Review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling definately knows her characters, and she demonstrates that knowledge in the fifth book of this series.




The Order of the Phoenix is a continuation of the Goblet of Fire; the Goblet of Fire leaves the reader wondering what will happen now that Lord Voldemort is back. The Order of the Phoenix picks up on that thread and leaves us readers hanging once again for the sixth book.



In this novel, Rowling gives us a new character dimension in Harry. Harry now has anger and a more complex personality, like the teenager that he is. He is fed up with being the "Boy who Lived." He is fed up with the turmoil, the danger, the conflicts in his life. He is fed up with not being trusted to know the whole story behind his story; he is just fed up. He is also conflicted because of his age, not just because he is dealing with Lord Voldemort. He is experiencing all of the torment, confusion, and mixed-up feelings that 15 year old boys deal with. Rowling gives us a realistic teenager in this novel.



I have mentioned before, but will repeat myself here: One of the fundamental reasons that these novels work so well, is that if you take out the magic and the wizarding, you are left with realistic characters who experience and deal with life like the rest of us do. These characters deal with all of the issues that our own teenagers do: Harry trying to weed through the trials and tribulations of dating are as equally interesing as Harry weeding through the trials and tribulations of fighting the Death Eaters. Of course, if you take out the magic and wizarding, you are taking out all of the imagination and the "magical world" that Rowling creates for us.



Rowling knows what she is doing: with her imagination, her creativity and her knowledge of what makes a hero in the Western tradition of novels. If you have studied Western literature at all, you will know that the hero needs to be isolated from others while he is defeating evil. He needs to stand alone to win. Western tradition also requires the hero to defeat and replace his father while becoming the true hero.



Harry gets more isolated from his adult support system as these novels progress. He has already lost both parents, and the Dursleys (his Aunt and Uncle) are pretty much useless. In this novel, he also loses an important beloved and trusted adult. However, his support system of peers continues to grow and strengthen. The relationship he has with Hermione and Ron are not only necessary to his fight against evil, but it is necessary to the success of these novels. This relationship is the backbone of these novels.



If you are a Harry Potter fan, and if you are reading the 5th novel you are a fan, you will love this one. We get a more complex, realistic Harry. We get another villian to hate besides Lord Voldemort. We get some resolution and another action-packed ending. We also get to wait for the next installment of the series.



Keep on Reading!
reviewed by Sbarranca

To Have A Traditional Narrative Structure or Not to Have One? That is the Question.

In the opening lines to her collection of essays about life during the 1960s in California, Joan Didion says, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” The collection explores the ways in which this time era shifted her perspective of narrative, how stories were no longer following recognizable patterns for her. In the age of information, self-disclosure, and voyeurism, where anything is possible and everything accessible, are we ready for fiction that breaks away from traditional narrative structure? I’m a part of a book club and recently we read Carole Maso’s Ava, a story about a woman on her deathbed, recalling various memories from her life. Rather than a traditional narrative structure, with a beginning, middle, and end, we read scattered fragments of memories—pieces of stories in a collage arrangement, sometimes expanded upon at later points in the text, sometimes not. In her story, sentences often replace entire paragraphs and often there are no smooth transitions between ideas. The whole text contradicts anything we’ve ever been schooled with in terms of story and effective communication. Yet I find the story beautiful and challenging for that very reason. Reading this story makes me feel like a detective, an active participant, working along side the author to create meaning for the text.

Many of my fellow book club-ers did not agree with me. From the first two minutes of the book club discussion, it was apparent that I was marooned on my own little island of poetic, non-linear enjoyment. Most of the others were frustrated by the text, saying the text suffered from A.D.D., was pretentious, full of navel gazing. I enthusiastically pointed out beautiful language: “what about the poetry of this image”:

In my memory the white flower seems always to be in blossom.

There were swans there.

She wore blue shoes.

“Or this”: Sunstruck, drunk, lying with lizards. Eating earth. And how you fed me flowers. And sang to me. The cock crowing, the river for a bed.

Some of my fellow book club-ers could agree with the magic of some of Maso’s isolated language, yet still, more than one said, “I enjoyed our discussion about this book much more than the book itself.”

In an article about confessional poetry, poet Claudia Rankine says, “Is it fair to say there is, in the twenty-first century, a greater consensus toward the notion that true coherency is fragmented?” We can apply this question to experimental fiction too, and wonder if Maso’s style is not more of a reflection of our current reality and truth than the traditional narrative.

Our book club talked about what it is we seek in fiction. For some, escape was the answer, for others, a reflection of truth or to learn something new. I realized then that it is language itself that I seek when I read, that I was okay with tossing aside traditional narrative structure, for the enjoyment and challenge of the arrangement and sounds of words, and even the blank space between words and ideas—a place for me to play detective, or dreamer, and fill in the missing narrative.

Help....It's like the last chapter was ripped from a book.

I have been listening to books on CD lately.  I started about two years ago.  Never thought I would be the type to listen to a book when I could be reading one.  But, welcome to the world of being a mother of teenagers.  I am in my car so much driving them around and waiting for them to get out of practice that I started listening to books on CD.

I was listening to Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen.  I absolutely loved Water for Elephants ( I read that one) that when I saw this CD at the library I grabbed it. 

Like Water for Elephants, Gruen captured me right from the beginning of this new remarkable novel.  She has truly done it again.  It takes on a journey with Anne Marie after a riding accident.  Fast forward 15 years and we discover that she has never truly healed from this accident.  She ends up moving back home with her teenage daughter to discover her father's illness and the remnants of her old life.  She realizes she had been running away this whole time and she needs to reconcile herself with her past if she is to have a future.

Here's my problem though.  The last track of the CD is somehow ruined and I can't hear the last chapter of the novel.  Now I have to go to the library and get the book just so I can finish it.  I won't have time to do that for a couple of days!!!  Ack!!  All of you readers know that this is a new (Dante) circle of hell.  I was in love with this novel and was really enjoying it and now I am on hold.

I truly recommend this novel.  If you loved Water for Elephants, which I did, you will love Riding Lesssons too!