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A review by hadeanstars
The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
4.0
It is really no exaggeration to say (in my opinion of course) that Hilary Mantel is one of the finest writers of English prose alive today. Her gifts are manifold and dazzling, her perfect grasp of idiom, inflection and innuendo add a profoundness and depth to her writing that is astonishing. She says so much with so little. I loved the first two Cromwell novels, and this is a fantastic final instalment, but mostly because of the aforementioned gifts of its creatrix. The narrative itself is difficult because it is necessarily straitjacketed into an historically precise trajectory. The handling of King Henry is wonderful here, better than previously, the unconscious narcissism and monstrosity of the man, at once refined and brutish, articulate and incoherent, and it is a marvel.
But the story did meander and there were great swathes of introspection and internal monologue which for me, made the novel overlong. Still in almost every respect worth the investment, the writing is nothing short of brilliant, but it could have been two-thirds as long and still fulfillling. It is a very long, very remarkable novel.
But the story did meander and there were great swathes of introspection and internal monologue which for me, made the novel overlong. Still in almost every respect worth the investment, the writing is nothing short of brilliant, but it could have been two-thirds as long and still fulfillling. It is a very long, very remarkable novel.