THE CASUAL VACANCY (J.K. Rowling) - October 9/12

This is the reason I now finish every book I start. I was really, really hating this in its first 100, 150 pages, as Rowling offers up a whole mess of characters and doesn't adequately develop them. So I was, for most of the book, struggling to figure out who all these people were, a problem I had even towards the end (eg Simon and Colin were impossible to distinguish and I don't think I ever really figured out who Maureen or Tessa were). Nevertheless Rowling includes several engrossing subplots, especially the bullied Indian girl, that slowly but surely transforms the book into a surprisingly readable work, with the Magnolia like finale certainly far more powerful than I had any right to expect. *** out of ****