Bring Up the Bodies: A Novel by Hilary MantelMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
"It is no small enterprise, to bring down a queen of England."
The second book in the Cromwell Trilogy has a macabre title: the order sent to the Tower of London when prisoners are to be tried for their crimes.
These are books with no surprises; History tells us who lives and who dies. What Mantel does magically well is to weave a cloth whose warp and weft explain how singular events are all connected: how a royal heart progresses from love to hate, how a husband can seek to eradicate all trace of a formerly beloved wife and order a French swordsman for her execution even before her trial (!!!!), and how base human nature can be, even amongst princes.
Personally I came away from this book with a worse opinion of Henry VIII than the one I held after Book 1, but also with a higher opinion of the protagonist: Thomas Cromwell. I am amazed at how Mantel succeeds in making us care for him, despite his coldhearted and calculating ways. He defies Fate so well thus far, and although I know how this will end in Book 3, I still pick up the next book with this foolish hope of seeing Cromwell defeat the system. This isn't a bad guy, he's just doing his best to serve his country according to the dictates of his conscience.
"He once thought it himself, that he might die of grief... But the pulse, obdurate, keeps its rhythm. You think you cannot keep breathing, but your ribcage has other ideas, rising and falling, emitting sighs. You must thrive in spite of yourself; and so that you may do it, God takes out your heart of flesh, and gives you a heart of stone."
Familiar stories made brand new, but written in such prose that reveals all that the English language can do. This is why we read Mantel!
I particularly liked the ending:
"There are no endings. If you think so you are deceived as to their nature. They are all beginnings. Here is one."
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