Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall brings the brutal life of the Tudors to the forefront. We mostly follow the rise of and fall of Thomas Cromwell and follow Henry VIII and his courtiers.  The key events of the story take place over just less than a ten year period from the 1520s to the 1530s. Mantel has taken what is, supposedly, Britain's best loved history topic, Henry VIII and his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, marriage to Anne Boleyn and the resulting split with Rome.

Why Read - Recommendation.

Honestly, i'm not sure I really enjoyed this Epic Novel.  Its the story of the tudors which can be quite interesting, but i found this one particularly hard to follow. As its a section of life, it doesn't have a traditional plot, of beginning, middle and end. Its more a snapshot and it doesn't really start or finish. I found the writing style hard to follow and slightly confusing. Not helped by the many different characters (which i should have felt warned by the large character list at the the beginning of this book), we didn't really know which character we were following at any given time. This was not helped by the constant use of surnames so we did not know which member of which family we were following. (Ditto on the first names.)

This book, supposedly following Cromwell, seemed to jump from one person to another with not much flow in-between which left me rather confused at times.  I was just getting into understanding what was going on in one characters life and I felt like I was thrown directly into someone else's. Plus event's followed the same track, I was just about picking up what was going on then the story seemed to shift. Plus a lot of the plot was hinted at rather than actually explained.  

I was warned as was reading it to go with the flow, and this was about all i could manage. I got the gist of what was going on but would have liked to understand on a deeper level. I think my understanding was greatly helped by my own personal knowledge of the Tudor period and watching a very loosely based drama series done by the BBC (The Tudors.)

Overall im not sure about this book, I wanted to enjoy it and get into it but i don't feel I did.  I did not give up and i did find myself wanting to read it and get into it but as aforementioned i feel i just skimmed the edges. (No easy feat if you have seen the size of this novel.)  Would I recommend it, i'm not sure, from talking to previous readers I think it helps if you are male.  Also maybe if you know the Tudor era quite well and want a different perspective on it.