Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two by John Tiffany

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I have only read the book or the script for the rehearsal as it is mentioned on the cover page. Since, I haven’t watched the book ‘staged’ I can only say my review is partial. However, I sincerely feel my memories of growing up with the Potter series would have been unmarred if I’d have skipped reading the book. First, I missed the rich imagery and description that characterize J.K.Rowling’s books and second, the narrative was broken and characters explored in a shallow manner.

There are several threads that warrant a deeper exploration. For instance, Albus and Harry’s contrasting experiences with the Sorting hat; Rose Granger-Weasley’s striking resemblance to her mom’s self-assured countenance; the ‘awkward’ friendship between Albus and Scorpius and why would they ‘not’ hug?

The book zooms in to the father-son relationship between two (three?) pairs: Harry Potter and Albus; Draco Malfoy and Scorpius and almost hesitantly, Dumbledore and Harry. The book is not so different from the earlier Potter books in that it has a message. The message here being, the need to stop living in the past because it will only mar the present that lays a foundation for the future.

Albus and Scorpius drag us through alternate realities in the future as they try to tweak the past mistakes to correct the future course. But, every alternate reality comes with a price and is definitely worse than the present they come from. Albus and Scorpius come to a hard realization of the delicate balance of time and destiny and let things be.

I felt the redeeming feature in the book was the newly struck friendship between Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter et al. Draco’s struggle to deal with life as a widower and his grudging admission that he missed the strong bonds of love, trust and friendship among Harry, Ron and Hermione endear him as opposed to the rich, entitled Slytherin kid that he was when at Hogwarts. Love is a much misunderstood concept for both Harry and Draco as they struggle to forge loving relationships with their respective teenage sons. The journey to find love is humbling for all.

In Harry’s words to Malfoy: “Love blinds. We have both tried to give our sons not what they needed, but what we needed. We’ve been so busy trying to rewrite our own pasts, we’ve blighted their present (P.279).”

The book’s weakness is the format: Prose to drama is a huge leap. The book’s strength is definitely the exploration of the themes of love, magic and humanness.

Dumbledore remarks:
“Harry, there is never a perfect answer in this messy, emotional world. Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic. In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe (P. 275)"

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