Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

SPOILERS!!

I finished this some weeks ago, after being in the enviable position of having several people offering to loan it to me. It was a delight and a sorrow to finish the epic, to bring it to a close and know that there would be no more words about Harry. He was a complex and challenging hero, in the end. In Dumbledore's words, a "beautiful boy" and a "fine man." I found that so so very touching that Dumbledore, meeting Harry in the afterlife would refer to him as a man - the first time that anyone in the series ever did. And of course it is entirely appropriate. Harry is seventeen and has gone through such experiences as would harrow the soul of a much older and wiser person. But it is Harry's essential goodness and trueness (truthiness, one might say) that leads him through the challenges. These are qualities that stay with him as he grows from boy to man. They are even qualities that he has in greater amount than his father, who in his time was not above some very cruel teasing.

Which leads one to Snape, and the devastatingly satisfying final revelations about his life and character. A wonderful, wonderful job of writing, that he should be so ambiguous for so long. The revelations about Dumbledore's earlier life, too, are devastating and illuminating in equal measure. As the series has progressed he has definitely evolved from all-powerful headmaster to vulnerable and fallible man, but never so much as he does in this last book, after his death. These revelations really complete Harry's growth from boy to man, from innocent to powerful. His power is not so much that of Wizardry, although he has that too, but that of wisdom. He makes the right decisions, in the end, and that is the true measure of his soul.

Ron and Hermione, also, rise to the occasion (how could they not?) against terrible odds. The three of them take on such challenges as would have sent them quaking at an earlier age. They don't always make the best decisions along the way, but struggling through is what shows us how worthy they are of each other.

All in all, a remarkable achievement. I was inspired to write a little about this after reading Orson Scott Card's review on his website (Uncle Orson reviews everything). He writes very clearly and accessibly about, well, everything. Check it out.