![]() ![]() “Wolf Hall,” the first book in the series, begins mid-scene, in a galloping present tense. Missing are the archaic dialogue and laborious scene-setting, the dense clutter of details signaling diligent research. It’s a story that could be the stuff of venerable and fusty historical fiction, but Mantel clears away the cobwebs. “The Mirror and the Light” is the triumphant capstone to Mantel’s trilogy on Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith who rose to become the consigliere of Henry VIII and architect of the English Reformation. The world is blotted out as you are enveloped in the sweep of a story rich with conquest, conspiracy and mazy human psychology. This gesture is called “mantling,” and it’s a fine description of reading Mantel’s work. When a hawk makes a kill, it drapes its wings over its prey, concealing it from other predators. ![]() ![]() Then there is Hilary Mantel, the author of several books, including an acclaimed suite of novels set in Tudor England, in whose own name can be discerned her themes - of cloaking and secrecy, the weight of responsibility - and, as it happens, the particular pleasure of submitting to her lavish and gory imagination. Ann Patchett, in whose work families desperately try to repair their tattered ties. Judy Blume, of stories of young girls coming of age. Muriel Spark, of the scorching short fiction. ![]()
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