It is finished...

[Mari]

No: HPFGUIDX 172417

"The last enemy that shall be defeated is death" 1 Corinthians 15:26


I will be quite honest and admit that after reading Harry Potter and 
the Half-Blood Prince I was seriously concerned about how Rowling was 
going to get herself out of the very tight corner she was placed in 
from a narrative point of view. Nevertheless, I hoped that the 
conclusion of Harry's adventures would vindicate her many fans' 
ongoing faith in her work. My belief in her abilities a storyteller 
has been more than justified by the seventh and final installment in 
the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I found it a very 
satisfying conclusion on many levels.

It's clear that the series as a whole was always intended to 
encompass eternal issues; love, sacrifice, life, death, redemption, 
the path such redemption may take for different people, and the cost 
of choosing what is right over what is easy. Deathly Hallows is very 
preoccupied with death; or I should say more precisely, the defeat of 
death---Voldemort, Dumbledore and Harry have all wrestled with this 
issue in different ways.

The story in Deathly Hallows begins, in a way reminiscent of The Last 
Battle, The High King or Silver on the Tree with a sense of doom. The 
Dark is rising and it is up to Harry and his friends, both in the DA 
and The Order of the Phoenix, to turn it back. Harry, after initially 
going into hiding with the Weasley family and Hermione, hatches plans 
to find the rest of the Horcruxes, since he knows this is the final 
step he must take before Voldemort can be defeated once and for all. 
The journey will, however, be a long and winding one, and Harry, Ron, 
and Hermione must overcome many obstacles before their quest is 
successfully accomplished.

It is impossible for me to review Rowling's concluding story without 
particularly noting my admiration for the supremely satisfying 
development, over the series as a whole, of the character whom I 
consider in many ways to be the most interesting and complex to be 
created in recent fantasy fiction; Severus Snape. Not only do we 
discover the truth about his loyalties, but the dénouement Rowling 
provides satisfies her arc of narrative development on several 
levels; Snape is not a death eater, but neither does he emerge in the 
end as an `unlikely hero', though his courage is now firmly 
established and unquestionable. It is a wonderful irony to discover 
that in a sense, Dumbledore has betrayed Snape (if only for the 
greater good) since this puts the two men on an equal footing in a 
way the reader could not have known. Both need to forgive and be 
forgiven, which is after all the basis for lasting human 
relationships. 

There is no question in my mind, now that the series is complete, 
that Rowling will ultimately take her place with other much loved 
fantasy fiction writers such as Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander and 
C.S. Lewis. Any universe that a writer creates will inevitably be a 
product of the time, place and culture in which they grew up. 
Rowling's series, like other classic stories, moves beyond a 
particular time, place, or culture, and thus has the potential to 
stand the test of time.