Growing on me...

I read Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall when it came out (who didn't?), and I liked it well enough. Then recently I was finally edging to the front of the wait list for the sequel, Bring Up the Bodies (Bringing up the Bodies? Sh*t, you'd think I'd know since I'm reading it right now), so I checked out Wolf Hall to re-read so I'd remember what was going on in the story.

Helpful, since it's a dense story, and especially since after watching The Tudors, my view of that period, and the major players, is always going to be colored by the BBC / Showtime (not that I'm complaining; God, but I sweat Jonathan Rhys Meyers - have since I was a teenager - and Henry Cavill is not too hard on the eyes, either). Turns out that Bring Up the Bodies (or whatever - that sounds more like one of Mantel's chapter titles from Wolf Hall, so it's probably right, but Bringing sounds more like Bringing Up Baby, so obviously I love it...someone should do a screwcap [screwball + madcap = how is this not a real thing?] version of Henry VIII! Genius!) has a lot of explanatory stuff in the end, so I probably didn't need to.

But I still enjoyed it. Too much probably, because I'd curl up with it in bed and then go to sleep way too late (there were also only like, seven chapters in a huge book, so it was hard to find a natural stopping point). I didn't love the way it was written in so far as it wasn't always clear who was talking, or what was being said out loud versus thought, or who the "he" was in ever other sentence (generally Cromwell, not always), but I get that the kind of dense, occasionally crude text was a deliberate choice, and I can respect that.

Did make me wonder though, as most things about Henry VIII and his wives do - Anne always ends up coming across so badly, like a shrewish wh*re. Which, maybe she was, but there had to be more to it, no? I mean, Henry may have been king, but he was no prince. Everyone seems pretty clear that he screwed around on her. Then again, everyone seems pretty clear she did to, and possibly with her brother... I don't know. She probably was a huge raging b*tch, but when EVERYONE dumps on her, it makes me want to stick up for her, or read someone that does... I mean, was she just the Hilary Clinton that everyone got mad at because she wasn't a "nice" lady? And did crazy things like go after what she wanted and insist on being treated with the respect given to other leaders?

Anyhow, it was good, and i actually think I like it better than I did last time, which is very cool.