September 20, 2011
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Had an approach/avoid reaction to this one. It seems to hit all my buttons: award winning, fact based historical fiction about a time period (the Tudors) that I have an interest in. Yet reviews note that it trashes Thomas Moore (that would be St. Thomas Moore to Catholics like me) and it was a best seller (10,00 flies can’t be wrong). Still, some very good books are bestsellers, so I jumped in after the rush died down. Good call, since this is an excellent book and does indeed hit my reading profile.
By my reading profile, I mean that it is a serious work (no Cat whos for me), takes minimal liberties with the facts of the matter, is moderately literate (not experimental, but written by someone who cares about words), tells me something I didn’t know and has characters I can care about even if they are flawed. A little ironic humor works too. The promise of further riches if I like what I find is a bonus ( a sequel is promised). The best answer to what I like in fiction is Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series. Laurie B. King’s Mary Russell series, Dorothy Dunnett, Colleen McCullough’s First Man in Rome series also work as shorthand.
So on to Wolf Hall. It covers a period in the life of Thomas Cromwell, who starts as a blacksmith’s son and rises to become one of Henry VI’s top advisers. The history is good, because it isn’t just a bunch of he said then she said, but the observations of a growing insider. As he rises, he has better insights and more influence over events – though he never feels he is really in control and recognizes that he is a Machiavelli-style courtier to an erratic king. So, the history is very episodic (a little here and then a little more there), while his family life goes on, the Reformation (or Protestant Revolt as the Jesuits called it) slowly comes to England. Though Cromwell is manipulative and sly, he is often over his head, as this is still an age where nobility matters and he is up from the gutter. He has a serious lack of principles, while those with principles are being beheaded for them. He is far from the most admirable person in the book, but he is the most interesting.
One of the best parts of the book is that it isn’t triumphant. There will not be happy endings for many of the participants, nor are events preordained. It accomplishes this while being occasionally very funny (as people are) and very well written. If Jane Austen wrote historical fiction, it might be something like this. Highly recommended to those who share part of my reading profile.
I am following it up with In the beginning: the story of the King James Bible by Alister McGrath, which should be my next review.
