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Harry Potter et les Reliques de la Mort.

2008-01-04 - 12:41 p.m.

I am on the last hundred pages of the last book of the Harry Potter series. I have assiduously and successfully avoided spoilers from all sources, yet, just now, when I went to find out how many pages this book has (810 because it�s the French version), I saw a phrase containing the name of one of the main characters on the second last page which indicated that he or she is still alive. And I think it also indicated to whom that person was speaking, so I know if she or he too survives. Darn it! I know that there is supposed to be at least one big character who dies in this book (as happens in most, if not all, of the previous books) and I didn�t know if it would be one of these two or not. I mean, at this point there has been the death of a character, but I don�t know if it�s THE death I knew was coming, or if someone else was going to die as well.

It wasn�t exactly a spoiler, but I had been wondering if one/both of these characters would survive, and I�m not disappointed that they did, just that I know prematurely that they did.

Sorry to be obscure on this, but I don�t want to spoil anything for the other person or two on the planet that has not yet read the book.

::

Ohmigod! That was SUCH a good book! I had to leave off writing this entry yesterday and just now finished reading it. Considering French is not my first language, I flew through this book. I promise, there will be no spoilers written here, but in general terms I have to say that I really liked how I never guessed what exactly was coming next, not even near the end. And yet, it was like J.K. Rowling managed to keep ahold of dozens of thin filaments of plot � some of them from several books ago which seemed to be just incidental references at the time - and weave them all back into the story line and tie them off. There were a few times when I kind of had the sense that I would have seen something coming if I�d been able to keep track of every little thing in the thousands of pages of this series, and maybe even should have seen some things coming from time-to-time, given that I�m supposed to have such a great memory and be so detail-oriented, but, well, I just didn�t. I went with the flow and let the book carry me along.

This ability to make everything come full circle is one I greatly admire in writers, and books that have, over the years, made my scalp tingle, have this in common. There are only a handful: The Fionavar Tapestry series by Guy Gavriel Kay and A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving are the only two that come readily to mind.
Yet, here�s the odd thing � I�ve never re-read any of them, whereas books I�ve really enjoyed but were more predictable and showed less dexterity on the part of the author I�ve read over and over again. I think it has something to do with the fact that the most deftly-woven books, the ones in which I don�t see what�s coming, are just not the same to me if I know the ending. I have read and re-read Anne McCaffery�s Pern books more times than I could count. Their stories are solid and well-written, but at no point do I really think there�s a chance the good guys won�t win. Reading them is like visiting a place with which I�m familiar and where I�m comfortable. By contrast, a large part of my enjoyment of books like the Harry Potter series comes from the sensation of not knowing what�s going to happen next and finding those �ah-HA!� moments, where I slap my forehead and think �of course!�

I wouldn�t want to say that reading it once has �spoiled� the series for me, but I do think that if I read it again, it�ll be to see what the English version is like and if I get a deeper sense of comprehension and meaning if I read it in my first language.

Anyway, if you haven�t read the series, it kind of goes without saying at this point but I HIGHLY recommend it. My one criticism is that I felt that Hermione�s character gets more stereotypically �girly� as the books have progressed and I would have liked to see her character stay stronger and provide as good a role model for girls as I think the male characters did for boys. Not to say that she doesn�t stay smart and kick a lot of ass right to the end of the series, but I found that she cried a lot in this book in particular, which followed a trend I saw developing in her a few books ago. As it was, I had felt that, overall, her character in the movie versions was portrayed as weaker than her character in the books, so I�m really hoping she�s not bawling throughout the last movie. It�s not that she can�t be sensitive and be the character who is used to have the audience empathize with when something is sad, it�s just that I don�t think she should be always crying.

C�est tout.

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