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A review by lisabee
Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
3.0
In Wolf Hall, Ms Mantel's style is crystal clear and simultaneously confusing, as Thomas Cromwell is only referred to as "he". Sometimes you are not quite sure who is talking or thinking. In Bring up the Bodies, it seems an editor has added some words occasionally, specifying that Thomas Cromwell is speaking. Jolting.
Cromwell and his familiars are engaging, likeable people, uniformly so. Anne Boleyn comes across as an unmitigated harridan.
By the end of the two books, I felt like I was reading well-written romances. Thomas Cromwell is a superhero, with no internal conflicts of any weight, who can do no wrong, set upon by purely evil enemies. So in total, the books left me unsatisfied and uninterested.
How did these win the Booker Man prizes?
Cromwell and his familiars are engaging, likeable people, uniformly so. Anne Boleyn comes across as an unmitigated harridan.
By the end of the two books, I felt like I was reading well-written romances. Thomas Cromwell is a superhero, with no internal conflicts of any weight, who can do no wrong, set upon by purely evil enemies. So in total, the books left me unsatisfied and uninterested.
How did these win the Booker Man prizes?