Running Grave, Part Two: A Ring Reading

October 7, 2023 by Leave a Comment

The Telling of Robin’s First Week at Chapman Farm is a 17 chapter Ring Composition (and More)

It took me the better part of a week to read, chart, and write up a post about Part One of Running Grave. I confess to dreading that process for Part Two but I was able to read it, chart it, and make the legible picture for this post above in less than eight hours.

Why was it so much easier? Because it wasn’t a chapter by chapter adventure in finding parallels across the story axis, not to mention it was shorter and there were only two interview information-dumps. In Part Two, Rowling has a simplified chapter sequence; with two exceptions (chapters 25 and 34-36) after the start, we are given two chapters of Robin-at-the-farm followed by two chapters of Strike-at-work-in-London (and environs) followed by two Robin chapters, repeat to finish. If you count their time together as ‘Strike’ chapters at the start, each gets four turns in the spotlight in alternation.

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Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Ring Composition, Substack Post

Running Grave, Part One: A Ring Reading

October 6, 2023 by Leave a Comment

Reading Rowling’s Latest As If It Were a Dickens Novel Serial: First Thoughts about Chapters

I confess to being of at least two minds with respect to how I should read Rowling’s latest novel.

I want to read it the way I read any book I like — straight-through, one sitting, all-nighters as often as not. I miss a lot that way, of course; I’m reading for plot points only and the imaginative immersive experience, not for structural and artistry fine points which are essentially invisible in a speed read. I have read the six Fiona Griffiths novels by Harry Bingham that way last month and Lou Berney’s brilliant Dark Ride just last week.

For more please visit The Hogwarts Professor Substack. You do not need to subscribe to read, but if you choose to, subscription is free.

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Ring Composition, Substack Post

Nick Jeffery – The Running Grave Review

October 5, 2023 by Leave a Comment

The Running Grave is another mammoth of a book at well over nine hundred pages in the print edition, and with the audio book over 34 hours, this is the longest book of the series. At this rate we have 3,000 pages left in the Strike-Ellacott saga, which is only 400 short of the whole Harry Potter canon.

Despite it’s size the pace of the book clips along at a fair rate of knots, helped by a good deal nervous energy and excitement. The cast of thousands never seemed oppressive, being neatly compartmentalised between the UHC, the agency, the families and clients. I found myself having to resist the urge read too quickly (as I did with The Ink Black Heart to the detriment of my enjoyment of that book). Straight out of the gate this is my favourite of the series by some margin, and after four days reading the print and digital edition, I am now re-reading via the Robert Glenister narrated audiobook.

For more please visit The Hogwarts Professor Substack. You do not need to subscribe to read, but if you choose to, subscription is free.

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Nick Jeffery, Substack Post

Evan Willis: Running Grave Review

October 5, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received my digital copies (Kindle and audiobook) of The Running Grave on Tuesday morning, and started reading through as fast as I could, eager to get to the story. I finished reading late on Thursday. Except perhaps out of a care to avoid recency bias, I would say that it is my favorite Strike book yet. It is brilliantly complex in plotting, its structural and motivic ties to the other books are well constructed and deeply fun to find, and Rowling has surpassed herself in the depth of depiction of her characters. I was also interested in seeing how various theories of mine were stacking up to our large new data-set. I will begin with my favorite new piece of parallel series connection, the degree to which Rowling made sure that there was a parallel to the “Tale of the Three Brothers” as centerpiece of The Running Grave. Back in July, I proposed a theory that the series was structured as a Pythagorean Tetractys (the number 10 represented in triangular form) in parallel with the ten books of the Potter novels, Ickabog, Casual Vacancy, and Christmas Pig. I think the main structure of my theory holds up, but half of the justification for it needed to be rejected. I conclude with a few miscellaneous notes. Spoilers for the entire book follow.

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Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Evan Willis, Substack Post

Running Grave: 7 Placeholder Posts

September 26, 2023 by Leave a Comment

My two copies of Running Grave were delivered late this morning and I have yet to open mine. My son Zossima is almost half-way through and has confirmed that my enthusiastic judgment of the first eleven chapters, that this was the strongest start of a Rowling novel ever, was spot on. He reports that “It starts well and doesn’t let up one bit.”

I’m very excited to join him in reading Strike7, as I know all of you have been, but I need to do some house-keeping chores here at HogwartsProfessor and to prepare for my reading first. Number one on my list is putting up seven placeholder posts for Serious Strikers around the world to write up their thoughts as they read on specific subjects that are signature points of discussion on this weblog.

Why bother? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike