JK Rowling's Newest Book...isn't Casual Vacancy

[oakstone730]

The Sunday Times broke the story first: JK Rowling released a book in April under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. It is called Cuckoo's Calling and it has received good reviews. A Publisher's Weekly reviewer starts their review with "In a rare feat, the pseudonymous Galbraith combines a complex and compelling sleuth and an equally well-formed and unlikely assistant with a baffling crime in his stellar debut."

Update: Amazon (U.S. and U.K.) have just sold out of their hardcover copies... now listing a 10-14 day wait.

Comments

[amorette.livejournal.com]

Oooooo clever, JKR. Very clever.

[oakstone730.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it! I even had it on my TBR list before I knew! We are going to have to order more copies...

[amorette.livejournal.com]

She was probably like, I wonder if people will read my stuff if it's not by JK ROWLING!

[drarryisgreen]

Wicked

[oakstone730.livejournal.com]

Wickedly delicious. How positively Slytherin.

[olivia-beige.livejournal.com]

Sunday morning email check, and it almost gave me a heart attack. :) That's awesome, Marty.

[oakstone730.livejournal.com]

No heart attacks! You need to live to read the book!

[olivia-beige.livejournal.com]

Yes! I just had tea and ran laps around the kitchen...for breathing exercise.

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

I didn't care for Casual Vacancy. I hope this one has more likable characters and a plot one can care about.

[drarryisgreen]

I agree with you. I sort of abandoned Casual Vacancy but I am 10 percent in already and I love this so much more. Something about a mystery is so much better than just random lives of random people -- if that makes sense.

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

I'm excited. I just got this book and I plan to spend time later getting started.

[drarryisgreen]

Sometimes a story about random people can be good
True, given that Harry Potter is really about random people and random lives :)

The only thing I liked in CV (before abandoning it) was the plight of the overweight Indian girl who cut herself. I can relate b/c I was an overweight Indian girl in HS who was made fun of and never asked to the prom. (Though I didn't do any self harm). I wanted to keep reading just for that family and maybe someday I will finish it. I have the book on my phone and the audio book on my phone.

:D

[oakstone730.livejournal.com]

How was it that we weren't friends already? Thank you for realizing this and correcting it!

[drarryisgreen]

LOL I know.

I was looking at it and realized we weren't friends but I comment on everything you post. HAHAHA

[omi-ohmy.livejournal.com]

I feel really sorry for JKR, having her anonymity busted in this way. I am glad that for a while though she managed to see a truer reaction to her writing, and enjoy publishing without the hype. I'm sure she's fine with it all and expected it to come out at some point, but still, that was my first reaction. I don't get this rush to read her other books - they're not HP books and should be judged on their own merits. So yes, I can entirely see why she did this and I'm pleased for her that she got positive reviews before this story broke. How soul-destroying it must be for a writer never to know if anyone actually thinks your writing is any good, because they will read anything you write, regardless of merit.

[oakstone730.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is that factor of the discovery.

Absolutely she has had been under tremendous pressure and scrutiny on what she would write next and I was not at all surprised that she wrote under a pseudonym. Some are suggesting that the news was leaked, I think not. Perhaps they could have concealed things a little better (use a different imprint of the publisher, etc) and it is very odd that there is a computer program that can analyze a book and match the writing style. When you think of the Harper Lee and J.D. Salinger's of the world who never again write a novel after having a phenomenal response to their first work.

That being said, just from what I've read about her and her character I think she has the fortitude to proceed and write what her muse wants to be written, the public be damned. When I saw the Galbraith book come into the library, I added it to my TBR list, it sounded very intriguing. Knowing she wrote it doesn't change the desire to read it, or the expectations that I have as to whether or not I will enjoy it.

[omi-ohmy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think my initial reaction would have been different had she released the information herself. But I agree, she will be fine and she will continue writing what she wants.

I wrote my comment when I got out of bed this morning. Judging by everyone else's responses, perhaps I just woke up in a slightly grumpy mood! Everyone else is so lovely and cheerful. Which is probably the best way to be. :)

[birdsofshore]

How interesting! I was just looking at my copy of The Casual Vacancy yesterday and thinking about JKR and whether she would want to write any more. I hope she has found satisfaction in what sounds like a genuine and unbiased reaction to her new book.

Julian Barnes used to write kind of comedy detective thrillers under a different name, but I don't think they ever got a lot of attention. I guess he just wanted to blow off steam sometimes.

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! I had no idea about this. Thank you. :D

[capitu]

Super.

Though I wonder, do you have any idea if she meant for this information to be made public?

[drarryisgreen]

I read that it only got made public b/c the book wasn't selling since it only sold 1500 copies in the UK, but the moment it was revealed it's #1 best seller. She said that she really wished that it had been anonymous longer b/c she was loving the criticism.

[oakstone730.livejournal.com]

I find that 1,500 number very difficult to believe -- in the U.S. there were over 400 libraries that owned it before the Rowling-link was revealed. It got great reviews here, and so It is hard to believe that there weren't more copies sold. It would be interesting to know its Amazon sales-ranking before yesterday.