Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I was really looking forward to this book because it came highly recommended by Elizabeth Gilbert (yes, I'm on that bandwagon, but she speaks so well) and I'm a huge dork for Tudor drama. Like, considering getting a tattoo of their crest level of dorkdom.

See? So pretty.

However, I was disappointed by this book and had to quit after about 100 pages.

I read historical fiction to pretend I'm amid the dramatic event itself. In Wolf Hall, the narrator is omniscent third person through Thomas Cromwell while Henry VIII is trying to oust his first wife in favor of Anne Boleyn. Certainly Cromwell is an important perspective, but I prefer the women's view of it, like in Phillippa Gregory's books.

He looks chipper.

 At first, I went with it to try and gain a new POV of the issue outside of my well-worn copy of The Other Boleyn Girl, but Mantel's structure is difficult to read, so her characters aren't easy to empathize with. Some conversations are in quotes and some aren't. Some sentences go on and give details into characters' thoughts, but others give readers no clue what's going on or who that person is. Should a reader who's not got a doctorate in the history Tudor England have Google at the ready to know who she's talking about?

She also includes jokes that reference some oblique detail about a person's past and/or some historical reference only a 1500's gentleman would understand. I mean, sure, that's what would happen, but very few would understand that when a dude says, "Oh, I see Mr So-and-so's been reading his Old Testament," he's really calling another guy a Jew, and therefore cheap. That's long and convoluted humor.

HAHAHAHAHA.. oh. No one else thinks it's funny. 

Also, it feels like it's written by a woman; the narrator doesn't cross genders well at all. She focuses on Cromwell's wife and tries to describe her through her husband's eyes like about the her sleeping habits and cuteness and special foods... bitch, men did not CARE about their wives at that time. They were trying to keep they damn heads on they shoulders!

I'm sure she did a lot of good research and worked hard to pull out such minute details and throw them into her novel, but it could not keep my attention. To compare it to Gregory's work, I can tell that, though Gregory's research into Tudor England undoubtedly came up much the same as Mantel's, Gregory paid attention to who was reading her work and only included aspects of the history which were necessary and interesting. She gave more visualizations and dummed down the ye olde English so readers could follow what was up. Sorry Mantel, but Gregory still reigns queen.

Goodreads link

(Dear God it's a trilogy?! Bleeechh)