A Reader's Guide to the HP Novels ... a review of sorts

[Penny & Bryce]

No: HPFGUIDX 30390

Hi all --

I wanted to draw everyone's attention to a fabulous new resource on the 
HP novels.  The title is "J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels," written 
by Dr. Philip Nel (an English lit professor at Kansas State), part of 
the Continuum Contemporaries series.  There are 32 titles listed on the 
book jacket as being published or forthcoming as part of this series, 
and not surprisingly (<g>), *none* of them are childrens' books.  The 
highlighted books include: A Thousand Acres (Jane Smiley), The Shipping 
News (Annie Proulx), Trainspotting (Irvine Welsh), The Poisonwood Bible 
(Barbara Kingsolver), American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis).

I obtained my copy through amazon, and I don't know how readily 
available it is at the mainline bookstores.

Dr. Nel clearly is thoroughly familiar with the books and has done 
painstaking research into available secondary resources.  The first 
section is a biography of Rowling (I could find no fault with this 
section at all.... it jives with everything I've read).  Ahem ... unlike 
that dreadful unauthorized biography by Shapiro.

Part 2 is titled "The Novels," and Dr. Nel "examines the many levels on 
which the books operate and looks at the many genres in which one might 
place the series."  He touches on a wide range of topics in this 
section, including the oft-debated "is this series childrens' lit"?  He 
concludes that Rowling is writing not only for children (based on his 
own interpretation as well as Rowling's statements in this regard).

The 3rd section examines the reviews, both laudatory & critical, of the 
individual books in the series.  He takes a firm stand against those 
reviewers who dismiss the HP books either because they are "childrens' 
books" or because they have such wide-ranging popular appeal.  He had 
some particularly sharp comments to make about Harold Bloom's 
pronouncement (which I took great delight in).  There were a number of 
more obscure or early reviews that I'd never read, which are discussed 
in this section & included in his extensive bibliography.

The 4th section is titled "The Performance of the Novels."  Discussion 
here includes: the NY Times Bestseller List debacle, the audio 
translations, the Americanization of the Scholastic versions, the 
British adult versions, the foreign translations, HP in popular culture 
such as editorial cartoons, TV programs, general language, etc.  Brief 
discussion of the movie & merchandise.

The last section is Further Reading & Discussion Questions.  Nel 
explores a number of other books that might appeal to HP fans.  He 
reviews official websites & fan sites (I've written him to see if he 
will add our group to this section if the book is updated as it 
presumably will be).  He then includes some *very* intriguing discussion 
questions.  It would be fun to take one per week once our scheduled 
discussions are at an end.

The book runs less than 100 pages with bibliography, but he packs alot 
into that short space.  It's a very well-done resource for obsessed 
fans, and I highly recommend it.  Oh, it's $10 through amazon & well 
worth this price IMO (despite the brevity).

I'd like to discuss it more once some other people have read it.  I 
showed it to Amanda & Sheryll when they visited earlier this week.

Penny