Thank you Jo!

Thank you Jo, for a book that surpassed my hopes. I didn't expect the poignant parallels to earlier stories: dressing Dobby, "Look at me," and the train symbolism. I was thrilled by grown-up Neville, grinning through his bruises. And I thought the temptations of the Hallows were the perfect foil to the hunt for the Horcruxes. Yes, and Dumbledore's story. How he was an important bridge, psychologically between Riddle and Harry, but could never be the one to finish the job. I think people often look at those who seem to radiate goodness and assume that things were just easy for them, and most times it wasn't. I feel even more strongly now that Warner Brothers needs to find a new person to play our Albus.

As I posted a few weeks ago, I believe that the character of Harry "came" to Jo at a time when she was working through the impending loss of her mother who would very likely never see Jo grow up, never tell her that she was proud of the adult she came to be. I think that the book dealt perfectly with Harry's need for validation from his lost family and his longing to be whole again.

So no, I am not among the disappointed. OK, I know that Jo said this and that in her interviews over the years. Heh. I should know. But things change. I would like to remind people who seem to have read this book with a checklist that Jo told us that “I’ll probably leave some loose ends hanging.” And: “I've never, to my knowledge, lied when posed a question about the books. To my knowledge. You can imagine, I've now been asked hundreds of questions; it's perfectly possible at some point I misspoke or I gave a misleading answer unintentionally, or I may have answered truthfully at the time and then changed my mind in a subsequent book.”

Here are some of the commentaries that I have enjoyed reading this week:

• "Dumbledore in Deathly Hallows" by Travis Pinzi
• John Granger's "20 Questions"
• Makani's raw, funny yay-Malfoys stream-of-consciousness goodness on LiveJournal
  
• Eeyore's Reflections
• Emma Grant's chapter-by-chapter journal (LiveJournal)