We are competitive, we are jealous, we are mean, we are bitter, we are small-minded, but from time to time we forget all our pettiness when confronted with a work of utter brilliance. It is a characteristic of human beings to be uplifted in the presence of greatness, just as it is our tendency at other times to seek refuge in cynicism. These rather portentous remarks were prompted by the news that Hilary Mantel has just won the Booker Prize for a second time for Bring Up the Bodies.
Having said that, honesty compels me to add that I haven't actually read the book yet! I am still after all this time wading through A Time of Gifts, Arguably and Sylvia Plath's Diaries; "Wading" gives the wrong impression as there is nothing laboured about any of them; it's just that none of them are the sort of book one would wish to plough through non-stop, to extend the farming metaphor. With regard to the first of the three, I am completely dazzled by Patrick Leigh Fermor's enormous but lightly worn erudition. I never knew, for example, that the word "Andalusia" is derived from "vandal". This sort of extensive learning was probably less unusual among people of his generation and background than it is today but it's still extremely impressive. I can't help thinking, though, that he lays it on a bit thick at times and that some of his more outlandish encounters are, if not made up, at least heavily embroidered.
Back to Hilary Mantel. From what I understand Bring Up the Bodies is not only even better than Wolf Hall, but also and this is most extraordinary - completely different. The last book in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, is likely to be very different as well.
Does the scope and ambition of such a trilogy remind you of anyone? It reminds me of a very different work: The Quest for Karla.
Having said that, honesty compels me to add that I haven't actually read the book yet! I am still after all this time wading through A Time of Gifts, Arguably and Sylvia Plath's Diaries; "Wading" gives the wrong impression as there is nothing laboured about any of them; it's just that none of them are the sort of book one would wish to plough through non-stop, to extend the farming metaphor. With regard to the first of the three, I am completely dazzled by Patrick Leigh Fermor's enormous but lightly worn erudition. I never knew, for example, that the word "Andalusia" is derived from "vandal". This sort of extensive learning was probably less unusual among people of his generation and background than it is today but it's still extremely impressive. I can't help thinking, though, that he lays it on a bit thick at times and that some of his more outlandish encounters are, if not made up, at least heavily embroidered.
Back to Hilary Mantel. From what I understand Bring Up the Bodies is not only even better than Wolf Hall, but also and this is most extraordinary - completely different. The last book in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, is likely to be very different as well.
"What I want to do is hold up a mirror to everything that's gone before, and also shed new light on it. So what I'm trying to do is make three books that stand up independently, yet the third volume would have to contain them all.
"It still has to surprise the reader, and I guess it will surprise me in the writing.
"But I'm not intimidated. I think I can bring it home in style."
Does the scope and ambition of such a trilogy remind you of anyone? It reminds me of a very different work: The Quest for Karla.
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