Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader Review

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Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader ReviewMaybe you are a life-long learner sort, or a college professor interested in acquiring an insightful, but thoroughly accessible book about Rowling's series. Maybe you're a thoughtful Christian, who suspects the anti-Potter denunciations are not quite on the mark, but you can't quite articulate why. Maybe you just have a deep affection for the Harry Potter series and would like to discover more about the key techniques and overarching concerns embedded in these brilliant stories. Whatever the case, as long as you've actually read the Harry Potter books, and as long as you have the sort of mind that likes to go beneath and beyond the surface, I believe that you will appreciate Granger's Unlocking Harry Potter.Thoroughly accessible and intelligent, Granger uses a writing style that is a mix of the professor who knows how to communicate credible arguments, and the fan who loves to talk to other fans about Harry, Hagrid, and house-elves (the high destiny of house-elves in number seven? Hmm...).
Because there are a number of books about Harry Potter on the market, let me give you a brief explanation of Granger's goals, and a brief introduction to the chapters. His first and foremost goal is to argue that Rowling's Harry Potter series makes for serious, reflective reading, despite its obvious popular appeal. This he does most compellingly, by demonstrating Rowling's depth of intellect, literacy, and organizational powers. Granger also analyzes several fundamental aspects of both Rowling's storytelling formula and her underlying worldview (he calls them "keys"). Because of Rowling's fidelity to her formula and her worldview, predictions can be made about the upcoming Deathly Hallows, which, of course, Granger goes ahead and makes.
Chapter One discusses Rowling's first key - narrative misdirection. This involves the "voice" of the story. So what, you may ask? Let me tell you, Granger's explanation of narrative misdirection, how Rowling uses it, and what it means in the big picture, is great stuff - really great stuff. I'm not giving anything away here - you'll just have to plunk the money down and read it yourself. I think you'll be glad you spent the cash and the time.
Chapter Two discusses Rowling's second key - alchemy. Although I first thought this would be the most dreary and esoteric of topics, for me, this was the most eye-opening of the "keys." This is the key I now refer to the most when speaking to people who dismiss Harry either because of intellectual snobbery or bible-based opposition. In both this book, and his previous book, Looking for God in Harry Potter, Granger gives a great corrective about the meaning of alchemy both in history and in the Potter books. From the insights into Ron's red hair and Hermione's chemically-significant initials, to the more systematic explanation of how all the Potter books reflect a deeply spiritual process of personal transformation, Unlocking Harry Potter serves the thoughtful reader very well.
Chapter Three unpacks Rowling's storytelling formula, the third key, while also showing that her stories are not at all flatly formulaic. The beginning, middle, and end of Harry's yearly journeys all echo each other, for very significant reasons. It is also here that Granger predicts how, even though Half-Blood Prince seems to depart from the formula, in fact we will discover in the resolution of the seventh novel that the supposed departure is just another example of narrative misdirection (back to key one!)
Chapter Fours and Five speak to Rowling's position of being "in" the postmodern world (the fourth key) while not being completely "of" the postmodern world (the fifth key). That is, both the things Rowling addresses, and the way she addresses them, speak our language, and thus we resonate with her narratives. On the other hand, as Granger demonstrates, she critiques some of the most destructive and deconstructive and tendencies of postmodernism. Granger points out Rowling's criticisms of institutions (schools, the government, the press), that supposedly embody what we say are our most important ideals. Perhaps even more significantly, Granger systematically demonstrates that Rowling remains faithful to a fundamentally theistic worldview complete with real evil and real good.
Chapter Six is the chapter of predictions. What will happen in Deathly Hallows? These predictions are nothing like random guesses - if Granger is right about Rowling, then certain things should happen in book number seven. Now, Granger has made predictions before in other books and articles - some of the specific predictions were wrong. However (and this is a big however), details in successive Potter books have shown Granger to be substantially right about the Rowling "forest," even if he has mistaken some "trees." So, I'm looking forward even MORE to reading Deathly Hallows, not only to enjoy another Potter novel, but also to see how much of the forest, as well as how many of the trees, the author ultimately did get right.
I highly recommend this book.
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