Chapter 1
a. Précis
b. Tracking the vote count
c. Levels of Conflict, Levels of Experience
d. Plot and sub-plots
e. Structure
f. Structure: Point of View
g. The Epigraphs
Précis
The Casual Vacancy is about a town named Pagford which is divided about how to care for struggling neighbors. The town (or “parish”) has a council that is divided evenly, eight to eight, about two questions: (1) whether to keep a housing project (“council housing,” in Britain) within town limits, or re-draw boundaries and give responsibility and votes to the city next door; and (2) whether to keep a drug rehabilitation center open. At the beginning of the story, the leader of the more liberal faction, Barry Fairbrother, dies suddenly; and his death creates a vacancy on the parish council. Such a vacancy between elections is called a “casual vacancy.” The head of the council, and leader of the conservative faction, Howard Mollison, schedules an election to fill the vacancy.
The political struggle has a specific personal focus, in the Weedon family. Terri Weedon, a heroin addict, lives in the Fields (the council housing project), and gets counseling and support and methadone at the Bellchapel Addiction Clinic. Barry Fairbrother has done a lot of work with Terri’s daughter Krystal; he recruited her for a rowing team, and gave her a sense of hope and personal worth. But Howard also knows Krystal: she once punched his grand-daughter and knocked out two of her teeth. Howard despises her.
The first quarter of the book is about Barry’s death and preparations for his funeral, including discussions about how to fill his seat on the parish council. In this long chapter, all the main characters appear, and each is defined in part by his or her (a) reaction to death and (b) views about social justice.
The parish prepares for the election of a new counselor. Howard’s son Miles runs for the vacant seat. Two of Barry’s friends – Dr. Parminder Jawanda and Colin (“Cubby”) Wall – run, dividing the pro-Fields vote. A fourth candidate, Simon Price, also starts a campaign, but is embarrassed by an anonymous post on the parish council website, attributed to the “Ghost of Barry Fairbrother,” revealing Simon’s pattern of petty criminal activity. He drops out.
The ghost post is actually written by Simon’s son, who is mortified by his father’s behavior. Two other teenagers see the post and figure out how to imitate it, also posting attacks on their parents, also signed “Ghost of Barry Fairbrother.” All the three posts attack candidates to fill the vacant seat.
While the parish is preparing for the decisions and the election, Krystal’s great-grandmother, who provided some stability, dies. Then Krystal is raped in her own home. Both adults who would have helped her – Nana Cath and Barry Fairbrother – have died.
Howard schedules a vote on whether to keep the Fields in Pagford without waiting to fill the vacancy, and he prevails. But a reporter from the city paper is there, covering embarrassing scenes in the election, including posts about the personal lives of three candidates put on the parish council website by hackers. The reporter also observes an emotional scene when one candidate, a physician, denounces Howard loudly for being as irresponsible as any addict, letting himself become grossly overweight and using vast amounts of public money on his health care. In the uproar, the council postpones the vote on whether to close the addiction center. The next day, the town votes to fill the casual vacancy, and Miles is elected.
That evening, there is a party to celebrate Howard’s 65th birthday. He has achieved his life’s goals: he got rid of the Fields, put his heir on the parish council, and expanded his shop to include a restaurant. However, the next day, everything falls apart. There is a new post on the council website allegedly from the Ghost of Barry Fairbrother, this one attacking Howard. His wife believes he has committed adultery, and plans to kill him. He has a heart attack first, and is hospitalized.
Krystal finds her little brother alone in a room with the man who raped her, and removes him from the house immediately. She goes to Pagford planning to get pregnant and then get council housing, where she can take care of her little brother. However, the planned impregnation goes awry; her brother wanders off alone, and falls in the river. Another neglected teenager, Sukhvinder Jawanda, sees him drowning, and jumps in to save him. She fails to save the little boy, and almost drowns herself. Krystal follows her brother into death, by overdosing with her mother’s drugs.
The final scene in the book is another funeral, for the two Weedon children. The funeral is organized by Sukhvinder, who has won her parents’ respect for the first time in her life; they help her, and put up the funds for the funeral. The vicar did not know the Weedons, and does not give a good eulogy. Sukhvinder silently recalls Krystal’s strength and laughter and courage.
Tracking the vote count
During the period covered in the story, the Pagford Parish Council was divided over two issues: whether to transfer the Fields to Yarvil, and whether to close the Bellchapel Addiction Clinic. The questions were similar, and no one split their vote; at the outset, Barry Fairbrother’s side had eight votes to keep the Fields and keep open the clinic, and Howard Mollison’s side had eight votes to transfer the Fields and close the clinic.
At the outset: 8-8
When Barry died of an aneurysm, the vote on both issues was 8-7.
At that point, the vote on the Fields was taken. But Parminder disrupted the meeting, and the vote on the clinic was not taken. The make-up of the council was still a matter of grave concern.
Miles was elected, filling Barry’s seat: 9-7, against the clinic
Howard had a heart attack: 8-7 against the clinic
Parminder resigned: 8-6 against the clinic
In the final chapter, as preparations went forward for another funeral, Samantha spoke to her husband, the de facto chair of the council. She proposed that Colin take Parminder’s seat. 8-7, against the clinic
She proposed that she fill the other vacancy. She was Howard’s daughter-in-law, but not his ally. If Miles accepted her proposal, the council vote at the end would be: 8-8, tie. The clinic’s status would not change; it would stay open.
But further, both Miles and Samantha were growing up. Beyond the scope of the novel, would Samantha turn Miles around? Final tally, apparently: 9-7, for the clinic
Levels of Conflict, Levels of Experience
1. LOCAL POLITICS. The title of the novel refers to a vacancy on a town council. The legal term for a vacancy on the town council between regularly scheduled elections is “casual vacancy,” and so there is a “casual vacancy” when Barry Fairbrother dies. But there isn’t really anything relaxed and “casual” about it. The council was split evenly on two questions when Barry died, and Barry was the leader of one faction. Unless the vacancy created by his death is filled promptly, and properly, the town will make two terrible decisions. Is it possible to fill his shoes?
2. JUSTICE. The decisions that the council is facing concern a dilapidated housing development, or “council housing” (called “the Fields”), and an addiction clinic (Bellchapel Addiction Clinic) that serves many residents of the development. The project is between the town and a city, and some members of the council would like to re-draw the map, and unload the poor on the nearby city. Further, these same members would like to shut down addiction clinic. Should they? Will they?
3. CHILD IN DANGER. Krystal Weedon cannot protect herself. She lives in squalor in the Fields, and her mother is an addict, getting help sometimes from the addiction clinic. Krystal wants to get out of it, and is desperate to protect her little brother. After the death of Barry Fairbrother, who understood her and protected her, will anyone else advocate for them? Without these social supports, what will happen to Krystal, her mother, and her brother? Will they survive, or thrive?
4. TWO ENEMIES. The conflict in the novel is partly personal – the head of the council, Howard Mollison, who wants to get rid of the Fields and close Bellchapel, versus Barry Fairbrother, who was born in the Fields. Barry dies on the third page of the book, but his memory and his ideas do not disappear. Who will win?
5. TANGLED LOYALTIES. The conflict involves two political decisions that reflect different attitudes toward society. Should the town (or “parish”) be responsible for the people who live in a run-down low-cost housing project, the Fields? And should the town continue to rent out space for the Bellchapel Addiction Clinic, which serves some of the people from the Fields? Howard prevails on the first question, when the council votes to turn the project over to the neighboring city. But at the end of the book, there is a clear suggestion that the council is again deadlocked, that the vote on the addiction clinic will not go the way Howard wanted. Howard filled Barry’s seat with an ally, his son. But then Howard is incapacitated, and it appears that his seat is likely to be filled by his daughter-in-law Samantha, who may vote to keep the clinic open – and, indeed, may sway other votes. Which way will she go?
6. IS ANYONE IRREPLACEABLE? The conflict is not just about these two men and their political views. Throughout the book, Rowling explores the vacancy that is created when Barry dies. This vacancy is not just a seat on the council; it is far deeper than that. One might consider Barry to be the conscience of the town; with his death, the voice of conscience is extinguished, or at least weakened. Why? With each character in the book, it seems that Rowling explores why this person opposes Barry’s ideas, or supports them ineffectively. What’s wrong with this character? What’s missing? What’s the vacancy?
7. IS THE CHURCH DEAD?
Setting … The town is dominated – visually, and perhaps spiritually – by the ruin of an abbey. The Church was a force in ages past, but it is not today. There are reminders everywhere – the main street is Church Row, the book opens and closes with funerals at the Church of St. Michael and All Saints, two of the three schools mentioned are named for saints, St. Thomas and St. Ann.
Character … Despite the Christian setting, the only character who thinks seriously about God is the Sikh doctor, Parminder Jawanda. Parminder prays, not just when she is desperate, or when someone sneezes; she reads about a spiritual life, contrasts her life with the ideal offered in her scriptures, sees her shortcomings honestly, and tries to do better. She seeks wisdom. But the Scripture that she reads is from an Indian mystic, not the Bible. The Jawanda family lives in the old Parsonage at the end of Church Row, and some people are disturbed to have Sikhs (or Muslims or whatever they are) in the house that was built in ages past for a traditional jowly be-whiskered parson.
Theme … Parminder’s daughter, Sukhvinder, is the character who steps forward to help Krystal and her little brother when they are in grave danger. Sukhvinder is disturbed by the image of St. Michael, who is casually white, and serene about killing a dark-skinned enemy. So: is conscience alive but the Church dead? Is it the Church that is casually vacant? Is the heart of the community casually vacant of Christianity? Is the heart of the community casually vacant of concern for Krystal? In this nominally Christian community, where is God, the Father of all? Where is Jesus, Lord and fair brother? Where is the Spirit of Love?
8. CONSCIENCE OF THE COMMUNITY. The book does not reveal the author’s position on the absence of the Church, and on whether that is the key problem. And of course, it is possible to explore the role of conscience without examining specific religious views. Barry is the conscience of the town, whether or not he and they are Christian. So, after his death, who will stir the conscience of the town? Who will lead a fight to protect people in need? That can be a question about Christianity, or more simply about conscience. The novel explores the thoughts and decisions of 15 different residents reacting to a series of events, including Barry’s death, his funeral, plans for an election, the election, more death, and another funeral. What is going on in their consciences?
Plot and sub-plots
Parish council faces two decisions
On one level, the plot in The Casual Vacancy involves the decisions by and about the town’s governing body, the parish council of Pagford. The council weighs two proposals from its Chair: (1) to end responsibility for a run-down housing development, turning it over to a neighboring city that wants the voters; and (2) to close an addiction clinic whose clients are (still!) addicts. The council is divided 8-8 on both issues at the beginning of the story. However, the leader of the opposition dies suddenly of an aneurysm.
The death of this leader, Barry Fairbrother, creates a “casual vacancy” on the parish council. “Casual vacancy” is the technical term for a vacancy between regularly scheduled elections. The Chair of the council, Howard Mollison, schedules an election, and recruits his son to run. Two other candidates appear, one a supporter of Barry’s ideas, the other an ignorant and violent man who believes he can use the council seat to collect bribes.
The council votes on the housing project before the election to fill the vacant. The outcome is not a surprise; by a vote of 8-7, the council decides to transfer the housing project to the city. One of Barry’s supporters, Dr. Parminder Jawanda, loses her temper and disrupts the meeting, so there is no vote on the addiction clinic.
In the next few days, Howard’s son is elected, and Howard’s faction seems to have a secure 9-7 majority for the pending decision. Then there are two changes: Howard has a heart attack, and Barry’s fiery supporter resigns. Each side on the council loses one vote; the factions stand at 8-6.
The matter of the addiction clinic does not come to a vote, but there is a surprise in filling the two new vacancies. Howard’s daughter-in-law makes two suggestions that are likely to be followed, but after the end of this story. She suggests that Parminder’s seat go to another of Barry’s supporters, and that she fill Howard’s vacancy. She does not explain that she is likely to support the addiction clinic. Her suggestions, if adopted without any new developments, would return the council to a standoff, 8-8, and the clinic would stay open.
But counting votes is not the heart of the novel.
Barry versus Howard
Barry Fairbrother, who works to keep the housing project (the “Fields”) and the clinic (Bellchapel Addiction Clinic), dies. However, he was loved and respected by many people, and his ideas do not die with him. The heart of the story involves a struggle to fill the hole his death left – a vacancy that is not casual for anyone. One character after another defines himself or herself by reference to Barry, by comparison to a man who was something of a saint. The comparisons reveal emotional or psychological or behavioral problems or issues or gaps – vacancies – in the lives of one person after another.
Howard Mollison claims triumph on the council, and other parts of his life flourish. He runs a shop in the middle of town, on the town square, and expands it successfully, adding a café to his deli. He grew up in Pagford, and his whole life revolves around the parish, and he is Chair of the parish council. In fact, he gets his son onto the council as his obvious heir apparent. So he celebrates his 65th birthday at the peak of life – and then has a heart attack the next day. When wife his finds him on the floor in agony, she is planning to murder him. She calls an ambulance instead of killing him, but he is unable to speak, and they continue their lives with an unresolved tension between them.
Krystal and Terri Weedon versus destruction
The disagreement between Barry and Howard is not abstract; it affects lives. The clearest examples of the importance of the council decisions are found in a troubled family, the Weedons. Terri Weedon is an addict who lives in the Fields. She has four children, including two already removed by social services and placed with other families, and two still with her. When she uses, she supports herself by prostitution. Her large extended family is fed up with her. Without the clinic’s support, she will be lost. She is not enthusiastic about the clinic, but goes because she will lose her two remaining children if social workers see any more trouble.
Her daughter Krystal provides Barry’s argument for the Fields, and Howard’s argument against the Fields. Krystal went to the elementary school in Pagford, much to Howard’s disgust, and is now at the comprehensive school in the city. Barry visited there, to build a rowing team, and he recruited her because she was strong. With Barry’s coaching, she becomes something of a leader. She is still a terrible student and a chronic trouble-maker; but she has some successes. She is funny, and she never gives up.
Howard, by contrast, has never forgotten that she punched his grand-daughter and knocked out two of her teeth. The girl, Lexie, probably had it coming because she snubbed Krystal, and the teeth were loose already; but Howard holds a grudge. When the girls finish elementary school, Howard helps his son to afford a private boarding school, to keep his grandchildren out of the comprehensive school where they would be exposed to the likes of Krystal. He wants the parish boundaries re-drawn to exclude Krystal and others like her, and he wants to close the clinic where Terri gets temporary relief but has not broken the power of her addiction.
Krystal seems unaware of the plan to re-draw the town’s borders, but she is aware that the clinic is threatened, and knows what it means for Terri.
Krystal’s problems go beyond the future of the clinic. Her mom’s drug dealer, Obbo, wants to store things at their house – including stolen goods and large quantities of drugs. Krystal knows that if Terri gets caught with any of that, Robbie will be placed in a foster home. Even worse, shortly after Barry dies, Krystal’s great-grandmother also dies. Nana Cath was the only reasonable and helpful family member in Krystal’s slender support system. She is left alone and desperate when Obbo rapes her.
She is determined to protect her little brother Robbie, and when she realizes that Obbo is threat to Robbie as well as herself, she grabs him and flees. She comes up with a plan that is plausible – not secure or moral or wise, but plausible. She decides to get pregnant, using Fats, who is using her to figure out how sex works. If she has a baby, she thinks she can get some social support, including housing independent of her mom, and maybe some extra things like a TV from Fats’s family. Then she can take care of Robbie herself.
She finds Fats, finds a semi-secluded spot, tries to distract Robbie with a handful of chocolate, and takes a shot at pregnancy. But Robbie gets bored, interrupts her and Fats, then wanders off. Robbie gets lost, panics, sees a few adults who don’t help, then falls in the river. A friend of Krystal’s sees him and tries to save him, but fails, and he drowns.
Police find Krystal, hysterical, running up and down the river to find her brother. They try to comfort her, and then take her home. Krystal locks herself inside, and uses her mother’s drugs for the first time, deliberately overdosing in order to stay with her little brother.
Sukhvinder, the girl who tried to save Robbie, organizes a funeral for the two dead kids. The vicar doesn’t know them, and doesn’t have anything good to say about them. But one boy recalls privately that she saved his life when they were small, getting medical help when he had an extreme allergic reaction that would have killed him in another minute or two. She never got any credit for that, because the punching incident was the next day. Sukhvinder, also privately, recalls the day when the rowing team beat some rich and snotty rivals, inspired by Krystal’s humor and guts and love. Her private funeral – her silent eulogy – pushes Krystal into a category with Juliet, an extraordinary young women who died for love.
At the close of the story, Howard’s daughter-in-law is likely to keep the clinic, and Terri’s family, shoved forward by Sukhvinder’s actions, steps forward to help her.
Miles and Samantha: the second generation of Mollisons
One sub-plot involves Howard’s son Miles and his wife Samantha. Will he grow up and be independent of his overbearing dad and doting mom? Will she grow up and set aside adolescent dreams?
Miles is a weak character, obedient to his parents’ wishes, reporting his triumphs to them dutifully. Samantha is scornful, and dreams of the strong and muscular young man she thought she was marrying. She has her own business, selling bras, a business she understands in part because she herself has large breasts, which she flouts.
Her anger at her husband for being such a weakling gives the reader insight into the older Mollisons.
At the birthday party, she gets drunk and grabs a pimply teenage boy to kiss. Miles sees it, and pulls her off. The next day, she refuses to talk about it and runs out of the house. While she is on the run, she sees Robbie panicking, but doesn’t help. When Robbie drowns, she is shocked, and stops drinking. She tells Miles that she saw him and didn’t help, and he defends her promptly. That restores their relationship.
She offers to help Miles re-organize the parish council, and suggests that Miles bring in one of Barry’s supporters to take the place of the one who resigned. She also offers to take a council seat herself, replacing Howard. What Miles and the council decide to do is beyond the scope of the novel, but it seems likely that he will accept her ideas.
She has started thinking about her drinking, and is not opposed to the addiction clinic. If she takes the seat, she is likely to defend it, and her vote will keep it open. It is also plausible, but beyond the scope of this novel, that she and Miles will both grow up, and that he will listen to her. She is likely to defend the clinic, and may also convince Miles to do so.
They end up quite well indeed.
The Wall family struggle
Colin Wall is neurotic, obsessive-compulsive, subject to extreme anxiety, sometimes incapable of separating his fears from reality. His wife is a competent counselor – at work and at home. They adopted a son, because she was desperate to be a mom, but he was afraid of doing damage to his son, and attempted suicide. Can they keep it together, and raise their son well?
The whole Wall family is tied to the Winterdown Comprehensive School in Yarvil. Colin, nick-named Cubby, is deputy headmaster (in America, that would be assistant principal). Tessa is a guidance teacher (in America, head of the counseling department). Stu, nick-named Fats, is an aggressive under-achiever and troublemaker who is reading Nietzsche and flirting with nihilism. His experiments in authenticity lead him to test detachment and cruelty.
Fats and Krystal are engaged in mutual exploitation when Robbie falls in the river. Fats is deeply shocked when he understands what happened when they were ignoring the child, and he falls apart. His mother, who had been a gentle and nurturing parent, attacks him for his selfishness and cowardice, and tells him that Colin, the father that Fats holds in such contempt, has been facing up to things he didn’t do for decades, with a courage that Fats cannot imagine.
Fats hears it, and learns to listen to his awkward but authentic dad.
Price family: will Simon be caught and punished, or will he prosper?
The Price family sub-plot is simple. Simon is brutal: will he get away with it? Andrew does punish Simon severely, successfully. Simon does not know who hit him, or why, but he gets what he deserves. His power is not broken; he will beat his wife and kids some more. But Ruth has long since figured out how to live her life despite the crazy man, and Andrew is making hopeful plans. Simon’s brutal power is in decline.
The Jawanda Family: Will Parminder lose her license? Will Sukhvinder be broken by her tormenters?
The Jawanda story is wry and beautiful. Parminder has a hot temper that gets her in trouble repeatedly. In the end, her prayer inches ahead of her anger. Parminder defines success with shallow criteria: grades and public recognition and income. But when her little Cinderella arises from the ashes, she loves her daughter. Her patient husband is pleased to see Parminder learn patience and love.
Sukhvinder: well, she is Cinderella. Everyone looks down on her, including Sukhvinder herself. But when she is put to a real test, she acts selflessly immediately, and jumps into the river to save Robbie. In the hospital, with her self-inflicted cuts on her arms, and a deep gash on her leg from jumping onto the computer Simon dumped in the river, she cuts one more time. “It was as if she was still underwater. Sukhvinder was somewhere she could not breathe. She tried to cut through it all, to be heard.” She succeeds, and what is inside Sukhvinder comes out – concern for her friend: “Does Krystal know he’s dead?” Then, given power by her new fame, she protects the dignity of her friend Krystal.
Will Kay dump Gavin?
Yes. And he will crawl back. And she will slam the door. Cool.
Chasing, snogging, and shagging
The novel does not include any developed sub-plots about teens falling in love. But to follow the story, it is useful to know who’s friends with whom.
The strongest bond in this category is the long-time friendship between Fats and Andrew. This childhood friendship is just breaking up during the spring of this story. They are both becoming interested in girls. Their time together in their private and well-hidden cave in the bank of the river ends when Robbie drowns, and Andrew shows Tessa where Fats is hiding.
But before that end, they do share some insights – immature and incomplete, but much more interesting than anything coming out of most of the adults. They get high, and then try to figure out what matters in life. There’s death and sex – avoid the first and get the second. Then Andrew adds music, and Fats agrees.
Fats hooks up with Krystal. Their friends, on both sides, are a little puzzled by the relationship, but it works. Fats wants sex, and Krystal obliges. There is not much tenderness in the relationship – maybe none at all. The dynamic changes when Krystal takes some initiative, deciding that she wants a baby. She does not expect Fats to cooperate on purpose, and is sure he will disappear if she gets pregnant, but a baby is a route to independence. And Fats’s mom will probably give her grandchild some good things.
Andrew pursues Gaia. She is contemptuous of the pimply kid, but he is not clear about her reaction, and hopes. In the end, they are both preparing to leave Pagford; she is probably returning to London, and he is probably moving to Reading. She offers to keep in touch, and he is pleased.
Fats entertains himself and his friends by tormenting Sukhvinder. Andrew is not much entertained, but doesn’t object.
Sukhvinder is a loner, generally, but the Fairbrother twins sometimes pull her into their lives, out of pity. Gaia befriends Sukhvinder, partly because they are both outsiders, and partly to reject the shallowness of the people who expect her to choose friends who are attractive and popular. She does row with the Fairbrothers and Krystal. The only time they ever saw (or reported seeing) Barry Fairbrother get angry was when Krystal called Sukhvinder “Paki bitch.” Krystal apologized later, when no one was watching; the insult was careless noise, and the apology was sincere; Sukhvinder was touched.
At the very end of the story, Andrew dredges up an old memory: Krystal saved his life when they were little kids. Fats gave him a peanut to see what would happen, and what happened was that he almost died. Krystal ran for help. Andrew forgot about the incident for years.
Structure
Parts, sections, chapters
The structure of the novel is a little messy, like real life. It has is 392 pages long, with seven parts, so the average length of a part is about 56 pages. But Part one has 144 pages, more than a third of the book. Part Six has 11 pages, and Part Seven has 16. So that’s a little uneven. The reason for the uneven-ness is clear when you know the story: the first part introduces a townful of characters, which takes some time; the sixth part is the climax, which is powerful but quick; and the 7th part is an emotional resolution, which deserves its own part but is also quick.
Each Part has un-named sub-parts, and Part One has two levels of un-named sub-parts. (There are hunks inside the thingies in Part One.) I’m calling them sections and chapters, to impose order.
Part One is also a little messy. It has seven sections: “Sunday,” “Monday,” “Olden Days,” “Tuesday,” “Wednesday,” “Friday,” and “Saturday.” “Sunday,” the beginning of the story, is about Barry’s death. “Monday” sketches some reactions to his death, and begins to reveal the key conflicts. “Olden Days” is a long flashback, giving the background of the conflict and putting it in a clear and comprehensible context. “Tuesday” through “Friday,” we meet the rest of the principal characters. “Saturday” is Barry’s funeral.
Within Part One, most sections have chapters, but two are short, not broken into chapters.
Parts Two through Six are broken in chapters. Part Six is short, but has quick and punchy chapters. Part Seven is short, and is not broken in chapters.
Shifting Perspectives
Many of the chapters have several pieces, separated by a skipped line. This final level, distinguishing the components of the novel, has to do with the narrator. The story is told from about 18 different points of view. There is an omniscient narrator; the omniscient narrator is one of the 18 voices. But most of the story is told from a limited third person perspective – serially, through the eyes of one character after another. The perspective generally changes from chapter to chapter, except in the “Olden Days” section. But some chapters present several points of view, skipping a line to signal the shift, especially the chapters covering complex social events such as the funerals and Howard’s birthday party.
Chronology
The story runs chronologically, for the most part, covering a two month period. There are flashbacks, including the long background section, “Olden Days.” Other flashbacks are simple to identify; they are in parentheses.
Part One covers a week, from Barry’s death to his funeral.
Parts Two through Four cover a couple of weeks each.
Part Five covers a weekend, but it is packed with action including the announcement of the results of the election, a party, an attempted murder, a flight from rape, a desperate seduction, and an accidental death.
Part Six covers a few hours Sunday evening, same weekend as Part Five.
Part Seven picks up three weeks later, and covers one day – a funeral. It includes flashbacks and memories.
Structure: Point of View
The perspective through which we see and hear the story shifts often. Some of the story is told through by an omniscient narrator. But most of it is told through the eyes of third person narrators, one after another. Some chapters are told through the eyes of a single character; some are told with one perspective after another. Most have two or three perspectives, including the omniscient narrator.
The characters whose eyes we borrow most often are Andrew (16 times), Samantha (15 times), Tessa (15 times), Shirley (14 times), and Gavin (13 times). They are not trivial characters, but they are not the major characters either.
We see and hear the story through Howard eight times, Krystal eight times, and Sukhvinder seven times. They are key characters, and we do get inside their minds, but do not track the story through them.
We get Terri’s perspective only twice, but both are extraordinary passages.
Other characters whose perspective we use include: Miles (7), Simon (2), Ruth (6), Colin (9), Fats (8), Parminder (9), Mary (2), and perhaps Robbie (1).
There are some passages in which one can argue that we are not seeing anything through a character; the omniscient narrator is reporting on that character. When Robbie is panicking, for instance, and we read about the people he saw (367 ff), do we get that from Robbie or the omniscient narrator? Nonetheless, despite this ambiguous overlap, it is important to keep track of the third person narrators, and not run all the narratives together in the mouth of an omniscient narrator. One clear example of when it matters has to do with perceptions of the Fields. Howard compares the squalor of the Fields – “boarded windows daubed with obscenities; smoking teenagers loitering in the perennially defaced bus shelters; satellite dishes everywhere, turned to the skies like the denuded ovules of grim metal flowers” (52) – with the pattern in the next housing development, where more people own their homes, and there are “window boxes and porches and neat front lawns” (51). But Fats sees details that are not apparent when you pass by quickly: “Moving past the putty-colored houses on foot, rather than in his mother’s car, he noticed that many of them were free of graffiti and debris, and that some imitated (as he saw it) the gentility of Pagford, with net curtains and ornaments on the windowsills” (65).
The Epigraphs
The seven Parts of the book, plus the “Olden Days” flashback in the middle of the Part One, all begin with epigraphs taken from a handbook for local governmental bodies in England, Charles Arnold-Baker’s Local Council Administration, Seventh Edition. The book is not fictional; the eighth edition is available on Amazon for $120. However, the excerpts are not there to give instructions on a parish council; Rowling uses the excerpts to point at themes that she intends to explore. Seven of the eight include the name of a section, a name that is appropriate for the Part she is opening, such as “Fair Comment,” “Duplicity,” and “Lunacy.” The epigraph for the first Part does not include a name, but does explain the literal meaning of the title of the book; it is the regulation explaining a “casual vacancy.”
Part One: “6.11. A casual vacancy is deemed to have occurred: (a) when a local councillor fails to make his declaration of acceptance of office within the proper time; or (b) when his notice of resignation is received; or (c) on the day of his death… Charles Arnold-Baker Local Council Administration, Seventh Edition.
This dry definition explains where Rowling got her title, and points toward the key theme of the book. When a charismatic and loving leader dies, can others fill his vacancy? If so, how? If not, why not? What are the vacancies in the town or in the hearts of the people, that make it hard to fill the shoes of Barry Fairbrother?
The flashback within Part One is entitled “(Olden Days)” with the parentheses included. The title is not taken from the manual; the manual has its own title for the quoted excerpt: Trespassers. 12: 43 As against trespassers (who, in principle, must take other people’s premises and their occupiers as they find them)…
The flashback explains the background of the division in the town, and the conflict between Barry Fairbrother and Howard Mollison. It has to do with a housing development built by the neighboring city of Yarvil, but within the boundaries of the town of Pagford. When a wealthy landowner sold the parcel of land to the city in the 1950s, that caused a bitter fight. Pagford has become a bedroom community for Yarvil, a suburb; but it has its own proud history, independent of the city. Many of the people of Pagford, especially the older citizens, recall and cherish its olden days, and resent the intrusion of the city and its problems. They consider the whole housing development, the Fields, to be trespassers into their idyllic lives.
Part Two has an epigraph entitled “Fair Comment.” 7.33 Fair comment on a matter of public interest is not actionable.
Part Two is, on one level, about the coming vote on the parish council, and the coming election to fill a seat on the council. The council regulations specify that argument in this situation, even if robust, should not lead to lawsuits. Public debate should be open and free, without fear.
Accordingly, one aspect of the chapter is Howard’s plan to respond in print to Barry’s article about the good people of the Fields. Howard plans to attack them as druggies, and move to close the addiction center.
Much of the story is about what is hidden, including matters of great interest, perhaps not public. Andrew “told Fats nearly everything, but the few omissions were the vast topics, the ones that occupied nearly all his interior space” (170).
One of the key incidents in this part of the book is the first of the four Ghost posts. Andrew, determined to hit back at his dad, and also determined to knock him out of the council race if possible, hacks into the Parish Council website and posts a message that he signs “The Ghost of Barry Fairbrother.” It accuses Simon Price of being a thief – saying that he recently obtained a stolen computer, and has been doing print jobs on the side for years using his employer’s equipment and supplies.
The conflicts in the story will not be resolved by open and fair debate. The epigraph serves notice that it will be interesting to pay attention to issues of candor and fear.
Part Three opens with an epigraph entitled “Duplicity.” 7.25 A resolution should not deal with more than one subject… Disregard of this rule usually leads to confused discussion and may lead to confused action…
Obviously, the rules of debate and decision-making on a council do not apply to rest of life, and certainly not to a novel, in which nearly every word and item is subject to interpretation on several levels.
One of the subtleties of the novel involves this council principle. Howard is the leader of the faction that has worked for years to get rid of the Fields. But within the Fields, what Krystal and Terri are worried about is whether the addiction clinic will stay open. Howard puts the two issues together: dump the Fields and close the clinic. When the matter does come to a vote, the two questions are kept separate.
It is by no means obvious that there is more duplicity in Part Three than elsewhere in the book. Rather, the titles of the middle Parts seem to suggest that there are themes that run through the book that are worth watching, including candor and duplicity.
The epigraph for Part Four: Lunacy 5.11 At common law, idiots are subject to a permanent legal incapacity to vote, but persons of unsound mind may vote during lucid intervals.
Part Four does in fact open with mild lunacy, but it is not severe enough to threaten the right to vote: Samantha Mollison has not yet faced the fact that she is not longer a teenager.
The description of the council vote on the Fields, in chapter 8, and also the description of election day, in chapter 10, do include rollicking lunacy. Parminder erupts during the council meeting, unprofessionally, passionately, destructively, delightfully. And on election day, there is no visible disruption, but Samantha defaces her ballot, Tessa skips voting for the first time, and Ruth throws out her voter card.
Part Four ends with mild lunacy. Gavin and Kay finally break up, which is sane; but then Gavin promptly goes off in pursuit of Mary, which is not.
The epigraph for Part Five: Privilege 7.32 A person who has made a defamatory statement may claim privilege for it if he can show that he made it without malice and in pursuit of a public duty.
The epigraph refers, on its literal level, to council discussions; but the title refers to other levels of reality as well. Howard is privileged, but abuses his privileges. What comes of it?
Part Five is action-packed, fast-paced, grim. It includes Howard’s 65th birthday party, the zenith of his life. He gets rid of the Fields, anoints his son as his successor, expands his business, pats a pretty fanny, and collects accolades from everyone who matters. But the next day, in a Biblical turn of events, he has a heart attack, and lies on the floor unable to communicate. His wife plans to kill him; she doesn’t do it, but the matter is left unresolved; he cannot know what she might do next, and she does not know whether he understood her intent.
Howard’s claim of privilege, and his abuse of it, has consequences for others, promptly. On the same day as his heart attack, Krystal finds that her mother has relapsed and is using drugs again, and also discovers Obbo abusing little Robbie. She takes Robbie and flees, desperate. By the end of the day, her plan to protect her little brother has gone awry, and he has drowned.
The claim of privilege applies if the speaker that he is not speaking with malice, and is pursuing a public duty. For sure, nothing that Howard said or did could lead to prosecution in a court of law. But the reader, with some access to the character’s heart, may have a nuanced attitude toward Howard’s malice or innocence.
Part Six: Weaknesses of Voluntary Bodies 22.23 …The main weaknesses of such bodies are that they are hard to launch, liable to disintegrate…
This epigraph is clearly ironic. On a literal level, it is about the weakness of volunteers, as opposed to officially authorized and delegated – and paid – staff. But reality is far more complicated. The strongest individual in the story, the one who did the most good for the poor in the Fields, was Barry, who acted as volunteer. In this chapter, two of the people who are on Barry’s side fail to help Krystal, in part because they are paid staff.
After Robbie’s death, Krystal remains determined to protect him. She comes up against the limitations of her body; it’s hard to launch and it’s liable to disintegrate. Like Juliet, though, she thinks she can find a solution, turning weakness into strength.
The epigraph in Part Seven is also highly provocative, like the epigraphs in Parts One and Six. Relief of Poverty… 13.5 Gifts to benefit the poor… are charitable, and a gift for the poor is charitable even if it happens incidentally to benefit the rich…
The principal gift in this extraordinary Part is, of course, Sukhvinder’s gift. Sukhvinder risks her life to save Robbie, and fails; but when she comes out of the water, she is transformed. She organizes the funeral for her friend, and pays tribute to a person that others were condemning. But in accord with the epigraph, Sukhvinder “happens accidentally to benefit.” Her commitment to loving action defines her in a new way: she is no longer a wimp, but a hero.
The regulation in the epigraph is narrow, but what unfolds in Sukhvinder’s life is immense. The regulation is about taxes and such; but on another level, the language points accidentally to some of the greatest mysteries of human life. Sukhvinder receives a benefit that may accrue in the wake of charity: she becomes a great human being.
When Sukhvinder tells her parents that she wants to organize a funeral for the Weedons, Parminder controls her destructive impatience successfully for the first time. Instead of saying no and then thinking of the teaching that “the light of God shines from every soul,” Parminder recalls the teaching first, and then says yes. So Sukhvinder’s transformation leads to her mother’s growth (391). The Weedons benefit from charity, but so do the Jawandas.
At Barry’s funeral, what was going through people’s minds was appallingly superficial, except for Parminder’s thoughts. By contrast, when the Weedon funeral begins, it pushes Samantha to speak up. She tells her husband that she saw Robbie running in panic, and did not help. Miles understands what is going on in her mind, and intervenes immediately, protecting her from the accusations in her heart: “You’re not to blame. You couldn’t have known” (388). This is transformative for Samantha; she moves toward maturity at long last. The train of causation here matters. Samantha is becoming a responsible adult in part because of the funeral – not solely because of it, but partly. There is a funeral because Sukhvinder made it happen. So Sukhvinder’s love spills over to change Samantha.
At the funeral, there are two more visible transformations. The last large piece of the story is Sukhvinder’s extraordinarily moving eulogy, but after it there is one more brief event in the denouement. Amidst the closing music, there is a brief but explosive moment concerning Terri. Krystal was the face of the Fields; now she is dead. Her mother is a far less sympathetic figure; but she is, for now, the face of the Fields. When Terri comes apart at the funeral, her family, which had rejected her, gathers around her (396 – final brief paragraph): that is a huge healing. And the people of Pagford, who had regarded her with disgust, avert their eyes: this, too, is a healing. Both of these changes – the family focusing on Terri and the town suspending judgment – come about because there is a funeral. Sukhvinder’s loving decision ripples out.
Sukhvinder’s decision has an impact on the Fields. She is not from the Fields, but can go there without fear of harassment, because the toughest kids there respect her and are ready to protect her. She is growing into a person who just might fill the critical vacancy – not Barry’s council seat, but Barry’s shoes.
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