Last night, while feeding my newborn baby at 3.30am, I finally finished Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I feel quite relieved in a way, as it’s been a long time coming. I bought the book when it first won the Man Booker prize in 2009. Everyone was raving about it; it had won a huge literary award; it dealt with a period of history that I love. It sounded like a book I would love.
I began to read it, but then I gave up. It just didn’t grab me; I found the writing quite dense and the huge cast of characters confusing. I made excuses then put it aside. A few months later, I tried again. Then I tried again for a third time. Finally, I put it back on my bookshelf along with other books that I have abandoned, unread: The Children’s Book by AS Byatt, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Street Sweeper by Eliot Perlman. These are all books that I should like, if reviews and prizes and hype are anything to go by, but I don’t.
When Bring Up The Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall was released recently, I found myself reaching for it on the bookshelf. I’d read interviews with Hilary Mantel, seen pictures of her at the Tower of London, the place of Anne Bolyn’s execution. The reviews have been fantastic and the hype was huge. But I put it back down again: it was ridiculous to buy a the sequel to a book that I had found unreadable. I was determined to give Wolf Hall one final chance. This time, I flicked to and from the list of characters and family trees at the front of the book, and I concentrated. This time, once I adapted to the voice of the book, it was compelling. It was still challenging, but I loved the style of writing, the complexities and density of the book and the politics and personality of the main character, Cromwell. I certainly didn’t find it an easy read, but I ended up enjoying and respecting it.
I never would have read Wolf Hall if it wasn’t for the accolades and the hype. I’m glad I did.
Thinking of hype and marketing brings me to another book…Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James. I haven’t read this book, and I don’t intend to: it’s just not something that interests me. Friends of mine have bought this book, and many say it’s not very good, but they still read the second and third in the trilogy. Some say the ‘writing’ is poor, and the responses remind me of the reaction to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code or even the Twilight trilogy. There seems to be a need to cut down an author who has sold squillions of books. Is it envy? Is it snobbery?
And so we’re left with the two sides of hype. First, the literary blockbuster that everyone says is brilliant, the thick novel that sits in prime position on our bookshelves, possible unread, because it’s a book that we should read and should like. Second, the book that sells millions and millions of copies on hype and word of mouth, but it’s a book that we feel the need to criticise and tear to pieces. Neither would be as successful without the publicity they have attracted.
With all the concern about the demise of books and the publishing industry, we should be celebrating anything that gets people into bookshops and into the pages of a novel. A flurry of new ‘erotica’ books is now on the shelves in the same way that vampire stories were popular after Twilight. This is good for authors, good for publishers, and good for bookshops. And of course, good for readers who may come across a book that gives them entertainment, escapism and even education.
…and will you be reading Bringing Up The Bodies? I read Wolf Hall for a book group a while back, and I loved it, but nobody else did. She has a habit of saying “he” when she means Cromwell, which is quite confusing, I think that’s a big barrier for a lot of people. Bringing Up The Bodies is a quicker, easier read.
Hi Claire!
It’s funny you should say that about Mantel using ‘he’ when Cromwell was speaking – it took me a little while to work that out, but when I did, everything made a lot more sense! I think that’s a good example of one of the things about the style of writing that makes it a bit more difficult to read. And yes, I will read Bring Up the Bodies. I actually did enjoy Wolf Hall, I just found that I needed to concentrate on it! I think now that I’ve read WH, BUTB will be easier – though I might have a break before I tackle it! Glad to hear that it’s less challenging to read!
D
I don’t have any interest in “Fifty Shades of Grey” but like you I love English History. I’ve just finished the series “The Tudors”, it was fantastic. Think I may have to track down Wolf Hall, flick through and see if it’s possible for me to get through it!!
Hi Heidi,
Ooh, ‘The Tudors’ – I loved that series too! I must say that if I hadn’t watched it, I don’t think I could have made it through Wolf Hall. When characters were mentioned, I at times looked them up on the internet so I could see who had played them in the show, which then helped me to visualise them. Cheating?
What was good about Wolf Hall was that it built on that – obviously both the show and the book fictionalise the bare facts that we know about that period, but WH is told from Cromwell’s perspective which is really interesting, and adds a lot. Definitely worth a go!
D
Word is Bring up the Bodies is even better… Now, who’s word?
Have you read Wolf Hall Jenni? Or Fifty Shades of Grey…? 🙂
I, like you, have made attempts but have been drawn to ‘side projects’ (let me be frank – I struggle to get through book club book each month!) but am keen to go back now there’s so much hullabaloo around the sequel… Sound familiar?
Oh yes, Jenni, very familiar…!
Not drawn towards 50 shades…
Good post, DrD. I guess we all respond in different ways to books, and that’s why there’s such a range of them out there. I usually won’t buy a book simply because it’s a bestseller, but occasionally as a writer I buy one outside the sort I usually read to see if I can discern what has made it so successful. And sometimes I’m disappointed, even surprised, by what I regard as the mediocre quality of the writing (no names here). Other times I’m blown away by the language (as with ‘All that I am’, and ‘Let the whole world spin’), and I go back to the keyboard with high(er) aspirations for my own writing. And I’m intrigued by the large number of books that proclaim they’ve made the New York Times bestseller list.
Hi Daryl,
Yes, it’s interesting to read books and work out why they’re so popular – it’s nice when it’s the plot or writing, even if it’s not something I would normally like/read. Interesting that you mention ‘All That I Am’ – that’s a book I have just bought, purely because of the awards it has won recently – glad to hear that you liked it!
D
Hi Dawn,
It’s interesting how we struggle bravely on through books that we don’t really ‘like’, but believe are instead somehow otherwise valuable. At first I wanted to question that idea that a book could be ‘good’ because you (or I) come to ‘respect’ it as a work, as you put it — but if I want to argue (as I often do) that to entertain is a valid goal in writing, then ‘to make something that engenders respect’ should be equally valid.
But how do we tell the difference between writing that is difficult to follow and sustain attention on as an end result of creating a particular piece of art (eg ‘Ulysses’, I think) and writing that uses deliberate confusion and profoundly unnecessary complexity to merely appear literary and, beyond that, simply artistic? The first inspires me; the second makes me want to give up, sometimes. But what if there isn’t any essential difference between the two, and I’m just making subjective judgements?
With respect to 50 Shades Of and other frequently-attacked books, and the criticism thereof, I guess it’s possible for them both to be really badly written and to have good stories, or to be both clumsy in their art and appealing to an audience, although those two things aren’t exactly the same. So it’s legitimate to criticise 50 Shades for its writing quality – but perhaps not the audience for liking it. The sales are more about the audience than the work, really, so are at best a tangent in a legitimate discussion about the books as art.
Hi Dawn
I have a similar dilemma at the moment – have been reading ‘My Name is Red’, a Nobel Prize winning novel, and I’m just not digging it. To me it seems self-indulgent and, in the words of my articulate husband, it ‘disappears up its own @rse’. There are few books I haven’t eventually managed to finish, despite not enjoying them, so I might persevere with this one, but equally it may eventually join Ulysses on my shelf as one of the rare few that weren’t worth the effort of reading.
I would encourage you to persevere with The Street Sweeper though – I found it difficult to get into but by the end I loved it. He’s a great writer.
Cheers
Bec
Ah, Ulysees. I think I made it through about two pages of that. Up there with Moby Dick…!