2012 book 333

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall
Well, I finally read this, and can say two things about it: it absolutely deserved the Booker, and it is NOT an easy read . . . which is weird, because everything that happens is pretty fascinating. For the first half, I kept wavering between thinking "this is GREAT" and "this is super boring" because the historical-style writing can really be a slog at times. And the story of Thomas Cromwell's rise to power under Henry VIII, and his efforts to make Anne Boleyn Henry's legal wife, should not feel like a slog (especially to someone who majored in History like myself). Plus, history led me to believe that Henry divorced his first wife without too many problems; this book shows that there were a LOT of problems and explains them all in great detail. Once all that is past, the story feels like it's moving forward more quickly (I liked the last quarter without any reservations). I actually feel like there is something wrong with me for not liking this more than I did (I did like it), but this book required much more effort to read than I normally expend. I wish this book had come out when I was a history major and would have unabashedly loved it, but reading it now felt just a teensy bit like doing homework. B/B+.