he were not the de facto leader
of the Resistance movement, shouldering terrifying responsibilities,
but an ordinary teenage boy — free to romance Ginny Weasley and hang
out with his friends. Harry has already lost his parents, his
godfather Sirius and his teacher Professor Dumbledore (all mentors he
might have once received instruction from) and in this volume, the
losses mount with unnerving speed: at least a half-dozen characters we
have come to know die in these pages, and many others are wounded or
tortured. Voldemort and his followers have infiltrated Hogwarts and the
Ministry of Magic, creating havoc and terror in the Wizard and Muggle
worlds alike, and the members of various populations — including elves,
goblins and centaurs — are choosing sides. No wonder then that
Harry often seems overwhelmed with disillusionment and doubt in the
final installment of this seven-volume bildungsroman. He continues to
struggle to control his temper, and as he and Ron and Hermione search
for the missing Horcruxes (secret magical
objects in which Voldemort
has stashed parts of his soul, objects that Harry must destroy if he
hopes to kill the evil lord), he literally enters a dark wood, in which
he must do battle not only with the Death Eaters, but also with the
temptations of hubris and despair. Harry’s weird psychic
connection with Voldemort (symbolized by the lightning-bolt forehead
scar he bears as a result of the Dark Lord’s attack on him as a baby)
seems to have grown stronger too, giving him clues to Voldemort’s
actions and whereabouts, even as it lures him ever closer to the dark
side. One of the plot’s significant turning points concerns Harry’s
decision on whether to continue looking for the Horcruxes — the mission
assigned to him by the late Dumbledore — or to pursue the Hallows,
three magical objects said to make their possessor the master of Death.
Harry’s journey will propel him forward to a final showdown with
his arch enemy, and also send him backward into the past, to the house
in Godric’s Hollow where his parents died, to learn about his family
history and the equally mysterious history of Dumbledore’s family. At
the same time, he will be forced to ponder the equation between
fraternity and independence, free will and fate, and to come to terms
with his own frailties and those of others. Indeed, ambiguities
proliferate throughout “The Deathly Hallows”: we are made to see that
kindly Dumbledore, sinister Severus Snape and perhaps even the awful
Muggle cousin Dudley Dursley may be more complicated than they
initially seem, that all of them, like Harry, have hidden aspects to
their personalities, and that choice — more than talent or
predisposition — matters most of all.J. K. Rowling has created a world as fully detailed as L.
Frank Baum’s Oz or J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, a world so minutely
imagined in terms of its history and rituals and rules that it
qualifies as an alternate universe, which may be one reason the
“Potter” books have spawned such a passionate following and such
fervent exegesis. With this volume, the reader realizes that small
incidents and asides in earlier installments (hidden among a huge
number of red herrings) create a breadcrumb trail of clues to the plot,
that Ms. Rowling has fitted together the jigsaw-puzzle pieces of this
long undertaking with Dickensian ingenuity and ardor. Objects and
spells from earlier books — like the invisibility cloak, Polyjuice
Potion, Dumbledore’s Pensieve and Sirius’s flying motorcycle — play
important roles in this volume, and characters encountered before, like
the house-elf Dobby and Mr. Ollivander the wandmaker, resurface, too.GET THIS BOOK FREE.BUY SELL RENT BOOKS ONLINE - ON MY BLOG.http://workfromhomedepot.blogspot.com/2008/01/review-books-summary-abstracts.html