A Review: Bring Up The Bodies

Historical fiction can be historically bad. You only have to speak to a Medieval History professor about The Da Vinci Code to witness the anger it can cause. Common misrepresentations of the past can cause some historians to foam at the month, like the belief that witches were burnt at the stake (they weren’t, they were hung). It’s unusual, then, that a historical book emerges that is praised as brilliant from historians, literary figures and the general public alike, and this has what’s happened with Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies.

The book is a sequel to Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker prize, as did Bring up the Bodies, making Hilary Mantel the first author to ever win the prize for two consecutive books, and also the first female to ever win the prize twice. It has won Costa Book of the Year and is nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. So it’s had a hell of a lot of attention and praise given to which, for me, is all certainly deserved.

First off there is the fact that she takes the Tudors, an era which has had endless interpretations, and manages to make it truly exciting. Bring up the Bodies follows the fall of Anne Boleyn, her rise having been depicted in Wolf Hall, through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell. You feel the mood turn against Boleyn and the fear in the court as the King’s mood starts to change and everyone becomes a potential headless victim. Its depiction of Cromwell as Machiavellian might seem over-done, but Mantel’s brilliance is in showing that this was the only way to survive during the reign of a temperamental king.

Mantel’s writing style also helps build the mood. Everyone knows that Boleyn, along with several of her allies, end with their heads been chopped as a result of the King wanting to be free of her,  yet Mantel’s frequent use of the present tense helps to keep the tension up. We might know what’s going to happen but the characters certainly don’t, and the present tense helps us remind us of this.

One of the scenes in the book sticks in my mind, like only a masterful constructed scene can. Cromwell has gone to visit Katherine of Aragon, who is being kept under house arrest and separated from her daughter and friends for her refusal to let the King go. Mantel manages to paint the scene with an eerie sense of foreboding; this might be because we know that Boleyn’s fate is much worse but Mantel also makes it clear that Katherine knows the King and knows he will get bored of Anne. Mantel makes us see it and also makes Cromwell see it. It’s one of the most striking scenes I can remember.

Historical fiction is sometimes said to be an oxymoron. Mantel manages to make something that sticks with most historical facts and still manages to entertain. She makes the public understand that faction played part in the Henrican Court whilst also showing the childishness of Henrys decisions. In truth, the historical and literary genius of the work doesn’t really matter. Just get lost in the mood of the work, as it is a truly amazing achievement that deserves all the praise it can get. If there is one flaw, it’s that it ends. But don’t worry, the fall of Cromwell is coming.

Forgetting About Kundera, Forgetting About History

I recently started reading The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera. I loved the Unbearable Lightness of Being, it been one of my favourite books for some time, but I have unfortunately forgotten much of what happened. So I decided to pick up another of his to read, one which was mentioned in some of my History lecture last year.

Its mostly that reminds me of one of the cruel things that happens to history. It gets mixed with personal memories and interpretation which, as the novel shows through several stories that are linked with themes, changes over time.

It links strongly with one of my favourite quotes, I mentioned it in both my personal statement and based an essay on it. George Orwell wrote “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” In Kundera’s work the setting is the Czech Republic during the communist years, with the Prague uprising been one of the centres of the novel. Of course, its an obvious choice. From this point on the history of the nation had to be slowly rewritten to bring it closer to the USSR. In other words, other people began to be in control with the present and so they changed the past so that they could control the future.

This topic will always fascinate me. Our cultural identity shapes so much but memories are not perfect. Even academic history will never arrive at a truth, let alone truths. Seem as cultural identity is shaped on our sense of history how can we possibly precede?

In other words, Kundera is a definite most read for me. I fall in love every time.

Swimming Home: To A Review

It’s weird. Whenever I finish a book I feel I haven’t quite gotten I think that I’ll do a blog post about it. Write down my thoughts about the novel and I’ll somehow arrive at a conclusion. With Swimming Home I get  this feeling.

The novel is tight, finely crafted and beautiful written. Through out the novel I got the sense that something else was going on below the surface, something seemed to be itching to get out. It made me feel like I was missing something, yet perhaps I wasn’t.  Perhaps the novel is crafted in a way to try and make you feel as if there is always something under the surface trying to get out.

The novel itself is about a family who arrive at their holiday destination only to find a woman swimming naked in their villa’s swimming pool. Kitty Finch is her name and she is slightly strange. However she seems to be the way in which the author explores her major theme of the depression and mental illness. Yet Levy also paints a picture of a family that has supressed. In other words, that the feeling I got of something itching below the surface might just be the feeling that the family has themselves.

On such example of this is that Isabel, wife to Joe and mother to Nina, invites Kitty to stay with them in the villa. Why? Well the answers seems to be so that she can split up her marriage which has always been too distant and too fragile to last. Its seems a ploy by her to finally give her a reason to escape it. Is this the reason? Well it is certainly a compelling one but even with that explanation it still seemed as if their was more to explore.

Its fascinating the way in which the novel works. I was constantly left hunger for more depth and explanation and, in a way, I think this reflects the characters. They search for meaning and explanation but are presented with now. They seem lost and defenceless as they are hurtled towards a conclusion. Its a novel that doesn’t come with a definite recommendation but if you do read it, you might just enjoy it.

In other news, I am now Social Sec of UKC Amnesty International. Which means I get to organise parties whilst campaigning for human rights. I think that’s progress to at least been more involved in something meaningful?