Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsMike Rappaport

There are no spoilers in this post.

I recently finished the last Harry Potter book, like many millions of other readers I am sure.  We picked up the book in Italy and therefore got an edition with a weird looking cover and that had only 600 pages (due to differences in the pagination). 

My overall reaction to the last book was positive.  I thought it did a good job of ending the series, both explaining the puzzles raised in earlier books and bringing in some new mysteries in the final book that tied in with those puzzles.

While the sixth book spent time developing Voldemort’s character, the seventh did the same for Dumbledore, even though he had died in the previous book.  This had really been a big omission from the series.  By developing Dumbledore’s imperfect character, the seventh book allowed the comparison between him and Harry, which I thought worked quite well. 

I don’t want to include any spoilers in this post, so I will just say that the ending seemed more or less right to me, but I would have thought long and hard before I included that epilogue. 

Finishing that last book was a bittersweet experience for me.  I count myself as extremely fortunate to have had Rowlings’ books.  They were books that both adults and children could read and share together.  They gave our family many hours of conversation about a subject of common interest.

Unlike so much of modern culture, the books were not objectionable on political grounds.  In fact, as many have noted, they expressed libertarian-ish values. It is really tiresome that so many of the movies and books that I otherwise enjoy have themes that are objectionable and need to be ignored.

Not so with Harry Potter.  No anti-corporate mentality.  No post-modernism.  Just a heavy dose of some traditional values — bravery, duty, friendship, admiration — combined with (classical) liberal values, such as nondiscrimination and a focus on character and merit.  What a wonderful set of books to share with your children!  I shall really miss them.