Wow, it's hard to blog in term time. Must Do Better, I think...so to start with, some thoughts on this year's Booker winner. Not the most original of reviews to write - I'm sure a quick Google would turn up thousands - but as the last book I read it's as good a place to rebegin as any.
I'd had the (beautiful) hardback since the summer but had been saving it for half-term, remembering from my experience of reading Wolf Hall in the summer holidays how engrossing Mantel's world is, and how, frankly, challenging her work can be. The present tense and choice to use "he" so frequently to refer to Cromwell make for a novel which demands concentration.
And the reader's concentration is certainly repaid. Mantel once again recreates an early modern world for us through deftly chosen detail. Her research is both apparent and unobtrusive; a magical scene wherein Cromwell's household make a snowman of the Pope lingers in the memory - so much so that I wasn't surprised to learn that this incident was one which Mantel adapted from a contemporary letter she'd read as research. For me, the authenticity with which she creates Cromwell's world is the hallmark of the novel.
I have to admit, though, that I found this novel less gripping than the last. My familiarity with the story of Anne Boleyn's fall led me to be uninterested in the buildup to it in the narrative. The fall itself was arresting and made startlingly new through Cromwell's perspective - but the back-room negotiations prior to it seemed prolonged.
Mantel's depiction of Jane Seymour was possibly the most original and compelling aspect of Bring Up The Bodies. I loved the portrait of a watchful, purposely bland and blank woman, waiting for her chance to be Anne's opposite.
Hilary Mantel certainly doesn't need my humble blog's comments or for me to reaffirm her work as Booker winner. I'll simply close by saying I've already tried (and failed) to find out the publication date of the final part of the Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror and the Light. Can't hardly wait.
