Wolf Hall... struggling...

[babber]

After reading several outstanding reviews for Wolf Hall (many of which on here) i was quite excited to start this book.

I am now quite gutted that I don't seem to be enjoying it... I'm only 2 chapters in but its becoming a bit of a chore rather than a pleasure to read... Am I missing something? Why does the auther keep referring to several people as 'he' during the same conversation? is it written in first person or not? I find this is very confusing and is meaning i have to keep re-reading parts to decipher who exactly is saying what... I read a lot, but maybe this is too 'high brow' for me. Just wondering should I persevere? will i be rewarded? does it become less of a slog as you go through it?
I hate giving up on books once i've started but I also hate not looking forward to reading on my way to work...

Agree with Hullygully about everything, including the punitive papal mass

I hated Beyond Black - didn't even manage to finish it.

Okay - have now got to the 'secret' marriage. Must be nearly finished now!

I keep having to take a break from it, current break has been quiet a long one

I enjoyed it, but I quite like anything Tudory.

The present tense thing was quite irritating.

The calling everyone "he" thing was also quite annoying, although frankly giving them their names probably wouldn't have helped as they were all called Thomas anyway. Except Anne Boleyn, obviously.

I quite liked it at first, but it went on a bit. I was so disappointed in the ending too.

so pleased to see this thread, started reading it tonight, about 3 chapters in, really enjoying it but was getting confused over the 'hes' too! Glad Im not the only one! Will perserver though a love Tudor period.

I haven't read the whole thread but my copy is sitting beside my bed, where it's been for several months unfinished. Think I managed to get to Chapter 4

totally agree, spent birthday book tokens on it following all the great reviews, it is irritating in the extreme, jumpy, incomprehensible in places. You'd think Cromwell was a psychopath.

Found it difficult to get going, but once I did I was totally hooked and loved it. There were bits when I wasn't quite sure who was who, but I found if I just relaxed and kept reading, it became clear.

It really is a fantastic book, please keep reading!

wow - well since i last looked at this thread i have persevered and am now up to part 5. can't say i'm really enjoying it yet as such, but the fact that i'm still hanging in there must mean its gripped me in some way...
she does go on a bit doesn't she, old hilary?

Ah, clever MI has said exactly what I was trying to get clear in my mind. I was resisting it, because I normally abhor historical novels - I enjoy reading about history, but at the first 'troth' or 'prithee' or 'my liege' I come over all of a whim-wham.

I am enjoying it because I am intrigued by the politics, the rise of the thinking that led to everything it led to, the charactyerisation of TC and the close up glimpse of domestic life - how humane he is, how progressive some of his ideas.

My only frustration is, we know the ending!

oh motherinferior how fantastic to find you here again... (tis BP)

OP, I felt the same, abandoned it after a few chapters. I got very confused (the 'he' thing nearly finished me off) and before long all I could see in the text was HM's style

In the end, I simply couldn't be ars*d

My sister and both parents (inc my father who never reads fiction) adored it. Go figure. It's a very Marmitey book, I guess

I took it on holiday and struggled esp when reading it whilst glugging sipping wine.
I think i will have to go back to the beginning.

AM glad it was not me getting al my Thomas's mixed up!

Whoever said that you shouldn't see it as a historical novel hit the nail on the head. The 1st time round I found it very slow, partly because I was waiting for Henry and Anne Boleyn to be wheeled in. The 2nd time round I stopped looking for that, slowed down and enjoyed the ride, and loved it. Can't wait for the sequel.

I will finish it tonight, I think!

I still really like TC and totally disagree with the pyschopath comment below. I'm finding him extremely human and really like the snippets of his family life and his relationships with Rafe etc.

I didn't realise there was going to be sequel. Don't know if I'll bother with it if there is and certainly wouldn't willingly pick up another of hers.

But the history and the man are enough to hold my interest in places where the style is deficient on this.

well, at book club last night none of us liked it. i was the only one who had read it all the way through.

well, you're all thick then.

(even if I am unsure of quite what century we are currently inhabiting)

I found it a challenge to get going but did get caught up in the detail of it all - I loved Cromwell - a sort of Tudor Zelig - and found it a very poignant read knowing how badly it all ended for him. I think the fact that most of us know a little bit about that period of history (roister-doistering Henry VIII, tragic Anne B, the reformation etc) but Mantel was able to use that assumed knowledge and then fill it out, make Henry and Anne convincing characters rather than players in a historical trajectory which was brilliant. It also made me think more about the reformation - the fact that deeply religious people such as Henry VIII and Thomas More thought they would go to hell if they turned away from Rome (TM, of course, refused ultimately) - it was a very real horror for them.

I found the sexual politics very intriguing - wanted to hear more about Mary B, loved the games Anne B played. All the women in it were pretty interesting, in fact: Katherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, the servant he takes in (whose name I have forgotten ). It did, however, seem a very unlikely Booker winner.

Finished it. I was entirely underwhelmed by the ending but liked the Thomas More stuff just before the end and found that quite gripping.

just for the record i've officially given up...

took it back to the library today for someone more worthy than me...

I can't bear it staring at me when I wonder what to read next. I'm going to give in and inflict it on someone else give it to Oxfam.

Imagine if you were a teenager and you picked this up to start reading some prize winning fiction!

DD has just said she wants to read it - but I think I put her off it!

God, Henry was a twit though, wasn't he? Like the Red Queen in Alice. Off with his head; oh dear I wish I had him back; he was a nice man; off with HIS head instead; oh dear why did I do that; I blame my advisors; off with THEIR heads.

I loved Wolf Hall, was sad to put it down. I didn't find any difficulty with the text. My FIL to be didn't get on with it though. I thought it was a lot better than the HisLit stuff that keeps making the best seller lists.