Book Review: BRING UP THE BODIES (Thomas Cromwell # 2) by Hilary Mantel

Bring Up the Bodies: A Novel by Hilary Mantel
My 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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Book Review: WOLF HALL (Thomas Cromwell # 1) by Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"We are not those great men, we are a shadow of what they were."

Took me eleven years to finish! Had to mature as a reader before I could fully savor this novel. And it IS amazing, one that lives up to all the hype!

I thought I knew the Tudors. I've been obsessed with them ever since I saw ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS as a 3rd grader. But Hilary Mantel makes the old story something brand new by choosing to focus on the one underappreciated man usually overshadowed by the more glamorous royals.

And yet... his achievements are all the more greater!

And now I can't believe I didn't pay attention to Thomas Cromwell more.

"The courtiers see that he can shape events, mould them. Can contain the fears of other men, and give them a sense of solidity in a quaking world: this people, this dynasty, this miserably rainy island at the edge of the world."

What's amazing is that Mantel makes the story feel urgent and vibrant and modern. It doesn't feel like historical fiction!

So many things to love about the novel. Mantel shows how the Boleyn affair goes beyond tawdry royal scandal. This cataclysmic event ties together big issues such as national sovereignty, religious and political intolerance, all of which matter so very much, still, today.

This is by no means a dark and dreary novel. There are moments of humor and joy, and always written spectacularly well. So many passages are worth copying in one's journal!

"Are her teeth good?"
"For God's sake, woman: when she sinks them into me, I'll let you know."

I ordered Books 2 and 3 immediately, such a treat! With the promise of the PBS show to follow, squeeeeee!

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Book Review: THE WONDER by Emma Donoghue

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Neither the Creator nor Nature should be blamed for what human hands have wrought."

I am reeling with shock from this unforgettable book (which apparently is going to be made into a movie starring Florence Pugh!).

I had an exhausting work day and I thought I'd sleep at 8 pm when I accidentally opened the book and read most of it that same night, powering through to defeat the lead in my eyes. It was THAT absorbing!

It starts with a mystery. An Anglican English nurse, fresh from the war front with Florence Nightingale herself, is hired to nurse an eleven year old Irish child. But when she comes, she finds out that she is not so much hired to take care of the child, as to stand guard and bear witness that the child isn't eating.

For this is no ordinary child. The girl hasn't eaten in FOUR MONTHS and TAKES NOTHING BUT WATER. And everyone around her is proclaiming her to be the next Irish saint, nourished by heavenly and not earthly bread.

I've always believed that the most terrible of horrors are the real ones that owe nothing to the supernatural. This story, based on true accounts of so-called "Fasting Girls," reveals the horror of blind religious fanaticism and hypocrisy, of what happens when "living for the next life" is taken to the extreme, to the point of neglecting good sense. This is the horror that we've seen day-to-day, when persons of authority are never questioned, when matters of belief are given priority over matters of common decency.

The lines that bear repeating are the words taught to our protagonist by her teacher, Florence Nightingale, which the nurse repeats to herself in order to do what needs to be done:

"Better to drown in the surf than stand idly on the shore."
"Can you throw your whole self into the breach?"
“Do your duty while the world whirls."

This will haunt me for years to come.

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