by J.K. Rowling

This is book 3. As I write this, we’re in the middle of the fourth book, so once again I am inclined to see this in terms of its standing compared to its neighbors. It was far better than the second book, which was ill-planned and generally lifeless, but still not quite as attuned to the potential in the characters as the fourth book. Whereas the fourth book seems like an actual attempt to let the world breathe on its own, Prisoner of Azkaban was another shot at that puzzle of sequel-writing, albeit with much more inspired solutions than Chamber of Secrets. Bringing in characters and intrigues from Harry’s parents’ generation was in principle a smart move, although J.K. seems to have found ways of distributing only some of the back-story through the book and then dumped the rest on us in a big clumsy pile at the end. This is a recurring problem for her, and one that even when she does it well, I am aware that she is “solving.” That was unfortunately how the book often felt: like a series of solved writing problems. The seams were in the right places, but they were still on the outside.

I liked the shameless “clue” in the form of a top that spins when there is a bad guy nearby. She sets it spinning twice because she’s so proud of her idea for who the bad guy should be. And I’ll grant her that it was a cute idea, although it doesn’t totally make sense. That’s another problem for J.K. – she comes up with something clever, realizes there are objections, and then puts in awkward “okay but then how?” dialogue in an attempt to iron out the objections before our eyes. “But wait, how could he have been there if he wasn’t born yet?” “You see, Harry, he must have used a calendar inversion spell.” “Oh, I see!” This sort of thing is fair game for the nerds to bicker over at recess, but it drags down the book into feeling like an exam that she’s just barely squeaking past.

I liked that the Back to the Future DVDs (again with this?) included a list of frequent objections to the logic of the film, with the creators gamely attempting to justify everything. That’s exactly where that sort of thing belongs. We want to hear the answers, but only so that we don’t have to feel that the questions were actually worth asking. The movies themselves are better for not addressing the questions. J.K. should have just stuck with whatever stuff made for the best drama and then distributed the fine print from her website or, at worst, in her next book. This is going to be an even worse problem in book 5, if I recall.