Book Review: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

My greatest motivation to read this book was the fact that my mother gifted me the entire trilogy. I’m not usually a fan of historical fiction and this novel was no exception.

The prose is definitely noteworthy, but the narrative was a slog. I just didn’t care for all the fuss around Henry VIII’s scandalous divorce proceedings. So many people lauded for their intellect spending their time on a matter that I have no emotional connection with…

My favorite parts of the story were those of Thomas Cromwell’s home life. He’s in the middle of the black plague, he’s raising his sons and wards (which is an interesting working relationship to see dramatized). Cromwell navigates life in those scenes with the same logic we might have used during the pandemic and with the same considerations for his kids’ future. He frets over their bad decisions and he plans for their marriages, all while ascending from his modest beginnings at the hand of an abusive father through the ranks of the court to Henry’s right hand man. The estate houses the entire extended family and I find those dynamics far more interesting than the dynamics of the royal court.

Those home scenes evoke the most emotion and pathos in the story. I’d read an entire novel about Cromwell’s life outside the royal court.

I appreciate the extent to which Mantel has animated these characters nearly 500 years after the events of the novel, and I can understand why that might be appealing to fans of historical fiction, i.e. Mom.

Even if I didn’t enjoy it, at least now I can talk to her about it, which is worth something.