CultureWatch Reviews: Hilary Mantle's Bring Up the Bodies and Rowlings (a.k.a. Galbraith) The Cuckoo's Calling

CultureWatch Reviews: Hilary Mantle's Bring Up the Bodies and Rowling's (a.k.a. Galbraith) The Cuckoo's Calling

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Fraught with danger and intrigue, Ms. Mantel gives us a view into the complex, brilliant mind of Thomas Cromwell, and deftly enables us to follow his reasoning and machinations as he strives to do his master’s work, that of Henry VIII. If you have not read Ms. Mantel’s earlier book, Wolf Hall, you will benefit greatly from tackling it before moving on to Bring up the Bodies. When J. K. Rowling delivers the mystery series in the future based on The Cuckoo's Calling characters, it will provide readers with some very satisfying hours — or, as a friend says about her love of crime fiction, some delectable "comfort food of the mind." So, after selling more than half a billion volumes of Harry Potter, does Rowling deserve our attention in her new literary adventure? No question about it, she does.

Bring Up the Bodies
by Hilary Mantel, © 2012
Published by Henry Holt & Co., LLC New York; hardcover: 407 pp

This review comes with a caveat: if you have not read Ms. Mantel’s earlier book, Wolf Hall, you will benefit greatly from tackling it before moving on to Bring up the Bodies. Mantel has ten or eleven earlier novels to her credit, but it is the most recent two that won the Man Booker Prize*, Wolf Hall in 2009 and Bring up the Bodies in 2012. Mantel is the first woman to have twice won that prestigious prize .

The central character of both novels is Thomas Cromwell. Wolf Hall takes Cromwell from his early teenage years when he ran away from his abusive father, through his years as a mercenary, and his years of self-education among the money lenders of Europe, to his return to England, and his employment by the ill-fated Cardinal Wolsey. Bring up the Bodies chronicles the years of Cromwell’s steady rise to become Henry VIII’s trusted right hand in the King’s single-minded pursuit of Anne Boleyn.

Unless you are a much hardier soul than this reviewer, neither book is the kind of novel you can read in one, excited swoop. Both are hard to put down, but they are full of so much information and so much intricate plotting (plotting not only by the 16th century court, but by the author herself) that one must simply take breathing spells to absorb the information, sort out the characters, and at times figure out the prose.

About the latter: Ms. Mantel is occasionally careless of the references for her pronouns. In Wolf Hall, the reader is often confused as to which character “He” refers. The preceding sentence or paragraph may be about someone else, but the “he” you read may well mean Cromwell, and having to pause to figure that out was a decided annoyance. Apparently, Bring up the Bodies was in the hands of a different proof reader or editor, because rather more often, this go ‘round, Mantel offers us: “He, Cromwell,” so that we may re-orient ourselves.

All of which is, believe me, a minor annoyance in a fascinating read. In addition to recounting the historical facts, Ms. Mantel has, with a remarkably even hand, offered us well fleshed out, fully human characters. Her research has been prodigious, but – and this is, after all, a novel – she has moved smoothly beyond mere recorded facts (of which there are plenty), avoiding the usual, cookie-cutter version of history. Her characters are complex and believable, right down the line, from the powerful rulers of England to the smallest of servants. We don’t just see the machinations and power struggles necessary for survival: we understand why a person might have needed to equivocate and bargain in order to survive in the ruthless political maneuverings of the times.

The intrigues with which Thomas dealt included enacting directives from Henry VIII (including those which separated the English church from Rome, an action previously unthinkable, and very disruptive to the general public); bargaining with ambassadors from the Pope, the Emperor, and the King of France; giving aid and advice to Bishop Cranmer; arranging Henry’s divorce from Katherine of Aragon; dealing with the entire self-promoting tribe of Boleyns, never mind Anne Boleyn herself; serving as the king’s go-between to Jane Seymour and her family. Keep in mind that all of the foregoing needed to be handled smoothly around the ordinary demands of his several official duties.

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CultureWatch Reviews: Hilary Mantle's Bring Up the Bodies and Rowling's (a.k.a. Galbraith) The Cuckoo's Calling

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