 "Great book" | 2009-09-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A32BLN57RKFZMW |
| Another great book by John Granger. His insights into the Harry Potter novels are wonderful and really helpful each time I reread the series. |
| |
 "Good in Parts, but Acedemic 'Depth' and Christian 'Message' Overboard" | 2009-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: AC6JOSXVQVGM0 |
John Granger clearly has a vast knowledge of the literary classics, and uses this knowladge to make many comparisons to 'Harry Potter' that at times seem to stretch a bit too far and thin. Yes, he can list many obscure references throughout the books to this or that, but these are likely not references at all. Is Deathly Hallows a book for the serious reader? A book heavily influenced by classics? Yes, I think it is. But at times Granger seems to take for granted a great deal about Jo Rowling's influences and beliefs. Reading this book felt like he was making stretches in many of his arguments.
On the other hand, there is some really good stuff in here too. Granger is best when discussing literary alchemy, hero's journey, and transformation both as structure and themes throughout DH. When directly discussing the text and Harry's journey itself Granger seems to have wonderful insights. His opening chapter explaining his five keys of understanding Rowling's writing is really superb. And I really enjoyed his 31 FAQ's at the end of the book.
The book is weakest and least acedemic when he seems to be arguing that Deathly Hallows itself is a discourse on Christianity urging the reader to believe in God and accept Jesus. Granger claims that for Rowling Deathly Hallows "is all about her life as a disciple of Christ". Is Deathly Hallows a spiritual novel? A novel about belief and individual transformation? Yes, absolutely. But, Granger takes a very dogmatic approach to understanding Deathly Hallows, which doubtless comes not from objective acedemic analysis but rather from his own personal beliefs. Granger's own religious beliefs seep through the pages of his entire analysis of Deathly Hallows. To Mr. Granger I would remind him that 'Jo Rowling is not (overtly Christian fantasy writer) C.S. Lewis, no matter how much you want her to be'.
On the whole Granger's book provides some great depth to understanding Harry Potter, and could surely add to the serious readers enjoyment of Deathly Hallows and the other Potter books. However, the problem with Granger's book and literary anylis as a whole is that at times it seems comparisons and anylsis stretch too far, making something out of nothing. 3 stars. |
| |
| "Difficult but fascinating read." | 2009-08-12 |
| - Reviewed By alanmontgomery |
This book is a deep dive into the background of Harry Potter in general and the final book, Deathly Hallows, particularly. There are some major typos, true, but they are few and far between. My problem with the book is two fold. The author uses some awfully full language, words i have heard used in hardly any context before. Also some of his analysis takes a tack that is far more divergent than necessary. Good dramatic structure is followed in each book: Exposition, development, denouement (final bringing together of all threads). It doesn't have to be all about black, white and red - the author's contention.
The symbolism in the book, however, is quite clearly outlined. It explains even small details that relate the book to the Bible, Dante's Divine Comedy and even to C. S. Lewis' Narnia series.
I enjoyed the book and recommend it, but I wish he had spent less time plugging his other HP books in the process. |
| |
| "Lectures, indeed. (Hear me out before you vote. Please read.)" | 2009-05-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2JPVUO197MAGV |
I bought this book along with "Does Harry Potter Tickle Sleeping Dragons?" by Nancy Solon Villaluz, which I preferred for its much more interesting, flowing writing style, being more in-depth in the right places, groundbreaking content, and being more specifically about Rowling, Rowling's intentions, and Harry than "The Deathly Hallows Lectures" is. (Click "See All My Reviews" to read my full review of the Villaluz book.) That being said, The Deathly Hallows Lectures is still worth reading for college-level fans of Harry Potter who want to spend 300 pages seeing how classical literature interpolates into Rowling's final book.
Now, before Granger's fans immediate click the "No, not helpful" on this review just because it's only 3-star, please let me explain the reasons for Mr. Granger's star deductions.
I deducted one star for overlong passages. As a long-time reader of Mr. Granger's, I know that he has always had some interesting ideas (along with his history of wildly wrong guesses... who could ever forget his laughable "Evil Slughorn" arguments in his other book, etc.), but it would just be nice if he didn't tend to ramble on like Rowling's character, Professor Binns. Mr. Granger is a live speaker, and though I've never had the opportunity to see him in person, I suspect this book's weakness is that it stems from live lectures which don't always work well in text form. The editing and organizational problems are greatly reduced in Granger's publisher-published books, but this title is self-published by his own "Zossima Press," and the lengthiness just got way out of control without benefit of a professional publisher's editor.
I deducted one-half star for his frequent la-dee-da vocabulary and sentence structure's lack of charity toward 90% of Harry Potter readers. Professor Granger is obviously proud of his literary college degree, which is fine, and I'm not saying that there's any reason to dumb down this book's ideas, but this book's writing style just seems to suggest a self-enjoyment of feeling superior and inaccessible to the masses. The moments where he tries hard to sound "cool" or "humble" just come off as awkward.
Lastly, I deducted one-half star for a combination of smaller things. To name a few: Granger includes a comment about us needed to buy his book(s) for him to get money, and buy shoes for his size 13 kid, even affirming that he's "not kidding" when he says so. That's just tasteless. If his motive for writing about Harry Potter is money, he shouldn't flaunt that. (Though his other book(s) mention money, too, so it's not surprising, just disappointing.) Also, on his website, his other books, and this book, Granger still persists in saying how much he "craves" and "covets" reader feedback, which comes off as a narcissistic, attention-seeking foible of his semi-famous status. Also, there are several small, and even a couple large, things in the book that are just incorrect.
Worth reading, but a book that many Potter fans will not enjoy or manage to finish.
3 Stars.
|
| |
| "Too Many Errors" | 2009-04-15 |
| - Reviewed By susanellis@aol.com |
| On first glance this book is intelligently written and very interesting. However, once you start actually reading the essays that changes. It's not that Granger's theories are lacking or not well thought out. It's that he makes enough errors in the first essay that I'm not sure I'm going to read beyond it. To name just two he uses "astrology" when he means "astronomy" and, when using the Star Wars movies as an example, he calls Han Solo, Hans Solo. Such mistakes call into question the accuracy of his other examples. Also, he should have run his manuscript through a basic spell checker. It really takes away from a book, especially one that's supposed to be intelligent analysis, to run into a lot of misspelled words. I realize that the pressures of publishing make it impossible to keep out all such errors, but this is ridiculous. If such things don't bother you, then give this a read. If they do, stay away. |
| |
Expedited Available
