Plot
I’ll be biased on this one. There are so many things in this world that I don’t like and number five on that list is Politics. This is the main reason why it took me 2 weeks to finish reading the book that could have been read for 2-3 days. While reading through the TCV pages, I kept losing energy to move to the next page. I admit that I was never a fan of politics and all I have is hate.
Reading TCV was like walking into oblivion where you just stop trying to determine the kind of direction you want to go. Maybe I’m crazy or just stupid, but I couldn’t understand the whole point of the book. Thus died Barry Fairbrother, the good old parish councilman. And nearly all of them developed a personal interest in the vacancy his death had created. And a war between pro and anti-Barry and his ideals suddenly engulfed the small town of Pagford. Within the two warring camps, mini-wars are also fought between married couples, parents and children, teenagers against teenagers, friends against friends, etc. On top of that, there are also issues of rape, prostitution, and poverty that need to be resolved. There are so many conflicts in the book that while reading it you will feel lost and have to do hasty revisions of the previous pages. In simpler words, there are a lot of conflicts in the book that didn’t connect at the end.
For example, I could not understand the need to kill Krystal Weedon (one of the important characters in the story) for something that is not related to the purpose of the book. The reason for her death was due to her own stupidity and selfishness and was in no way related to the main conflict of the book. At the end of the story, it was not resolved if the Bellchapel clinic would stay to cater for the rehabilitation of all drug addicts or if the Fields will be moved to Yarvil jurisdiction. She didn’t even provide a clear answer if her mother, Terri Weedon, had come to and put her heroin addiction behind her. And most importantly, how did Krystal’s death affect local elections in Pagford and the intentions of the people holding the seats on the Parish Council? Unfortunately, there is only a small impact.
And there was Miles, who ultimately won the election not because he was good but because he was the winner of all the losers who run for the occasional vacancy. In the end, there was no mention of what kind of steps he will take to improve the quality of life in Pagford, and more importantly, did the events of the book change his opinion of the Fields Clinic and Bellchapel?
There are so many things I would like to question about TCV. About how some scenes were more like fillers than essential to the representation of the whole plot. And as I’m writing this review right now, I feel the need to delete the entire document because I couldn’t even properly organize my thoughts about the book. It was confusing, like a magic spell gone haywire.
I suggest that if you want to know the whole story, please do the obvious and read it.
characters
So after the plot disappointed me, I am in for another disappointment with the characters. There are so many of them that I couldn’t empathize with any of them. The characters were shallow or self-centered or arrogant or just plain stupid. I don’t even like Mary Fairbrother, who, even at the death of her husband, she did not forgive. Seriously, isn’t there someone in the book who has the slightest redeeming quality? The old ones were even annoying as the teenagers.
Sometimes you love the book for its plot even though the characters are so hateful. But TCV has no plot or characters to love for. Pagford is full of self-righteous, self-centered, arrogant people. So you wonder why Pagford is still there and not falling apart.
Interaction and Dialogue
Well, the only redeeming thing about TCV is that I find the character interactions and dialogue witty and funny. And while some of the dialogue wasn’t the type to pass for intelligent conversation, it did give me a sense of well-being. I guess I have to say hello to JK Rowling for always making the conversations and interactions between the characters interesting, funny and sad at the same time.
I especially like the interactions between the Mollison family (Howard, Shirley, Miles, Samantha and well, Mo). And the Price family. The first family seemed to be close but, in a deeper sense, they are very divided. Like Shirley disliked Sam and vice versa. For example, Sam disliked her own husband, Miles. And who would forget the Price family? Brutal, sadistic and stupid father Simon Price and his wife who stopped using his brain. And Andrew Price, the acne-faced son, who I’m not quite sure if he’s on his mother’s side or his father’s.
General impression
For the effort and the interesting dialogues, I give TCV three (3) stars. The book could have saved face if:
- The ending didn’t make us hang on a cliffhanger.
- The plot wasn’t that complicated, it had a lot of corners to turn and only to find out that it was a dead end.
- There is a character that emerged as a hero/heroine at the end. I don’t see Krystal, Sukvhinder, Arf or Price in that category.
- The characters were not so many that while reading the book, you feel like you are choking from memorizing all the names of the characters.
moral lesson of history
This is a new part of my book review that I forgot to add to my previous reviews. Like I said in the “About Me” section, there are no junk books. Criticizing a novel is always based on your personal opinion and is therefore subjective. Apart from being a work of art, books are a great way to learn moral lessons that, in one way or another, teach us something as we go through life. No matter how frustrated I am with the book, there is always a silver lining and that is that I will learn something from what I have read.
TCV is actually a perfect representation of the concept “everything is connected to everything”. Each of our actions produces consequences that not only affect us but also affect (directly or indirectly) everyone and everything around us. This teaches us to always be attentive to our actions and anticipate the possible consequences.