Wolf Hall

by Hilary Mantel | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0312429983 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 1/5/2017
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Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, January 5, 2017
I found this fair-condition softcover at a local Savers thrift shop, and nabbed it for another release copy.

I hadn't paid the books much notice until the 2015 mini-series aired, and even then it took me a while to be drawn in to the very, very low-key and internalized storytelling. But once I was hooked, I was hooked soundly.

I enjoyed this very much - and was amused at the compare-and-contrast with A Man for All Seasons (film version), which I caught on TV recently. It's entertaining to see how different specific characters seem when viewed from their rivals' side of things!

The author's style does take a bit of getting used to, from the asynchronous storytelling (which sometimes shifts times and settings without any overt clues, leaving the reader to scramble a bit) to the third-person-present-tense element in which Cromwell is mainly referred to by the pronouns "he/him/his", which can cause its own confusion in passages featuring lots of other he/him/his references. (Mantel sometimes inserts a "he, Cromwell" to clarify things, but the fact that this is sometimes necessary made me wonder at the author's choice in the first place.) Present tense does add some immediacy to the goings-on, and can distinguish what Cromwell's doing/thinking now with his memories of scenes past, but I found it more confusing than helpful. Not to the point of making me dislike the book, but I did notice it a number of times.

The details of life for the poor, the well-off, and the nobility all hit hard here, with some of the highest-born characters suffering pretty uncomfortable fates, and with everyone subject to sudden death from fever, accident - or Seriously Annoyed Authority Figure, though in that case there's usually at least a pretense of a trial, whether it's by the Church or by the King.

The delicacies of being the right-hand man for powerful figures such as Cardinal Wolsey and King Henry are made plain too, with Cromwell having to thread the needle of being useful and reliable without crossing over into unforgivable-insolence. (The Cardinal seemed to be an easier master in that respect - but while Cromwell does remain loyal to him, we see that Wolsey's hands aren't exactly clean either.)

The book made me want to do a lot of research, not only on the main characters but on the many secondary ones, some of whom actually survived the chaos in fairly good order. As depicted by Martel, Cromwell was excellent at providing a household full of likely youths (and a bright woman or two) to be trained up as clerks, accountants, and in some cases spies!

The contrast between his gradual climb to a truly impressive position, especially for one of his humble birth, and his own interior life - including his enduring grief over his daughters and wife, lost to fever - make for a compelling portrait of a man who had been something of a cardboard villain in other depictions. Fascinating novel!

I also enjoyed Bring Up the Bodies, the second book.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the books and TV series.]

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at Frederick's Pastries, 109 Rt 101A in Amherst, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, January 5, 2017

Released 7 yrs ago (1/5/2017 UTC) at Frederick's Pastries, 109 Rt 101A in Amherst, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I left this book on a chair inside the pastry shop at around 2; hope the finder enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in New Hampshire here.]

*** Released as part of the 2017 Clean Start for the New Year release challenge, for the embedded "All" in the title. ***

*** Released as part of the 2017 TV Series release challenge. ***

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