OOP: Hollywood Ending?

[medeacallous]

No: HPFGUIDX 62082

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Lezlie Zakrzewski 
<lezlieclayton at s...> wrote:
> 
> 


<snip>

> The end of OOP was a comparative letdown.  Truthfully, I don't 
think I could 
> give you a very accurate description of what happened at the MoM, 
and it 
> wasn't for lack of attentive reading.  Any other thoughts?
> 
> Laura


Personally I think the whole book reads like it was originally much 
longer, but was ruthlessly edited down (probably for size, at the 
expense of readability).  As I'm reading the book for the second 
time, I'm finding so many unanswered questions, so many threads that 
seem to go nowhere, and so many unjustified actions by the 
characters.  Plus, much less of the usual 'minutae' that has made 
the previous books so fun.  I particularly remember reading on the 
list of 'surefire' inclusions in book five references to 
Crookshanks's 'bottle-brush tail'.  In the whole book, Crookshanks 
is mentioned about twice, I think.  And there is so much less 
description of the teachers interacting in the Great Hall, Harry's 
experiences in classes, etc.  

The action, character development, and escalation of events in OotP 
seems so bang-bang-bang; I have no problem with lots of action (I 
love it), but a lot of the book seems ... compressed to me, as if 
all the little things that help contextualise the action (which JKR 
has always been so adept at) seem to be missing.

I'm not dissing the book, but IMO OotP reads like 'The Eight' by 
Katherine Neville; a book that was amazing, but with a very 
disappointing ending - it came out after that the author was forced 
to write an alternate ending in order to halve the length of the 
book.

Sorry if I'm being a downer, guys.

MC