Bookless in Gaza

Mantel Pieces
Read by Olivia Dowd, Length:~11hours
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
Read by Jane Carr, Length: ~4 hours

I decided to review these two books together, as both contain Mantel’s stories, literary articles and reviews. Also I read them consequently so they have morphed into my mind as one long Mantel description of the real and literary worlds. Both truly excellent, though I preferred Pieces.

One of my favorite Pieces is “On Jane Boleyn” (2008) which starts with the so-Mantel remark that You may fear from the title of this book that they’d found yet another Boleyn girl. , which is a review of a book written by Julia Fox. Of course there wasn’t another Boleyn girl in the true sense, although another prolific writer, who Mantel refers to as “the energetic Philippa Gregory” has also written a Jane Boleyn biography.

Mantel is concise, full of humor, and is historically accurate. She expects other historical fiction writers to be the same. Unfortunately they are not, as Mantel has so much fun in acidly pointing out.

Another favorite was “Royal Bodies: from Anne Boleyn to Kate Middleton” (2013). At a writers’ festival in Hay-on-Wye Mantel was asked to name a famous person and to choose a book to give them. Not surprisingly Mantel hates such questions, but she had to answer. She chose Kate Middleton Duchess of Cambridge as the famous person, and the book to give her, the cultural historian Caroline Weber’s Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. Need I say more. You can read this essay in the London Review of Books Feb 2013 Royal Bodies.

Another London Review of Books Essay, “Marie Antoinett” (1999) published in Pieces published under Fatal Non-Readers shows us how pamphlets in the 18thC were as vicious to Marie Antoinette as was the press to Diana Spencer. The similarities between the two blue-eyed, porcelain-skinned, Marie Antoinette and Princess Di had more in common than their love of clothes and their need for them.The similarities in how they were treated is striking. Both were the subject of extreme misogyny and a hungry press.

In “Bookshop Shopping in Jeddah” (1988) we get a memoir snippet of Mantel’s life in Saudi. Bleak and bookless. Mantel concentrates on the lives of the women. In her own words.

“Housewives whose mothers sat in tents spend the days in their urban apartment blocks watching Egyptian soap-operas on TV. Students at the university would not buy books, their European teachers said: it was necessary for a department to buy enough copies of the standard texts, and place them in the library. My closest Muslim friend, a well-travelled and articulate woman, had a degree in English from a college in Pakistan. She mentioned one day that since her marriage, three years previously, she had read only one book..” - London Review of Books, March 1999

The stories and essays are undated in The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. I sense they are on the whole a bit older. Two stand out. “How Shall I know You” is an amusing story of Mantel’s overnight stay in the insalubrious Eccles House, a small seedy hotel in a remote town somewhere in the UK where she was obliged to go for a talk. The conveyor was as hopeless as the hotel, but Mantel makes it an amusing tale.

In “Sorry to Disturb” we get a look at her life as an expat in Jeddah, but a more intimate look than in Pieces’ “ Bookshop Shipping in Jeddah”. “Sorry to Disturb” is a story about her pointless friendship with a fellow expat, a rather dismal Pakistani accountant. Both of them are lonely but Mantel can enjoy her solitude. She feels duty-bound to invite her acquaintance to her home, though she becomes wary of his intentions. It’s worth reading if only to get an idea of Mantel’s silent husband.

I recommend both books, and hover between 3.5 and 4 in my rating. The individual stories served welcome break between my reading of full-length novels. ( )

The author of a book reviewed by Hilary Mantel could be assured of receiving an attentive read. She also read around the topic, reading other books to place the book at hand in context.
Of course, the writer might not appreciate that blessing, for Mantel has the gift of sharp analysis, a scalpel into the weak joints of an otherwise fine book.
Not every periodical offers its reviewers the time to do this nor the column inches to share what one has come up with. And the rates to make it possible to devote that time to a subject. Mantel and the London Review of Books were a good match. Its editors also seemed gifted in pairing book and reviewer. It’s interesting to see some books that resonated strongly with Mantel. One is Hellish Nell, a book about the last woman convicted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, in 1944! Perhaps because, as she writes, “One senses a powerful personality trapped in a sick and disabled body which others despised for its ugliness.”
Unsurprisingly, given the subjects of her thoroughly researched historical novels, many books sent Mantel’s way dealt with figures from the French Revolution or the Tudor era. Her Catholic childhood prepared her for perceptive reviews about Mary and anorexic saints.
In every case, she is an independent, undoctrinaire thinker. Given her lifelong interest in social justice, I was interested in her review of a book about two boys, one ten and one eight, who kidnapped and murdered a three-year-old. She disagrees with the book’s author, who calls for pity and empathy for two “damaged and half-formed boys.” Mantel frames her disagreement as a matter of human rights: “To insist they were so incapable diminishes them as moral beings.”
The collection also includes some pieces of memoir, such as “The Day I Met My Stepfather,” and her harrowing account of a hospital stay.
Oops, I almost forgot: this volume also includes "Royal Bodies," the lecture she gave about Anne Boleyn, Princess Diana, and Kate Middleton. Mantel seems bemused by the outcry this caused. She defended herself by claiming all she meant was "don't do to Kate what you did to Diana." Indeed she said that, but a bit more.
Not every piece collected here interested me to the same degree, but I thoroughly enjoyed a high percentage.
One warning: Keep a magnifying glass close. One feature of the book is the reproduction of postcards, faxes, and emails between Mantel and the LRB editors. Unfortunately, they are printed at a size bound to induce eye strain. ( )

brilliant essays, I loved them, one of my favourites, shopping for a bookshelf in Jeddah! ( )

A selection of reviews and other book related writings by Mantel that have appeared in the LRB over the years. I felt that she was always more engaging on the reviews of the books related to the Tudor period. At times she can be quite cutting and, without knowing if there is cause to be so, it can feel quite cruel. I'm not sure that this has necessarily inspired me to read more of her reviews, nor, if I'm honest, the books she was reviewing! ( )

I will read anything this woman writes. The minute I read about this book, I ordered it (bookshop.org - supports my choice of independent bookstore, arrived in 3 days. Just sayin'...). If you found [b: Wolf Hall|6101138|Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)|Hilary Mantel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1336576165l/6101138._SY75_.jpg|6278354], [b: Bring Up the Bodies|13507212|Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)|Hilary Mantel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330649655l/13507212._SY75_.jpg|14512257], [b: The Mirror and The Light|45992717|The Mirror & the Light (Thomas Cromwell, #3)|Hilary Mantel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578295385l/45992717._SY75_.jpg|18853327], and [b: A Place of Greater Safety|101921|A Place of Greater Safety|Hilary Mantel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1363435037l/101921._SX50_.jpg|1168385] too daunting in their length, density, and complexity, this may be more approachable as a collection of reviews and essays appearing over the years in the London Review of Books. They too can be intense, and demanding, but they are shorter, and often cover the same ground, given her expertise. So if you did relish the masterworks, you'll get a satisfying top-up here, with additional coverage of Tudors and Jacobins and other characters of less prominence but much interest.

Mantel began writing reviews in the 1980s. And this selection is like a course in review-writing. She had no training as a critic, no experience. But by god, she could read and think and interpret and write. It's fascinating to watch her master her craft, ranging from a quizzical examination of Shere Hite's report on women and love, a biography of pop phenomenon Madonna, a wonderful piece on the last woman to be convicted under England's 18th century witchcraft laws - in the 1940s! - to an acid lecture on the the roles and expectations of women in the royal family. There are also more personal pieces, dissecting (almost literally) her own travails with undiagnosed illness and savage surgery, and growing up with a fractured family and faith. The essays are interspersed with copies of notes, then faxes, then emails between Mantel and her editor, Mary-Kay Wilmers - asking for more time, asking for certain books to be considered, shared anecdotes and affectionate wishes. We should all be so lucky.

Highly recommended for anyone who already admires Hilary Mantel and her books, who can't get anough of the Tudors and/or French revolutionaries, mediums and seances and spritualists, or who want to write brilliant, thoughtful book reviews... there are a few of those here, right?

juliestielstra.com ( )