SOS: The Other Boleyn Girl
Finished the book approximately two minutes ago. Started it...just a few days ago.
Yeah, definitely a book I had trouble stopping reading, though it wasn't so full of deadly (deathly?) cliffhangers...just really kept you curious for what was going to happen next. Difficult book, in a way, to pull off - about the simplest (but best, in my opinion) of subjects: human relationships and interactions, in a world which really did exist once (along with the interactions and incidents). Fabulously written, in that regard.
But I will swear that Ms. Gregory has some character issues. With Mary, Anne, and the uncle in particular. Sure, Mary wasn't terribly sharp (just compassionate...I am suddenly thinking of Helga Hufflepuff...), I will learn to accept that that is okay, but there are some conclusions she should have made on her own, without her brother or someone else spelling it out for her, just because she has lived at court for so long and has seen how it operates, what might cause what.
Anne - from her introduction to her initial building-up, one gets the idea she's actually inhuman in her detached, cold ambition and calculations, especially given her age. And that could have been okay, as there are certainly inhuman people like that out there. However, but then she falls in love with Henry Percy and displays other moments of weakness and fear that don't really fit how her character is previously displayed. She's so ridiculously and continuously cruel to Mary, too, for that.
Then the uncle - painted as unfeeling and detached as Anne, coldly deserts her completely, all of which would have been fine, except how the last we hear of him was how he was choking on his tears before pronouncing Anne "guilty" and her sentence. ...What. This man who was so unfeeling and calculating and emotionless, suddenly cannot remotely control himself at this very public moment?
And the ENDING. In one way it succeeded, as the 600+ pages had built up the characters so that the simple facts did all the work: the reader felt the horror and hopeless suspense of the executions. But it was so, so detached from Mary's reactions, ever - we never see her react to this horrible execution of the woman who has been the love and curse of her life. Or even to her beloved brother's execution (or even, really, his sentence...). The author may be assuming that again, after 600+ pages, she doesn't need to tell us how she would react...well, I felt confused/dissatisfied.
This sounds like I am utterly disdaining the book, when I really did enjoy it greatly and was very much moved by it. It's just that the flaws puzzle me, because they stand out in an otherwise tremendous and masterly written book - one I've heard quite a lot about from many places.
Oh, let me talk about how much I loved George. Favorite character. I will applaud Ms. Gregory for how realistically homosexuality was portrayed, and how Mary never did understand. Very, very good. Poor poor poor George. I would have loved to know how he felt as he went to the blocks, with Francis beside him. And the incest, wow.
Later, I will make a list of words I hideously overuse when writing and for which I need to find a variety of appropriate substitutes..