CurtisEdmonds's Full Review: J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fir...
Any thought that the fourth Harry Potter book would be just a mere continuation of the other three books of the series should be dispelled right off the bat. (Or, right off the wand, however you like.) First, its heft is a dead giveaway; the owl who delivered it today (oh, all right, the FedEx delivery guy) was clearly fatigued from delivering many copies of the thick tome.
The second clue, though, jumps right off the book's first pages. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire does not begin, as have the other books, in the uncomfortable confines of Privet Drive, home of the Dursleys. No. Instead, it begins in a spooky, deserted haunted house with a dark secret. We follow the house's Muggle caretaker inside, hear a frightening conversation between a foul traitor and an evil, whispering voice that leads to terror, pain, confusion... and a splitting headache for young Harry Potter, who is, we learn with relief, safe at home in his bed on Privet Drive.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a turning point, a bend in the river, a combination of all that has come before and all that will be. We are treated to many of the old familiar characters doing the old familiar things -- setting off Dungbombs, swilling butterbeer in Hogsmeade, dozing through History of Magic class, but there's always a threat of the macabre in the air, always a sinister plot waiting to be exposed. Like Tolkien's chapter "The Shadow of the Past" in The Fellowship of the Ring, it is a dividing line between what has been and the long struggle against evil that will come.
After the initial scare, things progress much as they always do. It is pleasing to see the Dursleys again, the nastiest people alive, and even more so to see Dudley Dursley subjected to the rigors of nutritional science, forced to eat cottage cheese and carrots and grapefruit. It's even more pleasing for Harry to leave, because this is the year of the Quidditch World Cup, and Harry's got luxury-box tickets.
The Quidditch World Cup takes up more of the story than you probably think it would at the outset. Quidditch fans will enjoy the action immensely -- especially because there's a lot more scoring than you'll see in a soccer World Cup. It has two important roles, however; it introduces us to a wide range of characters at the Ministry of Magic -- including our friend Percy Weasley, who's acting quite insufferable as an assistant bureaucrat -- and, because this is an international competition, we get to see a lot more of the wide world of Wizardry than we have previously.
However, alongside the fun and excitement of the Quidditch finals, a black cloud looms. Some of the wizards turn out to be no better than soccer hooligans, and use the festivities to torment some Muggles...
(If you've been living under a rock for the last few years and don't know what a Muggle is, or Quidditch, I'm sorry, can't help you. Read the other three books first, then we'll talk.)
...to torment some Muggles, sparking a conflict that ends with the mysterious appearance of the banner of You-Know-Who and his supporters, glittering in the night sky. After this portent of evil, and the attendant controversy (who enchanted it, and why did they use Harry's wand?) Harry, Ron and Hermione head off on the Hogwarts Express, ready for another year of education and high adventure.
If anyone thinks at this point that I'm going to reveal the name of the new teacher of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, or Harry's first date, or who You-Know-Who's spy is at Hogwarts, or what the title means, or the name of the character who dies, forget about it. Read the book, you will anyway. However, if you're dying to know whose House wins the Quidditch Cup and the final trophy, you should know that, by the end of the book, events of such magnitude have taken place that the whole thing seems unimportant. (This is true even within the middle section of the book; when Professor Snape takes away ten points from Gryffindor, it's almost an afterthought.)
The most pointed thing about the book, for adult readers, is J.K Rowling's dead-on satire of political correctness and the press. The jab against political correctness involves Hermione Granger, the Lisa Simpson of Hogwarts, and her crusade to end the slavery of the Hogwarts house-elves. Rowling follows up this jab with a vicious uppercut at tabloid journalism. Her target is Rita Skeeter, a muckracking journalist with the Daily Propher, who specializes in gossip, innuendo, and great big whoppers about Harry and friends.
Younger readers will have much to amuse themselves with as well. Harry undergoes all of the strains of young teenagers, the awkwardness of a school dance, suddenly being on the outs with friends, the mean-spirited comments of the leader of the in-crowd, and a nearly-radioactive surge of jealousy from one and all when he is picked to be...
Well, that would give too much away. However, I can say that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the most exciting of Harry's tales yet. It may be a tad too grim for the smallest of the wee ones in spots, but it should more than satisfy the legion of Harry Potter loyalists. Within these pages -- all 734 of them -- there is enough courage, treachery, honor, sneakiness, trust, meanness, and good old-fashioned decency to fill the pages of a hundred lesser volumes. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire deserves the highest praise I can give it: it was worth the wait.
This is a reposted review, appearing earlier on Epinions in much the same format. Movie reviews by this author that formerly appeared on this site are available at txreviews.com.
General Juvenile / Children's Fiction - Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from th...More at Barnes and Noble
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