Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (2009)

Approach with caution, I had been aching to read this one all year and it was a six month wait at the library. About 5 times I had lifted it off the shelves at various shops, but each time I shoved it back and inched away, waiting for the reserve to be mine. And mine it was, just before a long weekend, so as my mission I set upon reading it on Friday night and finished tonight. Alas though, 300 pages into the book, I realized that this 500+ page tome, could only be part one of what must be a trilogy - a very long trilogy.

Telling the tale of the early years of the rise of Thomas Cromwell, in Henry the VIIIs court, it is the serious mans version of the story of the king and the rise of Anne Boleyn, who is set to become queen at the expense of Queen Katherine. I love me a bit of Henry the VIII normally, cause you know I loved Hampton Court Palace, I could so live there. I even enjoyed studying about Thomas More at high school, even if we had to do A Man For All Seasons as a play (at an all girls school when we were 13).

I am a great fan of many in the historical genre, but my tolerance is stretched whenever a novel spins off into too much political or courtroom drama, and I felt that Wolf Hall suffered from too much seriousness. It felt like it was trying to be the serious mans The Other Boleyn Girl, and show no bodices or heaving bosoms. Instead it was full of dull men in their dark capes and hats who had serious business to discuss.

So I am sad to give this serious weighty tome a 2/5 and that I will stray away from part two, three or any other follow up.

It also makes me remember to stray away from award winners, as literature critics I feel are going the way of music critics, of trying to find the offbeat, the serious and often the strange to worship and follow, and sometimes my heart doesn't agree with their choices.