Wolf Hall and Foxglove Summer
Dec. 3rd, 2014 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightBecause I've read both now (breezed through Foxglove Summer, the latest in Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series, in fact could hardly put it down).
Spoilers for the books (though no deep analysis, because I can't remember how to do it) behind cut.
Many of you write regular posts about the books you've been reading, and it always impresses me how many you seem to get through. Mind you, I was a voracious reader myself once upon a time, and could have kept up with any of you.
Not these days - and especially not this year, where I read nothing between March and October, except for a few Kid!Loki, Teen!Loki, Thor graphic novels (and even those took me ages). I've spent most of the year so exhausted and muzzy-brained I couldn't cope with anything more difficult (like just words, no pictures).
But now I'm beginning to get back to normal, and - despite me and the Kindle having pretty much a hate/hate relationship - I've finished Wolf Hall.
And everything that's been said about it is true. It's a wonderful book (unless you particularly love and venerate St Thomas More) - one of the best historical novels I've ever read. Mantel's Thomas Cromwell is so believable, so likeable, and yet so grounded in his period of history (ie. not anachronistic) that it's almost miraculous, and the other historical figures are wonderful, nuanced portraits. Also, the writing is superb. I got over my dislike of fiction written in the present tense almost instantly. Mantel can do that thing that great writers can do, where she can wring emotions from you without any recourse to grandstanding. Dunno about you, but I wept buckets over the deaths of Cromwell's daughters.
If I have any bones to pick with this novel, it is that maybe Mantel has made Cromwell too likeable. When she gets around to finishing his story, the end is going to be very hard to take.
As for Foxglove Summer, I thought it a worthy addition to the Peter Grant series. Maybe not quite up to the standard of the previous instalment (the end is very abrupt, leaving a lot of things hanging, and it's a bloody long time to wait to find out what happens next), but pretty good. Again, there were a few typos that an editor should, IMO, have picked up on, but it wasn't as bad as Whispers Underground, which at times made me think that a draft had been published by mistake. I was also pleasantly surprised at how well the story and the character of Grant worked when taken out of his usual milieu (and the depths of the Herefordshire countryside could hardly be more different). One minor complaint - which is also to do with how long we'll have to wait to find out what happens next - is that the text at times required me to remember quite minor details from previous books, and since I don't have them to hand (they're in storage) I found that a bit frustrating.
Still love the series, though (and still think that Victor Gischler's Inspector Brandt character in the current series of Angel & Faith is a Peter Grant ripoff, despite Gischler saying he hasn't read the books).
Spoilers for the books (though no deep analysis, because I can't remember how to do it) behind cut.
Many of you write regular posts about the books you've been reading, and it always impresses me how many you seem to get through. Mind you, I was a voracious reader myself once upon a time, and could have kept up with any of you.
Not these days - and especially not this year, where I read nothing between March and October, except for a few Kid!Loki, Teen!Loki, Thor graphic novels (and even those took me ages). I've spent most of the year so exhausted and muzzy-brained I couldn't cope with anything more difficult (like just words, no pictures).
But now I'm beginning to get back to normal, and - despite me and the Kindle having pretty much a hate/hate relationship - I've finished Wolf Hall.
And everything that's been said about it is true. It's a wonderful book (unless you particularly love and venerate St Thomas More) - one of the best historical novels I've ever read. Mantel's Thomas Cromwell is so believable, so likeable, and yet so grounded in his period of history (ie. not anachronistic) that it's almost miraculous, and the other historical figures are wonderful, nuanced portraits. Also, the writing is superb. I got over my dislike of fiction written in the present tense almost instantly. Mantel can do that thing that great writers can do, where she can wring emotions from you without any recourse to grandstanding. Dunno about you, but I wept buckets over the deaths of Cromwell's daughters.
If I have any bones to pick with this novel, it is that maybe Mantel has made Cromwell too likeable. When she gets around to finishing his story, the end is going to be very hard to take.
As for Foxglove Summer, I thought it a worthy addition to the Peter Grant series. Maybe not quite up to the standard of the previous instalment (the end is very abrupt, leaving a lot of things hanging, and it's a bloody long time to wait to find out what happens next), but pretty good. Again, there were a few typos that an editor should, IMO, have picked up on, but it wasn't as bad as Whispers Underground, which at times made me think that a draft had been published by mistake. I was also pleasantly surprised at how well the story and the character of Grant worked when taken out of his usual milieu (and the depths of the Herefordshire countryside could hardly be more different). One minor complaint - which is also to do with how long we'll have to wait to find out what happens next - is that the text at times required me to remember quite minor details from previous books, and since I don't have them to hand (they're in storage) I found that a bit frustrating.
Still love the series, though (and still think that Victor Gischler's Inspector Brandt character in the current series of Angel & Faith is a Peter Grant ripoff, despite Gischler saying he hasn't read the books).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-12-03 07:47 pm (UTC)I have to say when you read the next one I think you may find your view shifts just a smidge. He's still the same man, but perhaps not quite as human. Or that's how I felt at some points. You may not agree - Mantel's nothing if not subtle about this stuff!
no subject
Date: 2014-12-03 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 12:22 pm (UTC)Bring Up the Bodies does start to make subtle changes in Cromwell's character but I still found him sympathetic so yes, the end is going to be hard.
it's a bloody long time to wait to find out what happens next
That's why I try and stay one book behind an author in a series! I've still got a Peter Grant book in hand.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 08:22 pm (UTC)It is. I don't plan to read Bring Up the Bodies just yet. I'm going to read a couple of lighter things in between and then get to it.
Partly, have to admit, because it's on the Kindle, and I've had all I can take of that for a while.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 08:41 pm (UTC)I felt just the same. As for the ending, I can't see what the reason could be for ending it so abruptly.
Maybe it will be explained in the next book by which time I will have forgotten what happened in this one.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 07:59 pm (UTC)I too thought that the story worked well despite being outside the usual locale - I did wonder how Peter was going to cope with the countryside.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 08:42 pm (UTC)Holiday home?