Alan Jacobs' review of the final Harry Potter installment is now up at Books & Culture.

I'm a little disappointed. I think it's because I've already read Jacobs' best point. “Literature and fiction are two entirely different things. Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity...." (Quoting Chesterton on "penny dreadfuls.") Other than that, I found the points he chose to focus on in the review less illuminating than his previous commentary on the series (e.g.).

And I'm gratified that John Granger takes exception with Jacobs' contention that those who read Harry as a Christ figure are "wrong, seriously wrong." Of course Harry is not a full-fledged analog to Jesus -- but are literary Christ figures ever fully human and fully divine? Harry is a flawed and limited human being, but he's also a character attended by blatant Christological symbolism. He's a Christ figure; he isn't Christ.