Harry Potter Dreamin'

(Completely spoiler-free!)

Last night at 10:42 PM, I finished the final Harry Potter.

I thought it was glorious and a great ending to the series. (Said it before, I'll say it again) I think the Potter series is one of the best things written in our time.

Rowling is certainly versed in her Shakespeare, Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (which this funny alludes to), with a little Robertson Davies mixed in there, too. (My recent post on my top ten books would've included Davies' "Deptford Trilogy" had it gone to eleven.)

Now that nothing can be spoiled for me, I've surfed around and read some reviews. My, but there seems to be some jealousy issues out there. I especially chortle at the ones that take a swipe at Rowling's writing itself, which strikes me as particularly petty and telling. Yes, her storytelling is her greatest strength, but her style certainly pulls you through the books. Name some other authors that combine humor, adventure, tragedy, and suspense in language that is effective for both children and adults. I guess it's easy to attempt to disparage her accomplishment until you think about how many others have done it.

Or perhaps it's just that American pastime of tearing something down simply because it's become so popular. My wife (trying to rib me a bit) even asked if I felt like a lemming as I was reading it in the car on our way to somewhere.

Getting to the end of the journey - something I've looked forward to for year like all the fans - was, of course, bittersweet. My biggest worry was that she'd spliff the ending, but it was as good as I hoped it would be. To avoid spoilers, lets leave it at that.

Maybe this is the best way to describe how vivid the stories are...
I'd forgotten about this until it happened again, but every time I'm reading a Harry Potter book, I have dreams that have Harry, Ron, Hermione, and other characters from the stories in them. Not the movie actors either, but how I originally imagined the characters myself.

A story has to be pretty vivid to find its ways into my dreams.

Thank you J.K. Rowling for a great time!

___________
Update:

This is as spoiler-laden as it gets, so don't read it until you've finished the book. Rowling tells the stuff she didn't wedge into the Epilogue because [I]it didn’t work very well as a piece of writing. It felt very much that I had crowbarred in every bit of information I could … In a novel you have to resist the urge to tell everything.”

(via Kottke.org)