Bring Up The Bodies

I'm not usually a fan of novels that win literary prizes.  When praise is heaped on by critics it's almost always a sign that for me, the book will be difficult to read, abstract and on some level, unpleasant.  With time so short, I don't need to work hard to be made to feel intellectually stupid.  So it was with a great deal of surprise that I couldn't read Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, the first of her trilogy on Thomas Cromwell and winner of the Man Booker Prize, fast enough.  I couldn't wait until the second volume came out.  I am delighted to say that Bring Up The Bodies (#219) is even better.

Anne Boleyn's power has peaked at the opening of the book.  She hasn't been able to produce the promised male heir, and Henry is already starting to look elsewhere.  Since she and Thomas Cromwell have always been at odds, it doesn't weigh too heavily on his conscience to help the king achieve his goal of a legitimate heir to the throne.  And truth be told, Anne doesn't make it too difficult for him.  There is never any doubt about how this story ends, so the pleasure of reading Bring Up The Bodies is in the nuances, the details of everyday life in the Court's administration, and the tantalising details about Cromwell's own life and his relationships with those around him: those who use him, those who fear him, and those who revere him.

I heard Scott Simon on NPR several years ago when he interviewed Hilary Mantel about this project.  He told her how much he enjoyed reading the book, and how he just couldn't bear to think about Thomas Cromwell's head ending up on a pike at the end because he liked him so much.  Now that's an accomplishment, to humanize someone that history takes for granted as a dyed-in-the-wool villain.  Very few authors succeed at such a daunting task when the evidence seems to weigh so heavily against their subject, but Ms. Mantel has made Cromwell into someone I'd like to have over for dinner so I could pick his busy, busy brain.  I think she's done for Cromwell what Josephine Tey (Daughter of Time) and Sharon Kay Pennman (The Sunne in Splendor) have done for Richard III.  I will hate to see this trilogy end as it must.