Another
fantasy series that I’m rereading for the first time in years. When I was young, I first started reading the
books as a precursor to the movies, catching up on each one shortly before its
film came out; it wasn’t until about halfway through that I started reading
them upon release. It’s fun to revisit
and remember how charmingly this world comes together (a few spoilery
references, if anyone still needs a spoiler alert for Harry Potter.)
11-year-old
Harry Potter, a long-suffering orphan being “raised” by his horrific aunt and
uncle who verbally abuse him, treat him like a slave, and frequently keep him
in a closet (just your standard British kids’ book, right?) learns of his
extraordinary inheritance. His late
parents were in fact a witch and a wizard killed in a wizarding war, and he
himself is famous for surviving the last magical murder attempt by series Big
Bad Lord Voldemort, who has since been optimistically presumed dead by the
wizarding community at large. Harry is
spirited away to Hogwarts, a renowned school of magic, where he starts honing
his craft, making friends, making enemies, becoming a wizard sports star, and,
oh yeah, foiling an evil plot.
I recall
not being overly impressed by The
Sorcerer’s Stone back when I first read it.
To be fair, a lot of that was down to me wanting to resist the hype
train that had been building for several years by then, and I’m sure I wanted
to think myself “so above” a populist book like that (I was a literary hipster
before I knew what that meant!) However,
reading it again, I am reminded of some of the points that made me side-eye the
book as a kid. Our intro to the
wizarding world also gives us our intro into 1) Harry being the hero seemingly
by fiat at times, just sort of falling into saving the day, and 2) Harry’s
penchant for zeroing in on a particular suspect (usually a Slytherin) and very
likely being wrong. These things still
bug me, but now that I have so many years of affection built up for this
universe, they don’t really get in the way of my enjoyment of the book as a
whole.
Because
it really is an engaging read. While the
plot has its dubious beats, it’s put together well on the whole, and little
tidbits of info that wind up being important later are mostly slipped in
unobtrusively. There’s also lot of fun
comedy in the details, including among the monstrously-horrible Dursleys, and a
host of eye-catching, memorable characters.
Kooky Dumbledore is terrific (there’s a great line where Ron comments
that Dumbledore is crazy, and the narration points out how admiringly he says
it,) and the trio is well-defined early on.
Even though Harry is obviously the big
hero, I like that all three of them make important contributions to the story,
both in terms of finding clues/figuring things out and being brave.
What I
like most, though, is probably the overall world-building. I love the little things, like the asides
about Ron (the pureblood) being just as confused about soccer as Dean (the
Muggle-born) is about Quidditch. From
the textbook titles to the descriptions of Diagon Alley shops to the general
flourishes around life at Hogwarts, there’s a lot to enjoy. Returning to it now, I better understand why
so many kids fell in love with these books, because they were really able to
immerse themselves in the world it offers them.
Warnings
Violence,
a little drinking/smoking, scary moments for kids, and thematic elements.
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