Tag: Hilary Mantel

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel | A dark but funny read

Hilary Mantel came to my notice back in 2012 when I fell in love with Wolf Hall. Since then, I’ve read a few of her earlier novels  including A Change of Climate and  Beyond Black. But, so far, nothing really matches Wolf Hall for me.

Beyond Black is about a medium called Alison Hart and her business manager, Colette.  Alison plies her trade in towns outside London, working with audiences and passing on messages from their dead relatives. She avoids the capital because she doesn’t like to work with ethnic communities who believe in reincarnation.

There are a lot of charlatans in Alison’s line of work, but she really does see dead people. She’s haunted by them, and not in a good way. She can’t get away from the dead and she sees things that her clients are better off not knowing.

This isn’t Hammer House of Horror scariness — if anything it’s more disturbing — because the dead continue to have the same traits they had while living. “You don’t get a personality transplant when you’re dead. You don’t suddenly get a degree in philosophy,” Alison tells Colette.

So Beyond Black is dark — particularly where Alison is haunted by the men her mother was involved with during Alison’s childhood. But it’s also funny, not least when Princess Diana puts in an appearance.

To some extent, Beyond Black reminds me of Will Self’s How the Dead Live, although I found Self’s book a faster and funnier read.

Beyond Black is published by Fourth Estate. Thanks to Wicklow County Council Library Service for the loan of a copy.

A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel

In A Change of Climate Hilary Mantel tells the story of siblings. Ralph and Emma Eldred grew up in a dour, oppressive family where their creationist father, Matthew, ruled the roost while their mother acquiesced, receiving each day “a used opinion from him.”

Ralph and his father differ on the question of evolution. This is a conflict that has serious consequences for Ralph’s future.

If the Eldreds are “righteous”, much of what transpires in A Change of Climate involves the destruction of the righteous. This picks up the theme hinted at in the epigraph from Job 4:7 “Consider, what innocent ever perished, or where have the righteous been destroyed?”

While Emma grew up to become a doctor, her freedom of choice was, unknown to her, at Ralph’s expense.

Ralph, meanwhile, opted to escape his over-bearing father by becoming a missionary. Together with his wife Anna, Ralph accepted a posting to South Africa. Subsequently, his posting took him to the fictional Bechuanaland.

At the funeral of Felix Palmer, we learn that Emma has been having an affair.  Felix, a real estate agent and family friend, was her lover. This surprises Ralph who is angry to learn that others knew but had not told him. Meanwhile, Ralph’s daughter Kit is involved in a relationship with Felix’s son, Daniel.

Something dark and terrible

A Change of Climate switches back and forth between the years before, during and after Africa. It becomes apparent from early on that something dark and terrible took place in Africa. The suspense builds as we wait to find out what it was.

When Ralph eventually reveals the secret to Amy, it  ultimately leads to the  marriage breakdown.

When Anna reflects on betrayal, she neatly summarizes as follows.

“It is in the nature of betrayal, she thought, that it not only changes the present, but that it reaches back with its dirty hands and changes the past.”

Mantel writes beautifully. A Change of Climate is an accomplished and interesting novel that would be an excellent choice for book club discussions. Originally published by Viking in 1994, a Kindle edition of A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel was published by Fourth Estate in 2010. ISBN: 978007354948.

 

Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel

When Wolf Hall won the Man Booker Prize I read the reviews and added it to my ‘must read’ list.

Then, partly because I was daunted by the length, I carried it around unread for some time.

All that changed about two weeks ago when I was invited to review Bring Up The Bodies on this blog.

Since I couldn’t very well review the second part of a trilogy without having read the first, I duly bought Wolf Hall.  To my surprise and delight, I found absorbing from the outset. It is a timeless tale of power and influence.  Intrigue, passion and a compelling cast of characters make for an enjoyable read.

Essentially it describes the role played by Thomas Cromwell during the years when Henry VIII was setting aside his first wife Catherine of Aragon and in pursuit of Anne Boleyn who was to become his second queen. It is the story of the waning influence of the Roman Catholic church in England and difficult relations with Rome brought about largely by King Henry’s desire to be rid of his wife.

There are obstacles aplenty to be overcome as the King struggles with his conscience and embraces a new faith that more readily accommodates his marital requirements. Henry, of course, is driven at least partly by the pressing need to produce a son and heir to the throne and to protect the realm. Thomas Cromwell is the agent who methodically and ruthlessly clears all obstacles from the path allowing the King to proceed within the law.

As a fictional character, Mantel’s Cromwell has tremendous depth. There is much to dislike in a man who is so driven and ruthless in pursuit of a goal and yet we find ourselves drawn to him. For all his flaws, Cromwell is a family man with a sense of humour, a good companion and a sage adviser — in many ways the kind of man you might wish to have in your corner — all of which makes him surely one of the most fully realised fictional characters of our time.

Bring Up The Bodies finds Cromwell still centre stage as Mantel takes up the tale at a moment when Anne Boleyn is at the height of her powers. With Catherine locked away in a convent, her marriage to the King annulled, the path is cleared for Anne’s ascent to the throne.

The Dark Anne Boleyn

Whatever about Cromwell, Anne Boleyn is truly the  dark character in this novel — deceitful, manipulative and lacking in mercy — and yet, despite her failings, she wins some sympathy. Her desperation grows when she fails to produce the required heir to the throne and her power begins to fall away.

Any school child can recite the fateful order of Henry’s wives — “Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded Survived”  — so it does not come as any surprise that Anne’s power wanes when Jane Seymour catches the eye of the King.

We get some insight into Henry’s motivation and see him struggle with his conscience but we also see him disengage from Anne and, as the queen moves closer to her inevitable fate, Bring Up The Bodies becomes ever more frightening, culminating in a moment of palpable terror when Anne takes her final walk towards the  executioner —  a moment, so perfectly described by Mantel that the reader might be one of the assembled crowd.

Meanwhile, and all the while, Thomas Cromwell — the King’s advisor and the main character in both these novels — grows in power and influence, drawing ever closer to Henry VIII and amassing wealth in his own right along the way.  Thomas is ruthless, manipulative, power-driven but also efficient, organised and quick witted. He can be charming, he can be cruel, yet he is a family man and, as his father observed, the kind of person who would buy a drink for anyone.

Thomas, being nothing if not a forward planner, is well able to read the lie of the land when the influence of the Boleyns declines and the Seymours begins to rise. So, he smooths the way for the Seymours, positioning himself to benefit  just as he had done previously when he cleared for the King’s marriage to Anne Boleyn.

Bring Up The Bodies opens with Cromwell well-established and extremely powerful and influential, a position he still retains at the end of this novel but the reader is left with a sense of foreboding that there are dark clouds still on the distant horizon but drawing closer to Thomas Cromwell all the while.

Page turner

So, for me, Wolf Hall was a page turner. I read it in three sittings over a single weekend. Great job, Ms Mantel. Keep them coming!

An advance reader’s edition of  Bring Up The Bodies was provided free of charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. 

Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel is published by Fourth Estate, May 2012.

ISBN 978-0-00-731509-3. Stg£20.