Book Review: A CHANGE OF CLIMATE by Hilary Mantel

A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"It is the one we don't have that dominates our lives. It's what missing that shapes everything we do."

Readers the world over are mourning the death of one of our greatest contemporary authors... Dame Hilary Mantel of WOLF HALL fame, whose books on the French Revolution and the Tudors are some of the finest examples of the written word anywhere. Am astounded at the outpouring of devotion and creative tributes written by her most ardent fans. There is a void, and people all over the world are filling it up with beauty.

On this dark weekend, I felt compelled to read A CHANGE OF CLIMATE, one of two Mantel books I had on my TBR pile. And I am reminded once again of the distinct combination of pleasure and awe she inspires in her readers.

"Try to relate everything to God... try to work on the scale of eternity, otherwise, the daily frustrations will cripple you," spoke the Bishop to the young English couple fresh off the boat, newly arrived to be missionaries in South Africa in the 1950's, at the height of apartheid.

But what the couple encounter there will uproot even the most devout professional Christian's faith. For there is nothing worse than the betrayal of one's most deeply held values, the ones that define our very core.

"I decided to do a good action and by it my life has been split open and destroyed."

Partly a criticism of the White Man's messianic complex, mostly an examination of families and secrets that tear them apart ... Mantel is a surgeon whose skill in slicing open the human heart is pretty much near Graham Greene's. To read her is to begin to understand just how complex we humans can be.

Mantel speaks to us of the importance of choice: "Each choice breeds its own universe... we must always choose, and choose to do good. In choosing evil we collude with the principle of decay... the universe the devil owns."

Am filing this under "DARN-THIS-WAS-GOOD-BUT-IT-HURT-TOO-MUCH-THE-FIRST-TIME-SO-I-SHALL-NEVER-REREAD." This was my sixth Mantel, and I wouldn't recommend it for first timers. My favorite book by her remains to be A PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY. It's a safer read, for sure. But oh, her language! Each page is a delight!

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