bazhsw
8/20/2016
As Pottermania swept the UK I actively avoided everything Harry Potter and up until a few years ago proudly stated that I had never read a Harry Potter book or watched one of the films. Being an adult when these books first came out it was never something I was naturally going to be interested. Nevertheless Pottermania really wound me up. It seemed so terribly middle class. Now I don't know if that's even remotely fair but seeing the generally right wing press and 'middle class respectability' of the BBC championing this series it just grated on me. Part of it of course is that it is set in a public school (okay for wizards, but who in the real world gives a shit about House Bumblecuff) and it seemed a little 'jolly hockey sticks' (Quidditch FFS!). I remember going to the cinema one night (to see something else) when one of the Potter films came out and seeing grown men and women dressing up as fucking wizards just made me go 'meh!' even more. It reminded me of all that Twilight shit from a few years ago were teenage girls would be going mental if you thought it was garbage.
Fast forward a bunch of years and I relented when the final book in the series came out and read it for my book group at work and I thought it was 'okay' and a little more 'young adult' than a kids book (which is natural as the audience had aged too). I ended my 'feud' with the Potter series...
Now a bunch of years later I have acquired the collection for free and my five year old son has been asking me to read the books to him. So, we have started off with '...the Philosopher's Stone'.
I have to say, it has taken us a while to get through it but we've both enjoyed it. At times I thought I was reading to myself but then all of a sudden my lad will mention something innocuous about the book. I think he's enjoyed it, although he's perhaps a little young for it, and it's won me over somewhat as I want to watch the film of the first book with my son.
I doubt there isn't anyone reading this review that doesn't at least have a notion. Harry Potter is a wizard who goes to wizard school 'Hogwarts'. I quite liked the novel's two distinct phases - growing up unloved and an outsider before discovering his magical heritage leading to uncovering the plot of the 'bad' wizard. Bridging this is the introduction into a new school and making new friends. I think it does work as a 'boys own' adventure somewhat.
Harry the protagonist is 10/11 in the story and I think the author captures the mindset of the little boy quite well, he doesn't seem babyish, neither does he act or read older than his years. Towards the end of the book I think it was a stretch for me to hear an 11 year old's voice but I quite liked Harry's playfulness, I also felt the choices he made perhaps reflected a 10 year old well.
I think the overacrching plot of the Philosopher's Stone, why it was stolen, why and how it was stored where it was and also what was important about it was hand waved to a high degree. I get that this is a kids book but I felt a lot was, '.....ummm okay'.
I guess it was okay, there was some 'peril' in it for the boy, he seemed quite exicted at times. It was quite readable for an adult and I wasn't bored. We're going to read the rest of the series and I'm just going to pretend my irrational dislike of Potter never happened....