Review of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I was the wrong age to have any interest in reading Harry Potter when it first came out so, thanks to my little reader, this was my first time through. Reading this now with a more than skeptical eye I have to say I learned a great deal from the story construction and prose style. Rowling was able to establish, through both blunt and refined devices, some powerful emotional empathy in her characters. She also manages to wind that emotional through-line in and out of a pretty crude plot so that by the end of the story the reader has a strong connection to the world and characters because you are never really relying on the plot to satisfy you.
I know I'm not breaking new ground when I extol a Harry Potter book but reading this in 2021, after Joanne has repeatedly outed herself, disappointingly (and surprisingly, after what …
I was the wrong age to have any interest in reading Harry Potter when it first came out so, thanks to my little reader, this was my first time through. Reading this now with a more than skeptical eye I have to say I learned a great deal from the story construction and prose style. Rowling was able to establish, through both blunt and refined devices, some powerful emotional empathy in her characters. She also manages to wind that emotional through-line in and out of a pretty crude plot so that by the end of the story the reader has a strong connection to the world and characters because you are never really relying on the plot to satisfy you.
I know I'm not breaking new ground when I extol a Harry Potter book but reading this in 2021, after Joanne has repeatedly outed herself, disappointingly (and surprisingly, after what appear to be progressive themes in HP#1) as an incorrigible TERF, it is nice to know the world wasn't being deluded in 1997. We didn't sleep through obvious signs. This is genuinely a work of fine craftsmanship (except for the tidy end) and we can sleep night knowing, at least this time, the extreme rewards of public favor were meritorious.
