2 Comments

  1. Alex Bean

    Andrew, one of the things that haunted me after reading the Cromwell novels was how Mantel drew the reader into identifying with Cromwell’s ethos and choices. Once that’s accomplished and we’re firmly on his side the stakes become higher and the decisions more bloody. We’re still on his side, but only near the end of Bring Up the Bodies do we realize that that means we’ve cheering for innocent blood to spill. Is that what you referred to as the difficult to read sections?

  2. Andrew Rostan

    Alex…absolutely! The power of the novels comes in no small part from how we can identify with the choices Cromwell makes and realize how easily it would be for us to make the same choices, to move people around like chess pieces and casually send them to their death.

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