Sunday, March 1, 2009

Hairless & The Sorcerer's Stone: Not Really a Review

Okay, I offered and the F-Word has clamored; I owe the man a "review" of Hairless and the SS.

However, while not wishing to displease the reviewing machine who must not be named (or to snatch some of his raving fan base), I must concede, there isn't much to cover in a quick synopsis that hasn't already been polished by Rita Skeeter and the like.

And so I give you: Rowling's Smorgasbord of Characters.

There isn't much I dislike about the series (you must confess, FW, it is rather difficult to treat them as separate entities), but one of my favorite aspects of these masterpieces is Rowling's uninterrupted symphony of characters.

Combined, most essentially I might add, with Jim Dale's unique and magical touch, each one of Rowling's characters makes us pause and wonder if our friend, family member, or even enemy hasn't weaseled his way into one of history's most popular and (IMHO) greatest series ever (yes, I know the Kalvin would vociferously disagree with me here; I ask you to momentarily forebear your immediate dismissal).

Who hasn't had a freckle-faced friend at one time or another? Who hasn't squinted, his eyes aflame at a greasy-haired and particularly unjust tyrant of a school teacher? Or who hasn't had a kind and soft spoken mentor, whether his hair be white or still vibrant with color? And finally, who hasn't trudged through adolescence, not really understanding it, but being ever so tickled when he realized it was officially and universally over?

Yes, one of my greatest lauds of praise for the famous J.K. Rowling is not that she knows how to enchant her readers with every word (which, of course, she does better than the greatest magician), but, rather, that she knows how to weave a tapestry full of non-Edwins (sorry, ye Twilighters). That is to say, she touches a common thread among humanity; each and every one of us feels as though he really were or at least that he really could be the famous Harry Potter.

1 comment:

Pam said...

I think you hit the nail on the head with the last sentence there. It is almost as if Rowling has tapped into all of our personal memories when it comes to the feelings of confusion and angst we feel as we grow up, so her stories become almost personal in that regard. What a gifted writer!