THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT by Hilary Mantel

THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT

by

Hilary Mantel

            The Mirror and the Light is the third and final installment in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. The book begins with the beheading of Anne Boleyn and covers the latter part and final years of Cromwell’s life.

Wolf Hall, the first book in the trilogy, was published in 2009, while the second book, Bring Up the Bodies, was published in 2012. It was a long wait for the 2020 arrival of the over 700 page conclusion of Mantel’s masterpiece, but it is well worth the wait. Both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies won the Man Booker Prize, and The Mirror and the Light has been longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.

            Thomas Cromwell was a very interesting man; it is incredible how the poor son of a blacksmith from Putney ended up as the rich, powerful chief minister to King Henry VIII. His life certainly provides plenty of fodder with which Mantel could work. And, Hilary Mantel is an incredible writer; The Mirror and the Light, like the prior two parts of the trilogy, is beautifully written. I knew Cromwell’s fate before beginning Mantel’s trilogy. Nonetheless, I was still on edge as Mantel led me to, and through, it.

            Mantel did a wonderful job bringing Cromwell to life. In my opinion, The Mirror and the Light deserves the Booker Prize. I highly recommend the trilogy – especially this final installment.

DISAPPEARING EARTH by Julia Phillips

DISAPPEARING EARTH

by

Julia Phillips

            Disappearing Earth is Julia Phillips’s debut novel. It was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award.

            At the beginning of the book, two sisters living on the Kamchatka peninsula in far eastern Russia, ages eight and eleven, were abducted. The police investigation was unsuccessful, and the book, like the world, moved on from there.

            I did not like Disappearing Earth. I wanted to quit on it in the beginning, when it became apparent that the abduction was going to occur. But, because the book had been a National Book Award finalist, I decided to continue. The only thing that changed by the time I reached the end of the book was that my dislike of it had grown.

            After the abduction, the book seemed to jump around from short story to short story. To be fair, I listened to the audio version of the book. Although the narrator did a fine job with the reading, I think that format made it more difficult for me to follow the story. I had difficulty distinguishing some of the Russian names. So, I was bit surprised to later learn from the publisher’s description that the characters were all connected by the crime. Perhaps if I had read the text, I would not have missed that vital connection. In addition, the lives of each of the characters seemed miserable and bleak. Phillips’s descriptions seemed to support every preconceived, pejorative idea I have ever held about life in Russia. Again to be fair, perhaps I should not have undertaken this book in the midst of a pandemic.

            I obviously missed whatever literary value this book has that resulted in its consideration for a National Book Award. In my opinion, it was a negative reading experience.