Author that put Hogwarts on the map opens up in rare interview with New Yorker
J.K.Rowling, famous for writing the kid's books about Harry Potter, has a book directed at adult readers hitting the shelves today.
It’s J.K. Rowling like you’ve never read her before: sex, drugs — and language that would make Hermione Granger turn scarlet.
The “Harry Potter” author’s first novel for adults is set to hit bookstores Thursday, and Rowling is making no excuses for the very grownup prose and plotline in “The Casual Vacancy.”
In a rare interview, Rowling shrugged off the suggestion that she will face criticism for exposing fans of her G-rated wizard series to the kind of novel that likens a used condom to “the gossamer cocoon of some huge grub.”
“There is no part of me that feels that I represented myself as your children’s baby-sitter or their teacher,” Rowling told the New Yorker magazine.
“I was always, I think, completely honest. I’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write.”
The contents of the 512-page book — already No. 3 on the Amazon best-seller list based on preorders — have been guarded as closely as the Sorcerer’s Stone.
New Yorker writer Ian Parker was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement that initially barred him from taking notes while reading “Vacancy” in the publisher’s office.
His profile of Rowling divulges there are a few shades of gray in her “comic tragedy” about class warfare in an English village.
One passage reads: “The leathery skin of her upper cleavage radiated little cracks that no longer vanished when decompressed.”
Another refers to a boy on a school bus “with an ache in his heart and in his balls.” There’s even a “miraculously unguarded vagina.”
Many of the teenagers are troubled, and one mother is a heroin addict.
“I had a lot of real-world material in me,” Rowling, 47, said of moving beyond the world of make-believe.
“There are certain things you just don’t do in fantasy. You don’t have sex near unicorns. It’s an ironclad rule. It’s tacky,” she said.
Then she added: “It’s not that I just wanted to write about people having sex.”
Rowling — who launched the Potter series in 1997 while she was living on welfare and is now worth $900 million — said she considered publishing her latest work anonymously but knew her cover would be blown.
“In the final analysis, I thought, ‘Get over yourself. Just do it,’” she said.
She has already written a couple of chapters of her next book for adults and is also working on two books for kids too young for Harry Potter.
The New Yorker didn’t give “Casual Vacancy” a rave review, but that’s
unlikely to hurt early sales or dampen curiosity. The book has been on
Amazon’s top 100 list for 81 days, and local stores report brisk
preorders.
The BookMark Shoppe, a small independent store in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, said 24 of its customers have dibs on the first copies.
“And people have been calling all day to make sure we’ll have it on Thursday,” said owner Christine Freglette.
She guessed that many of the anxious readers were adolescents when they got hooked on Hogwarts.
“They were the first Harry Potter generation. Now they’re adults and this is perfect for them,” she said.
The “Harry Potter” author’s first novel for adults is set to hit bookstores Thursday, and Rowling is making no excuses for the very grownup prose and plotline in “The Casual Vacancy.”
In a rare interview, Rowling shrugged off the suggestion that she will face criticism for exposing fans of her G-rated wizard series to the kind of novel that likens a used condom to “the gossamer cocoon of some huge grub.”
“There is no part of me that feels that I represented myself as your children’s baby-sitter or their teacher,” Rowling told the New Yorker magazine.
“I was always, I think, completely honest. I’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write.”
The contents of the 512-page book — already No. 3 on the Amazon best-seller list based on preorders — have been guarded as closely as the Sorcerer’s Stone.
New Yorker writer Ian Parker was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement that initially barred him from taking notes while reading “Vacancy” in the publisher’s office.
His profile of Rowling divulges there are a few shades of gray in her “comic tragedy” about class warfare in an English village.
One passage reads: “The leathery skin of her upper cleavage radiated little cracks that no longer vanished when decompressed.”
Another refers to a boy on a school bus “with an ache in his heart and in his balls.” There’s even a “miraculously unguarded vagina.”
Many of the teenagers are troubled, and one mother is a heroin addict.
“I had a lot of real-world material in me,” Rowling, 47, said of moving beyond the world of make-believe.
“There are certain things you just don’t do in fantasy. You don’t have sex near unicorns. It’s an ironclad rule. It’s tacky,” she said.
Then she added: “It’s not that I just wanted to write about people having sex.”
Rowling — who launched the Potter series in 1997 while she was living on welfare and is now worth $900 million — said she considered publishing her latest work anonymously but knew her cover would be blown.
“In the final analysis, I thought, ‘Get over yourself. Just do it,’” she said.
She has already written a couple of chapters of her next book for adults and is also working on two books for kids too young for Harry Potter.
The New Yorker didn’t give “Casual Vacancy” a rave review, but that’s
unlikely to hurt early sales or dampen curiosity. The book has been on
Amazon’s top 100 list for 81 days, and local stores report brisk
preorders.The BookMark Shoppe, a small independent store in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, said 24 of its customers have dibs on the first copies.
“And people have been calling all day to make sure we’ll have it on Thursday,” said owner Christine Freglette.
She guessed that many of the anxious readers were adolescents when they got hooked on Hogwarts.
“They were the first Harry Potter generation. Now they’re adults and this is perfect for them,” she said.
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