Alas, how sad! The final Harry Potter book.
I admit that I'm not as enamored of the "story" as I was ten or so years ago when it began, but there are two things I love about the Harry Potter books that make me not ashamed to admit that I love them (since they are, by and large, childrens' books, or at the very least, not "elevated" fiction--the discussion of "low" versus "high" literature is always a useful one to have, btw).
1. It's amazing to witness such mass, international hoopla about a book in my lifetime. About books! How cool is that?
2. Universal themes and conflicts abound: life and death, good and evil, moral ambiguity, etc. And there's plenty more!
Narratively, I also enjoy the "shift" away from omniscience as the finale approaches--I remember this from the last few books, at least. As Harry gets less chagrined and seemingly starts to figure out what's going on, the narrative shifts away from his every thought until we are only acquainted, as his friends are, by his dialogue as to what he has discovered and figured out. It's symbolic, I am sure, of the great fight that he must fight alone--the willingness to face death. So I think this is an interesting writerly trick, which I appreciate.
I thought the plot was clever and riveting. I'm not much for suspense, but I plowed through this text at about one-hundred pages per hour (which means, by the way, that I am a fast reader and not a good one, since I apparently missed quite a few important details that my friends had to explain to me) because it was just that gripping. I loved finding out the truth about Dumbledore's death, I liked the itinerant camping of Harry and friends (though it did drag on a bit, come to think of it), I loved Ron's abdication, and o! how I wept at the death of Dobby (not to mention the others, whom I won't mention, actually, but how sad, sad, sad... I love when a book makes me cry, because it means I've been drawn irrevocably into the characters' world). Oh, yes, and I was kind of hoping the Dursleys would be permanently turned into hedgehogs or something, and they weren't.
The only part I didn't like was the "Nineteen Years Later" chapter ending; it was not necessary. I guess it added a little security, because otherwise we would wonder if Voldemort wasn't really dead (hey, it's not unprecendented). A friend of mine actually proposed that Rowling added this chapter to quell any notions people might have of another book. But I counter-theorized that maybe she was just introducing characters for her next series... At any rate, it was so happy-go-lucky, and the kids' names were so silly, that it just seemed corny. Little Albus, indeed!
Overall, this final book is probably the best in the series (though book three and book six also stand out to me) and is an ending befitting the most powerful literary "event" of our time. Even though in this witch-and-wizard-world of Rowling's there's a little too much "deus ex machina" run amok--that is, every time something doesn't make sense, Rowling can just invent a new reality; for example, "Oh, that's because you don't know about the Deathly Hallows!"--it's a bit of a cop-out, don't you think?). But how incredible is it that kids and grown-ups of all ages dress up, and have parties at midnight, and stay up all night for a book??? I think the momentum of it is impressive and exciting, and deservedly so. Hooray for Harry! In spite of his flaws (kind of a snarky main character, to pretend to be a bit British in my adjectives), he fights what we all fight--destruction, hopelessness, fear, despair, loneliness, and death... Not bad for a kids' book, eh?
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