I haven't read it yet but I did read the review in the NY Times a couple of days ago, and when I heard there was an Epilogue, I thought, "Oh no she didn't!" And apparently she did! Didn't Tolkien write an Epilogue to LoTR that wisely, he chose not to publish? Smart fella, that Tolkien. I believe Rowling claims that she never read LoTR -- maybe she should have.
You and I had a conversation a little while ago about similarities between Rowling and Dickens. It totally doesn't surprise me that she concludes her epic with a round of marriages and births -- that's exactly what Dickens would have done. In Dickens, as in much Victorian literature, marriage and family is the happy ending, the reward for all of the protagonist's previous tribulations. I think it will probably be disappointing for a lot of fans, who were no doubt expecting something less prosaic, but I'm sure it seems just right to a traditionalist like Rowling.
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You and I had a conversation a little while ago about similarities between Rowling and Dickens. It totally doesn't surprise me that she concludes her epic with a round of marriages and births -- that's exactly what Dickens would have done. In Dickens, as in much Victorian literature, marriage and family is the happy ending, the reward for all of the protagonist's previous tribulations. I think it will probably be disappointing for a lot of fans, who were no doubt expecting something less prosaic, but I'm sure it seems just right to a traditionalist like Rowling.