A review by paracyclops
The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is a very difficult book to summarise, or to speak about separately from the other volumes in the trilogy it concludes, 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring Up The Bodies'. The series reads as a single, coherent whole, a vivid and immersive imagining of the experience of being Thomas Cromwell, chief adviser to Henry VIII. The plot is complex, ornate even, and proceeds without handholding, unfolding in a series of encounters and conversations whose significance is rarely explicit. At the same time, it could be roughly summarised as 'Thomas Cromwell is extremely busy with the business of state every day until it suddenly stops'—the texture of his day-to-day existence is so fine-grained, and so relentless, so focussed on detail, that he fails to see his downfall approaching, and Mantel's genius (or one aspect of it) is to show the reader what that would feel like. The events of the story are a matter of historical record, but I won't drop spoilers: suffice it to say, that even if you know exactly what's coming and when, you're still likely to be surprised by its arrival. The worldbuilding in this book is absolutely masterful, far more convincing and coherent than that found in most works of fantasy or science-fiction, where that aspect of writing is assumed to be a primary focus. Every sentence is beautiful, at no cost to the narrative impetus: anyone who thinks writing involves a trade-off between the 'literary' (horrible term) and the entertaining should read this. And so should everybody else. Hilary Mantel's Cromwell never looks away from the consequences of his actions, and Mantel never looks away from his experience, even in extremis, her gaze both ruthless and humane. She sugar-coats nothing, but she realises Cromwell with such clarity that the reader's sympathy for him is not so much in spite of, but because of his manifold moral failings. Formally and aesthetically this is one of the most accomplished novels I've ever read, and it's also one of the most moving.