Man Booker Prize – MostlyFiction Book Reviews We Love to Read! Sat, 28 Oct 2017 19:51:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.18 THE LUMINARIES by Eleanor Catton /2013/the-luminaries-by-eleanor-catton/ Tue, 17 Dec 2013 12:13:06 +0000 /?p=22428 Book Quote:

“But there is no truth except truth in relation, and heavenly relation is composed of wheels in motion, tilting axes, turning dials; it is a clockwork orchestration that alters every minute, never repeating never still…We now look outward…we see the world as we wish to perfect it, and we imagine dwelling there.”

Book Review:

Review by Betsey Van Horn  (NOV 17, 2013)

Twelve men meet at the Crown Hotel in Hokitika, New Zealand, in January, 1866. A thirteenth, Walter Moody, an educated man from Edinburgh who has come here to find his fortune in gold, walks in. As it unfolds, the interlocking stories and shifting narrative perspectives of the twelve–now thirteen–men bring forth a mystery that all are trying to solve, including Walter Moody, who has just gotten off the Godspeed ship with secrets of his own that intertwine with the other men’s concerns.

This is not an important book. There is no magnificent theme, no moral thicket, no people to emancipate, no countries to defend, no subtext to unravel, and no sizable payoff. Its weightiness is physical, coming in at 832 pages. And yet, it is one of the most marvelous and poised books that I have read. Although I didn’t care for the meandering rambling books of Wilkie Collins, I am reminded here of his style, but Catton is so much more controlled, and possesses the modern day perspective in which to peer back.

I felt a warmth and a shiver at each passing chapter, set during the last days of the New Zealand gold rush. Catton hooked me in in this Victorian tale of a piratical captain; a Maori gemstone hunter; Chinese diggers (or “hatters”); the search for “colour” (gold); a cache of hidden gold; séances; opium; fraud; ruthless betrayal; infidelity; a politician; a prostitute; a Jewish newspaperman; a gaoler; shipping news; shady finance; a ghostly presence; a missing man; a dead man; and a spirited romance. And there’s more between Dunedin and Hokitika to titillate the adventurous reader.

Primarily, The Luminaries is an action-adventure, sprawling detective story, superbly plotted, where the Crown Hotel men try to solve it, while sharing secrets and shame of their own. There’s even a keen courtroom segment later in the story. And, there are crucial characters that are not gathered in the Crown that night who link everyone together. The prostitute and opium addict, Anna Wetherell, is nigh the center of this story, as she is coveted or loved or desired by all the townspeople.

The layout of the book is stellar: the spheres of the skies and its astrological charts. You don’t need to understand the principles and mathematics of astrology (I don’t), but it is evident that knowledge of this pseudoscience would add texture to the reading experience, as it provides the structure and frame of the book. The characters’ traits can be found in their individual sun signs (such as the duality of a Germini). The drawings of charts add to the mood, and the chapters get successively shorter after the long Crown chapter. The cover of the book illustrates the phases of the moon, from full moon to sliver, alluding to the waning narrative lengths as the story progresses.

“But onward also rolls the outer sphere–the boundless present, which contains the bounded past.”

Take note of the cast list at the beginning, which is quite helpful for the initial 200 or 300 pages. With so many vivid characters coming at you at once, it is difficult at first to absorb. However, as the pages sail (and they will, if this appeals to you), you won’t even need the names and professions. The story and its striking, almost theatrical players become gradually and permanently installed, thoroughly and unforgettably. From the scar on Captain Francis Carver’s cheek, to the widow’s garment on Anna Wetherell’s gaunt frame, the lively images and descriptions animate this boisterous, vibrant story.

Catton is a master storyteller; she combines this exacting 19th century style and narrator–and the “we” that embraces the reader inside the tale–with the faintest sly wink of contemporary perspective. Instead of the authorial voice sounding campy, stilted, and antiquated, there is a fresh whiff of nuanced canniness, a knowing Catton who uncorks the delectable Victorian past by looking at it from the postmodern future.

You will either be intoxicated by this big brawl of a book, or weighed down in its heft. If you are looking for something more than it is, then look no further than the art of reading. There’s no mystery to the men; Catton lays out their morals, scruples, weaknesses, and strengths at the outset. The women had a little poetic mystery to them, but in all, these were familiar players–she drew up stock 19th century characters, but livened them up, so that they leaped madly from the pages. There isn’t much to interrogate except your own anticipation. If you’ve read Colour, by Rose Tremain, don’t expect any similarities except the time, place, setting, and the sweat and grime of the diggers. Otherwise, the two books are alike as fish and feathers.

The stars shine bright as torches, or are veiled behind a mist, like the townspeople and story that behave under the various constellations. Catton’s impeccably plotted yarn invites us to dwell in this time and place. At times, I felt I mined the grand nuggets of the story, and at other times, it blew away like dust.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 230 readers
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (October 15, 2013)
REVIEWER: Betsey Van Horn
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Wikipedia page on Eleanor Catton
EXTRAS:
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Another big book set in New Zealand:

Bibliography:

]]> THE FINKLER QUESTION by Howard Jacobson /2010/the-finkler-question-by-howard-jacobson/ Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:45:35 +0000 /?p=14253 Book Quote:

“Oh, here we go, here we go. Any Jew who isn’t your kind of Jew is an anti-Semite. It’s a nonsense, Libor, to talk of Jewish anti-Semites. It’s more than a nonsense, it’s a wickedness.”

Book Review:

Review by Roger Brunyate  (DEC 23, 2010)

Nevertheless, Howard Jacobson does talk about it, together with gentile anti-Semitism and that philo-Semitism that may well be anti-Semitism in disguise. This brilliant novel, at once comedic and penetrating, is nothing less than a study of Jewish identity, at least as reflected by a group of middle-class Jews in contemporary London. This is satire, but equal-opportunity satire; there is nobody who may not be offended by it at one point or another, yet nobody who will not recognize the wisdom of Jacobson’s insights, as loving and humane as they are witty.

Libor Sevcik is an aging Czech emigré, a cosmopolitan Jew of the old school. After achieving fame as a Hollywood gossip columnist, he finds himself teaching in a London grammar school, where two of his pupils are Sam Finkler and Julian Treslove, a connection that he has maintained even as the younger men are nearing fifty. Finkler studied philosophy at Oxford, and has parlayed this into a career in print and television, processing the great philosophers in the cause of self-improvement, publishing best-sellers such as “Descartes and Dating” and “The Socratic Flirt: How to Reason Your Way into a Better Sex Life.” Treslove, however, had been “a modular, bits-and-pieces man at university, not studying anything recognizable as a subject, but fitting components of different art related disciplines, not to say indisciplines, together like Lego pieces. Archaeology, Concrete Poetry, Media and Communications, Festival and Theatre Administration, Comparative Religion, Stage Set and Design, the Russian Short Story, Politics and Gender.” He now hires himself out as a handsome near-lookalike to any one of a number of famous figures.

Perhaps as a product of their schoolday rivalry, Treslove, who is a gentile, is fascinated by the mystery of Jews (whom he thinks of collectively as Finklers), members of an exclusive club that he can never join. But a random mugging near the start of the book (which he takes to be a misdirected hate crime) sets him on the path to becoming a Jew himself. After one misconceived attempt to plumb “the deep damp dark mysteriousness of a Finkler woman,” he eventually finds a genuinely Jewish partner in Libor’s zaftig niece Hephzibah, learning Yiddish phrases in order to woo her, then reading Maimonides under her direction. Finkler, meanwhile, moves in the opposite direction. Using a guest appearance on “Desert Island Discs” as a career-booster, he gratuitously proclaims that he is ashamed of Israel’s policies in Palestine, and finds himself almost overnight the spokesman for a group of anti-Zionists in the arts and academe that he calls ASH, for ASHamed Jews. “They’ll soon realize their mistake,” his wife had prophesied; “with a greedy bastard like you around they’ll soon discover how hard it is to get their own share of shame.”

Increased anti-Semitic attacks at home and Israeli actions in Gaza and the Occupied Territories abroad take the action of the second part of the book well beyond passing comedy. Most importantly, Jacobson’s characters grow on us as people, giving their lives as much heartbreak as humor. I was reminded of Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, which treats similar issues of Jewish identity in a comic vision of American academe, but Howard Jacobson is richer as a novelist, wearing his smartness more lightly. I also thought of Ian McEwan’s recent Solar, another London-based satire of contemporary issues, but while McEwan seemed to be slightly out of his comfort zone, Jacobson is very much in his; this is satire that never sacrifices character to humor, and says something profound at the same time. And my goodness, the man can write:

“The London dawn bled slowly into sight, a thin line of red blood leaking out between the rooftops, appearing at the windows of the buildings it had infiltrated, one at a time, as though in a soundless military coup. On some mornings it was as though a sea of blood rose from the city floor. Higher up, the sky would be mauled with rough blooms of deep blues and burgundies like bruising. Pummelled into light, the hostage day began.”

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-0from 158 readers
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury USA (October 12, 2010)
REVIEWER: Roger Brunyate
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? Yes!  Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: British Council on Howard Jacobson
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

Nonfiction:

]]> WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel /2009/wolf-hall-by-hilary-mantel/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:21:11 +0000 /?p=6453 Book Quote:

“The fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes: a counter pushed across a table, a pen stroke that alters the force of a phrase, a woman’s sigh as she passes and leaves on the air a trail of orange flower or rose water; her hand pulling close the bed curtain, the discreet sigh of flesh against flesh. The king – lord of generalities – must learn now to labor over detail, led on by intelligent greed. As his prudent father’s son, he knows the families of England and what they have. He has registered their holdings in his head, down to the last watercourse and copse. Now the church’s assets are to come under his control, he needs to know their worth. The law of who owns what – the law generally – has accreted a parasitic complexity: it is like a barnacled hull, a roof slimy with moss. But there are lawyers enough, and how much ability does it require, to scrape away as you are directed. Englishmen may be superstitious, they may be afraid of the future, they may not know what England is; but the skills of adding and subtraction are not scarce. Westminster has a thousand scratching pens, but Henry will need, he thinks, new men, new structure, new thinking. Meanwhile, he, Cromwell, puts his commissioners on the road. ‘Valor ecclesiasticus.’ I will do it in six months, he says. Such an exercise has never been attempted before, it is true, but he has already done much that that no one else ever dreamed of.”

Book Review:

Review by Jana L. Perskie (NOV 23, 2009)

Ever since I can remember, I have been fascinated by English history, especially the period from the Wars of Roses to the English Reformation. Even the best of Hollywood cannot top this era for action, adventure, romance, intrigue and violence.

Please forgive the brief history lesson which follows, but Wolf Hall assumes a deep knowledge of English history that most people – except for those well schooled in English history – lack. I hope to be helpful in summarizing the background of this exceptional work of historical fiction.

The Wars of the Roses, were a series of dynastic civil wars between the rival houses of Lancaster, (the Tudors), and York, (the Plantagenets), for the throne of England. The Lancastrian symbol was the red rose – the Plantagenet’s, the white. The war ended with the victory of the Lancastrian Henry Tudor, King Henry VII, who founded the House of Tudor. His marriage to Elizabeth Plantagenet, (the white rose), and the eldest daughter of King Edward IV, penultimate king of the house of York, cemented the joining of the two houses. The third child of their political union was called Henry, who was to become King Henry VIII. That’s the background information for the setting of Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize winning novel, Wolf Hall.

The time is 16th century Tudor England, (1527 to 1535), under the reign of King Henry VIII, at the beginning of the English Reformation. The Reformation was brought about by a series of events initiated when the Church of England first broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. These events were, in part, associated with the wider process of the European Protestant Reformation, a religious and political movement which affected the practice of Christianity across most of Europe. Many factors contributed to the process: primarily the invention of Johann Gutenberg’s printing press – a device which would change the world.

The demand for books became huge as Europe began to come out of the medieval era into the Renaissance. This hunger for knowledge increased dramatically once the Printing Press was invented – knowledge and ideas that were not easily obtainable before, suddenly became accessible. As people became more prosperous and literate, those who could read Latin were able to read the Bible, and they began to rethink their faith in the Catholic Church. The Printing Press meant that people, like Martin Luther, could spread their word quickly and easily, resulting in the Reformation and other changes. By the year 1480 its impact was immediate among the literate classes. However, once the Bible was translated into English, it enabled printed materials to spread rapidly – people could no longer be kept in ignorance and darkness.

Before The Reformation only the clergy could own and interpret the Bible. It was illegal for laypeople to possess the Holy Book in many countries, including England. it was still forbidden to read a Bible if you weren’t a priest. The Church outlawed the printing of the Bible and certainly the sale of the Bible.

The Lollardy Movement in England began to grow. Lollardy was the political and religious movement of the Lollards from the mid-14th century to the English Reformation. The term Lollards refers to the followers of John Wycliffe, a prominent theologian who was dismissed from University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the traditional church, especially his doctrine on the Eucharist. Its demands were primarily for reform of Western Christianity. Lollards were persecuted in England as were the Jews and “false” converts in Spain during the Inquisition.

The above subjects are the heart of Wolf Hall‘s narrative.

I think the novel, including warts and flaws, is certainly worthy of the Booker Prize, although I have not read the short list. You might be disappointed if you are expecting the book to resemble the works of Philippa Gregory or Jean Plaidy, (and I am a huge fan of both writers), or to echo the themes of films like “Anne of a Thousand Days,” “A Man for All Seasons,” or the HBO Tudor mini series, (all terrific films). Wolf Hall is definitely NOT “historical fiction lite!”  From seemingly timeworn material, a fresh and finely wrought work has been written. It portrays an extraordinary portrait of a society in the throes of change, with Henry VIII at its helm and Thomas Cromwell as first mate….or perhaps, visa versa!! But make no mistake, this is not a novel of romance, nor obvious drama with great tension which builds toward an exciting climax.

Our protagonist is Thomas Cromwell, a man from extremely humble beginnings. The son of an abusive Putney blacksmith, Cromwell rises through life to become the chief minister of King Henry VIII. Intelligent and shrewd to begin with, he learned his street smarts after he ran away from home in his early adolescence, and survived by his wits alone. He spent years as a mercenary in France. Then he worked with bankers in Florence. He plied a trade for a time as a clothier, and then as a lawyer. Cromwell’s introduction to the life of the rich and powerful elite begins with his relationship with Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey is a compelling and commanding figure – an English statesman and Cardinal of the Catholic Church. His eventual fall from such heady heights is due to his inability to provide Henry VIII with a Church-sanctioned divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Ironically, Wolsey’s fall from grace causes Cromwells fortune to rise.

The novel is told entirely from Cromwell’s point of view. Nothing important occurs unless he is either a witness or otherwise made aware of the circumstances.

In the 1520s England is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by another civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his twenty year marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. Cromwell realizes that Henry, would remain Catholic if the Pope would just give him what he wants, a dispensation to marry Anne. But the Pope and most of Europe oppose him. Cromwell knows that the King can only be led to the Reformation through his desire for Anne Boleyn.

In many Tudor history accounts, Cromwell is disparaged, but here the author gives him a human face. He is constantly busy arranging all things to please “His Majesty,” even willing to give his life to win the king’s favor. Frequently, however, he labors to suit himself and his own desire for reform. He is a family man, yes – but he is also secretive, a bully and a charmer, both idealist and opportunistic, tireless, astute in reading people, and a consummate ambitious politician. He is a reformer but not a zealot. Cromwell helps Henry VIII with “The King’s Great Matter” – to break the opposition and, ultimately, make Henry the head of the Church of England and husband of Anne Boleyn. It is through Cromwell’s eyes that the reader watches the Tudor world unfold.

Wolf Hall is a most complex, deftly written, original novel – but it is long – over 500 pages – and it is certainly not a fast read. This is a book, both vivid and real, which should be read slowly and savored. It doesn’t deal with Henry’s romantic inclinations and indulgences, glamorous fetes and progresses, etc. It doesn’t even touch on Anne Boleyn’s beheading. The main theme here is how to obtain power and wield it. There is little heroism or idealism here.

“Listening to a disgruntled earl pontificate about ‘ancient rights,’ Cromwell wonders how he can explain real life to this clueless nobleman. ‘The world is not run from where he thinks. Not from his border fortresses, not even from Whitehall. The world is run from Antwerp, from Florence, from places he has never imagined . . . not from castle walls, but from countinghouses, not by the call of a bugle but by the click of the abacus.'”

Most surprising is Hilary Mantel’s revisionary take on such figures as Thomas Moore, usually viewed as a great scholar, Renaissance humanist, a violent opponent of the Reformation of Martin Luther, and a government official. For three years, toward the end of his life, he was Lord Chancellor. According to most accounts, Moore was a kind and sympathetic man, faithful to his family, his king and the Church. The author’s version of Moore, who was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, and canonized on May 19, 1935, by Pope Pius XI, is one of a man obsessed with his religion, who wears hair shirts, flagellates himself, makes fun of his wife, has a nasty temperament, and delights in torturing anyone suspected of Lollardy. Those imprisoned in London’s tower fear his competence with the use of the rack and other such devices. And he delights in seeing “heretics” burn at the stake.

Other characters brought to life on the pages, include: Henry VIII and Thomas Cranmer.  Thomas Cranmer is a leader of the English Reformation who helps build a favorable case for Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon, which results in the separation of the English Church from a union with the Holy See. Along with Thomas Cromwell, Cranmer supports the principle of Royal Supremacy, in which the king is considered sovereign over the Church within his realm. Those in secondary roles include Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Anne Boleyn’s uncle; Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and husband to King Henry’s sister Mary; Anne Boleyn, (who is not a prominent figure here – she is just a prop in a much larger story); Mary Boleyn, (“The Other Boleyn Girl”), the French ambassador, and many more people, famous or otherwise.

What really bothers me about the narrative is that the author uses the pronoun “he” much too frequently but fails to mention the subject first. Therefore I found myself reading a page or two before discovering who “he” is. This is really disconcerting and takes away from the smooth flow of the prose and storyline. Otherwise, the writing, in the present tense, is excellent and often witty.

Honestly, I have no idea why the title is Wolf Hall, which is the seat of the Seymore clan. The name only appears once or twice in the book and is never visited. Jane Seymour, daughter of “Wolf Hall,” was Henry VIII’s 3rd wife who finally bore the man a legitimate son. I could postulate on the symbolism of the title…but in the end, I just advise English history lovers – all historical fiction fans – to grab a copy of Wolf Hall. It is well worth the time it takes to read it.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-5from 1,362 readers
PUBLISHER: Henry Holt and Co. (October 13, 2009)
REVIEWER: Jana L. Perskie
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Wikipedia page on  Hilary Mantel
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More historical fiction:

Bibliography:

John Macrae books:

Nonfiction:

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