Dan's Reading Journal

The Illiad by Homer (translated by Samuel Butler)

There are some serious gaps in my education.  I never finished Joyce's Ulysses, I had huge problems with Faulkner, and choked on Flannery O'Connor.  I was not an English major, thus did not confront Milton or Sir Walter Scott.  I managed to get to Steinbeck, Hemingway, Styron, as well as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky but really fell down on the classics.  Thus, I decided to load my Kindle with The Iliad and give it a go.  Well, I gave it a go, and I am gone.  First, what led me to expect I would be reading about the Trojan Horse?  Because I am an ignoramus, that's why.  The Trojan Horse shows up in the Aeneid by Virgil (I think) -- Yup, that's right, I haven't read that either.  What a dummy.

Second, no one warned me that the Iliad's closest literary rivals (at least in style) are either the Book of Lists or the generations section of the Book of Genesis.  My guess is that fully 50%  of the Iliad is made up of the litany of who killed who, with what weapon, by what gruesome wound, and what lineage just got cut short. Not a few, not tens, but hundreds.  With a sword though the jaw, with a sword through the stomach, with a sword through (or above, below or next to) the nipple.  I think Homer (or his translator) has a thing for nipples -- it is the most frequently mentioned location for where swords (or pikes, or staffs, or whatever) puncture the human (male) body.

Achilles is an arrogant sort, supremely confident but only focused on himself and his due. Just a bit of an ego, to say the least.  Agamemnon is apparently a grasping, pecuniary sort -- abusing his position as King to enrich himself.  Homer also does not lack for ego, sees himself as a hero, and plays to the part   right up until he ends up mano-a-mano with Achilles which prompts Hector to run like hell around the walls of Troy with Achilles in hot pursuit.  Paris appears only in a supporting role, portrayed as a lover, not a fighter (a coward, in fact) and a kidnapper to boot.  Helen plays a bit part...beautiful, but little else.  Odysseus (Ulysses) appears as a courageous fighter, wise counsel, albeit with a temper.  The Gods flit in and out, playing favorites with the humans, determining their fate, influencing human behavior, and arguing, scheming, and fighting amongst themselves

There is more, but I must admit I was not engaged.  I am truly sorry.  I know it is a tremendous story. I would like to blame it on the translation, but that would be unfair.  It is me. I'll wait awhile and try The Odyssey - a story I adored as a child.

Wanting: A Novel by Richard Flanagan

The practitioners of (good) historical fiction are a multi-talented lot.  They possess the ability to write plot and character, a deep knowledge of their chosen period, and a creative spark and insight to tie the two together in a way that intrigues but does not stretch the readers' credulity.  Richard Flanagan demonstrates his virtuosity in Wanting: A Novel.  Flanagan gives us two very different stories of the nineteenth century:  In Tasmania (Van Dieman's Land); an aboriginal tribe fights for its existence and one of its daughters, Mathinna, is adopted by the new Vice-Regent (Governor General) and his wife - the explorer Sir John Franklin and his wife, Lady Jane.  Years later, Lady Jane implores Charles Dickens to write a defense of her husband (lost in an Artic expedition) that Dickens turns into a play where Dicken's plays the main character.  In the casting and presentation of the play, Dickens meets, falls in love with, and then must deal with his marriage and his desire for the actress Ellen Ternan.

Flanagan does a magnificant job of asking the question (and answering it with his plot creations and his prose) of what is savage and uncivilized and what is cultured and civilized.  The cultured Franklins, particularly Lady Jane, are enthalled by the aborigine Mathinna and tear her away from her people and her culture to live with them in Hobart (the capital), where Lady Jane embarks upon her "education".  When she fails to become the cute, black, Christian child Lady Jane envisions, Mathinna is, at the end, abandoned. As the Franklins leave Tasmania (forced out by politics), they leave things worse than when they arrived.  Mathinna's people are  mistreated, their culture unappreciated and dismissed, with their aspirations and desires as a people demeaned and disregared by the civilizing British.  If anybody had ever thought to ask, they would have discovered that neither Mathinna nor the Aborigines have seen fulfilled any of what they might have wanted.

Years later, as Dickens writes his impassioned defense of John Franklin and his Artic expedition (without any evidence accused of cannibalism), burying himself in his work to take his thoughts away from the death of his daughter Dora, he recognizes that his marriage is empty; unfulfilled and unfulfilling.  He meets Ms. Ternan
while casting his play and falls in love -- but can not fully remove himself from his marriage.  He loses himself more and more in his play, in his acting -- where he has written John Franklin as the conquering hero, the civilized (and civilizing) British gentleman; erudite and cultured who would certainly die honorably if the choice were between that and resorting to cannabilism to survive in the unforgiving Artic.

In the end, Flanagan has given us a terrific insight into desire -- the cost of possessing it and the cost of its lack of fulfillment.  Lady Jane wants, but can not have, the conversion of Mathinna she so desparately wants. Just like she must work so hard to ensure her husband's (and thus her own) reputation.  Mathinna desires a return to her people, but she has been changed and cannot go back.  The result is a devastation of the individual.  John Franklin wants greatness, but is defeated in politics, and ultimately is killed by his ambition.  Dickens can not have his daughter back, nor can he produce (nor receive) the love and affection in his marriage he so fervently desires.  Nor, once he finds love, can he have it and share it with the world.

Flanagan is incisive and powerful.  He intrigues us and creates strong emotions.  This is worth reading.

The Whiskey Rebels (and more) by David Liss

I am feeling badly that I have let my readers down.  Having just finished The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss, I looked back into The Reading Journal archives discovering to my enormous embarrassment that the only other novel that I have reviewed by David Liss is The Coffee Trader - (CTRL-click to jump to that review) a highly recommended read.  Unfortunately, that means I have neglected to tell you about a number of other terrific books by David Liss that your really should not miss.

Let me start with my most recent - The Whiskey Rebels.  Liss's MO is to take a significant historical economic event and make it a major character in his novels.  In this novel, the event is the Whiskey Rebellion - a populist insurrection in 1791 precipitated by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's tax on whiskey.  With the Articles of Confederation recently succeeded by the US Constitution in 1789, The Federal government took on the state's Revolutionary War debt and a very straightforward way to raise money came immediately to Hamilton's fertile mind (demonstrating the power of the Federal government and a bit of temperance moralizing also played a big role in this tax). Read more about The Whiskey Rebellion on Wikipedia.

Liss introduces us to the western frontier (think western Pennsylvania here) where the recently free indentured servants, the poor, the adventurous, and those ready and willing to prey on the dreams of such people are drawn to the promise of a new life and cheap land.  Liss creates a couple of terrific characters in this novel.  Ethan Saunders, late of General Washington's espionage group, is living in disgrace (which will be a key element in the story) in Philadelphia.  He is engaged by his former fiancee (lost to him by his disgrace) to help look for her missing husband. In the midst of that mission, Saunders gets involved with Hamilton's Treasury Department and the battle over the Bank of the United States - including direct confrontation with the supporters of Thomas Jefferson.

Meanwhile, Joan Maycott marries a War veteran and they are forced by circumstance to seek their fortunes on the frontier.  Fleeced by the rapaciousness of the powerful who happen to be Hamiltonians, their subsequent inventive success in the Whiskey Trade both attracts the predators even more and is threatened by the Whiskey Tax -- and Joan sets about seeking redress.

The lives of Saunders and Maycott (as you might guess) become intertwined, and Liss creates an intriguing patriotic mystery story out of the immediate post-Revolutionary War period.  Once again, it helps if you are a bit of a history buff - but the history does not overwhelm, it makes it very interesting.  Not quite as good as The Coffee Trader or A Conspiracy of Paper, but The Whiskey Rebels is good for a strong recommendation.

A Conspiracy of Paper was actually Liss' first novel (I read The Coffee Trader first), and it is a terrific book, fun to read, inventive characters, and (to me) a fascinating subject.  Set in 18th century London, we are introduced to (again, or in this case the beginning of the trend) both a personal mystery and a national mystery.  National in scope, London in 1719 was fixated on what came to be known as the South Sea bubble -- a cycle of unfettered speculation on the stock shares (new concept) of the South Seas Company - a monarchy-chartered enterprise to exploit England's dominance in sea-faring and exploration (not to mention colonization and exploitation).  Liss leads us through the ins and outs of stock trading, insider trading, and shady brokers (timely, huh?).  The personal story is carried by Benjamin Weaver, ex-pugilist champion turned thief-taker and strong-arm man.  Weaver is an unusual man for his time - a Jew who is estranged from his family and community, a boxer turned bandit cum Robin Hood.  Weaver gets involved in two seemingly unrelated cases -- the first is that he suspects foul play in the unexpected death of his father and the second is a client quite anxious to reclaim some very important papers.   His involvement brings him into contact and conflict with Jonathan Wilde -- the king of London's "Thief-takers" -- head of a gang that offers to reclaim property stolen from the owners, when in fact committing the crimes in the first place.

All of this activity gets intertwined - Weaver, his father, the lost papers, and speculation in the South Sea Company, and Weaver's unique relationship to his heritage.  Liss introduces us to the top-and-bottom of London society -- the rising rich merchant classes, the Lords and Ladies, and the thieves, whores, and cut-purses.  They all converge in incredibly well drawn salons, coffee-houses, brothels, and gin joints.  Liss makes this world come alive - and as this novel was an outgrowth of his Ph.D. dissertation, I am assuming the details are correct.  Regardless of accuracy, Liss provides an action-packed world and an relatively unforgettable main character.  A Conspiracy of Paper was every bit as good as The Coffee Trader.

A Spectacle of Corruption is the sequel to A Conspiracy of Paper and in the way of most sequels, while interesting and entertaining, it is not as good as his two previous (and one subsequent) efforts.  in Spectacle, Benjamin Weaver is back, this time accused of murder and thrown into the infamous Newgate prison.  With the help of an unknown (to Weaver) accomplish, he manages to escape (in terrific style, I must say) only to find himself hip-deep in the political machinations of the Jacobites who are agitating for the overthrow of the King George I in favor of the recently de-throned James II, a Catholic.  The most exciting parts of A Spectacle of Corruption involve Ben Weaver in action - in disguise as a wealthy plantation owner, in courting a key adversary's sister, or as muscle in the head-bashing that accompanies the political rivalries.  Less successful is Liss' attempts to explain the details of the Whig/Tory rivalries and the abundance of deux-ex-machina situations and coincidences that appear just a bit too contrived....however, once through the political details and suspending disbelief on the other stuff, Liss provides a pretty good action novel that is, once again, rich in details about a life long past.  Still worth the effort and it is fun following Benjamin Weaver wrestle with both his heritage and his love life.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of March, a book I disliked so much I declined to review it.  However, my spouse and I agreed that our Hannukah gifting this year would be limited (for the adults) to one moderate gift, and her gift to me was a limited edition replica of the Sarajevo Haggadah.  The real story of the Sarajevo Haggadah is fascinating and stirring (CTRL click to see the Wikipedia entry). Geraldine Brooks wrote People of the Book and mostly fictionalized the story.  The combination of getting a replica of the Haggadah and the fact that my wife's book group loved the book prompted me to put my past experience with March behind me and give Ms. Brooks another try.  Another impetus to give Ms. Brooks another try was my discovery that she is married to the author Tony Horwitz, author of Blue Highways, one of the most intriguing (and hilarious and educational) travelogues cum history lessons I have ever read.  So, I began.

I could not put this book down.  I fell asleep on it on a Friday night, woke up Saturday morning, made coffee, and finished the book.  Brook's fiction is virtually complete - there are only a few real facts on which she builds her novel, but that is really OK.  There are really good invented backstories - and while there is a very real manuscript and manuscript conservation expert as well as a couple of heroic Bosnian Muslim librarians in the novel and in reality, Brooks is quick to point out that the novel's personalities are in no way based on the historical figures.  With that, you are off to the races as Brooks intertwines a personal and family mystery with a fictionalized explanation of how this 500+ year-old manuscript was created, sheltered, and finally brought into the limelight following the Bosnian/Serb/Croat war that reduced most of Sarajevo to rubble.

The personal family story includes a tip-of-the-hat to old adage that all families are dysfunctional in their own special ways.  In this case the Austrialian manuscript restorer, Hanna Heath, deals with her single parent domineering and hypercritical neurosurgeon of a mother (incredibly well drawn) and on top of that an affair with a Bosnian Muslim whose child was made comatose by a sniper, and professional betrayal.

Alernating chapters bring progess on the Hanna Heath personal story and explanations of how the Sarajevo Haggadah got to be where and what it was.  Following a few clues - an insect wing found in the binding, a set of missing silver clasps, a wine stain, a tiny few salt crystals, a white hair and a couple of historical recreations, Hanna's personal adventures advance with our understanding of how this manuscript was treated, transported, and working backwards, created.

Brooks' main characters are interesting and believable - though some of the explanations of their behavior and motivations are a bit contrived.  Brooks pulls it off however by making the situations (both "real time" with Hanna and historically with the Haggadah) intriguing and the dialogue crisp - humor applied sparingly but quite effectively.  By using the backdrop of the actual Bosnian war as  informative background, modern-day parallel of the religious strife that accompanied the Haggadah's semi-miraculous survival, and a reflective look at the unfortunate paucity of elapsed time exhibiting the peaceful coexistence of Muslims, Christians, and Jews (of which Sarajevo, after WWII but prior the the war in the 90s seemed to represent).  Fictional history well told.  Personal and family adventures interesting and well-drawn.  Have fun with People of the Book and you will learn a few things along the way.

1945 by Robert Conroy

I love alternative history -- the what if exploration of what history might have been like if just one thing had happened differently.  What if Genghis Khan had not died and thus the Mongol army had not retreated from the borders of Vienna?  What if John Wilkes Booth had missed or What if Robert E. Lee had accepted a commission with the Union Army.  Harry Turtledove has made a career out of these -- but I find them hit or miss.

Robert Conroy has written three alternative histories, and the latest, 1945, is an exploration of American and Japanese politics and military strategy.  Here's the deal, the militarists in Japan seize Emperor Hirohito before he can surrender and the United States (with no help from its Russian Allies) is forced to proceed with the invasion of the Japanese mainland.  As the casualties mount, support for the effort produces hawks and doves in America and political unrest rises.  In Japan, desperate fanatics use desperate tactics to "protect" the homeland and repel the invaders. Real Japanese military patriots try to find a way to save their country from massive loss of life.  American military commanders who now have men in the field try to minimize casualties while maximizing territorial gains -- and hold off the nuke 'em into the stone age factions.  Add a couple of plot twists like a Japanese-American spy for the US who happens to find out where the Emperor is being held and a still active (and still arrogant) General MacArthur and you are off to the races.

I found the military strategy to be simply fascinating - and though I do not know how much real research Conroy did, it was pretty convincing to me.  This was a quick, entertaining and quite interesting read.  Have fun with it.

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

A new translation of the classic published in 2006.

Reading The Three Musketeers for the first time at my advanced age, particularly this highly acclaimed translation by Richard Pevear, is a bittersweet experience.  Bitter, in recognizing how much fun it would have been as a teenager to read about the swordfights (I believe Dumas is credited with the practical invention of "the swashbuckler") and the pursuit of women (anyone who believes all 19th century writers were Victorians needs a refresher course). Sweet in that by the time I read the actual story, I knew many parts of it.  It was a thrill to get to the source, finally.

You all know parts of the story - who could not?  You have either seen the many films, cartoons, take-offs, spoofs, or abridged versions.  From all that media, you know that D'Artagnan, a rural lad from Gascony, makes his way to Paris and falls in with Athos, Porthos and Aramis - all three members of His Royal Majesty's Musketeers (Louis XIII).  You might know that they seek engagements with the guards of the cunning, devious, and dangerous Cardinal (Cardinal Richelieu) for both adventure but also in their quest to protect the reputation and physical safety of the Queen (Anne of Austria).  That's about where my knowledge ended before reading the book.

Dumas' creates high adventure at every turn and the details of the plot that are unknown to the non-reader are every bit, if not more interesting as those parts appropriated for popular culture.  A young man's infatuation with an older, married, and still beautiful woman.  A back story for each of the three musketeers that is given the slow reveal.  A young queen with a most powerful foreign admirer who takes enormous risks to see her.  A conniving diplomat who seeks to control the King by discrediting the Queen.  International travel and intrigue. Evil incarnate in the guise of a beautiful temptress who uses her beauty, body, and quick wits to twist men to her will in pursuit of her objectives. A political situation that results in war. Castles and dungeons and torture.  Finally, a rivalry that is started at the beginning of the novel and left unresolved until the epilogue. Intertwined plots with just the right amount of historical reality create a terrific story.

Dumas has a couple of remarkable sequences, and without giving away too much, I encourage you to look for the Three Musketeers and D'Artagnan at war and for how the evil Milady escapes imprisonment. In the first scene, Dumas manages to simultaneously demonstrate both the horror and farce of war.  In the second, he may well be inventing the modern psychological drama.

The Three Musketeers was a hoot to read (finally), and Richard Pevear's translation is mostly very readable with two notable exceptions. First, putting the notes in the back of the book is very distracting when holding a 700 plus page book in bed - using footnotes on the page in question would have made for much better reading.  Second, but much less distracting, was trying to decipher the French curses, currency, and titles - not much to do about that, except study the glossary ahead of reading the book.

This was fun -- I am now going to order "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Man in the Iron Mask".

Emperor by Conn Iggulden

Emperor is a four book series subtitled “A novel of Julius Caesar”. These are truly summer reading. My father would refer to these books as “airplane books” meaning that you would not be too upset if you left the paperbacks on the plane (believe me; these should not be purchased in hardback). Iggulden (now more famous as the author, along with his brother Hal, of the immensely popular and entertaining Dangerous Book for Boys) writes a decently engaging tale loosely based on the life of Julius Caesar and loosely based on Roman History. There are some interesting conventions, i.e., by happenstance, the young Gaius Julius Caesar and the young Marcus Brutus grow up together – Julius’s father the relatively wealthy landowner and Marcus the son of one of the servants. All the historical characters appear – Suetonious (the historian who really wrote a biography of Caesar) serves as an older foil for the boys then them as soldiers of Rome. Sulla and Crassus and Mark Antony and all the rest appear – sometimes even in the roles they actually had in history – but sometimes just as clearly not.

Iggulden knows his Roman history, and writes entertainingly of Roman politics and war. He overloads all four books with the Caesar/Brutus friendship cum competition cum jealousy (he has Brutus as the best swordsman in Rome), but the history is interesting and the actual battles (both political and military) are fairly engaging. Sort of a graphic novel with fewer pictures and better dialogue.

If you have a 17 hour plane ride (as I did), not a bad way to pass a lot of the time -- and yes, I left them on the plane.

The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Many of the books I have most enjoyed have had the common characteristic of having created their own, completely believable and consistent world. Historical fiction has it a bit easier and harder than, say, science fiction. Easier in the sense that the world they create was at least known at some point in time. Harder in that to make the world they create internally consistent and believable, they often have to bring the reader gently through all the incorrect and inaccurate common knowledge that exists.

Edward P. Jones’ The Known World is so good that when I finished the book and read the end-notes, I was positively shocked that he had created the books characters, geography, and history from whole cloth. Now admittedly, I should have known this -- the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is not typically handed out for history books. However, the surprise I felt is small praise for this incredibly well-written, powerful and engaging novel.

Jones writes of the life and times of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who manages to buy his freedom, start his own farm, and become a slave owner himself. The circumstances of Townsend’s enslavement, manumission, his relationship with his former owner, William Robbins are only one of the fascinating threads that Jones weaves together. A second important thread in this tapestry of a book is the history of the Townsend clan, his father and mother (also manumitted slaves) and their relationship with both the black slave world, the white community by which they are surrounded, and the very small, but intriguingly robust community of free blacks. Jones does a detailed and subtle job here….the characters are well formed, strong personalities who come alive in a complex dance macabre of race relations (both inter- and intra-race), economics, and politics. The third thread of the novel follows Henry’s wife, Caledonia, who takes charge of the plantation upon Henry’s death. Her relationship with the slaves under her charge, the conduct of a plantation, and the interactions between slaves, slave owners, and the potential for becoming either one are well articulated and fascinating.

By the way, if you are looking to explore the meaner aspects of slavery, it is all here. Physical oppression, sexual exploitation, the tearing apart of families and the creation of second-class citizens are part of the story as are the choices of response to the products of sexual oppression -- the subjugation of one’s own children or the elevation of same.

Jones has written a deep, rich exploration of the range of human emotions and human relationships. He takes a hard, cold look at slavery and all its implications without moralizing. His choice of focus on a black slave owning family is a very useful mechanism for a full exploration of the impact of slavery on both the slave and the owner without the complication of race. Jones’ parallel exploration of white slave owners both “decent” (to whatever definition of decent slave owner you can conjure up) and abusive is an equally useful tool in exploring both the brutal realities of the more typical race-based oppression and the impact of being a slave owner on a person possessing some conscience.

Moreover, the exploration of the interrelationships within the free black community provides an insight that I have never before come across and found fascinating. Similarly, Jones provides a view into the poor white community – while unsurprisingly more familiar – are still deeply insightful regarding the overall shaping force of society that slavery became in this time.

Jones’ dialogue is terrific and his use of the vernacular is sparing and tremendously effective. His characters are well developed (both black and white) and interesting and complex – Jones imbues richness to the main players that enhances the story-telling all around.

All in – plot development, character development, the exploration of emotion and behavior and the terrific interplay between people and their environment all combine to create a world in which you the reader can lose themselves – completely captivating and powerful and believable and that leaves no doubt of Jones absolutely deserving of the prize that was bestowed upon him and The Known World .

The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth

I should have loved this book. The Ruby in her Navel is subtitled “A novel of love and intrigue set in the 12th century”, it has everything I typically would find terrific in a book: a fabulous historical setting (Sicily in the middle ages) that includes the clash of Islam and Christianity; political intrigue as the new Norman King of Sicily begins to impose himself on the country; a mystery story; a love affair; and a main character who has reached his position (a senior official in the ministry of finance in charge of blackmail and bribes) through hard work and accomplishments rather than birthright. Like many of the historical fiction novels I have reviewed favorably, this one has all the elements of success.

I think Unsworth had a great idea to begin with…..in medieval Sicily, where the Normans (Franks) has just ousted the Saracens (Muslims) from leadership, the wise King utilizes the superior talents organization/bureaucracy of the incumbent Muslim functionaries side-by-side with the Christian knights and court functionaries brought to the island after victory. There is an ongoing power struggle of culture, religion, and ambition. The Muslims are more learned, more sophisticated, more attuned to court intrigue (and a whole lot cleaner, too). The Christians are surprise victors and zealots. Add to the mix some good interpersonal conflicts, a bit of romance, a little good sex writing while staying true to the history and the book (as Marlon Brando, as Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront says) “coulda been a contender”.

Alas, despite all of its environmental advantages, Barry Unsworth (a Booker Prize winner for an earlier novel) manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with an unsophisticated plot, plodding prose, and paper thin characterizations. The context is typically delivered by the musings of the main character, Thurstan Beauchamp, the son of a Norman Christian knight, who by all rights should be quicker, smarter, and cleverer than he ever presents himself to be. The mystery evolves so slowly that glacial movement would seem a sprightly pace and the denouement (while admittedly an interesting twist) comes about with such shocking suddenness (and no foreshadowing) that I felt a bit cheated. One character that should have been fascinating is Thurstan’s boss in the Ministry of Finance, a sophisticated, erudite, learned Muslim named Yusuf who is instead transformed into an unbelievable oracle who quotes just the right passage of Koran at just the right time. The character reminded me of Gurney Halleck in the fabulous sci-fi novel, Dune of whom it was said would seem naked without the appropriate quote.

And, in mitten drinnen, Unsworth is just not a mystery writer. The few twists and turns that do show up seem to appear out of thin air as magic tricks, not as developed themes in a plot.

I would skip this one.

The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory

Political intrigue and scheming. Powerful families competing for favor and fortune. Beautiful women used as pawns in the politics of monarchy. Trading sex for insider information and power. Betrayal and insanity. Leaders of nations and leaders of the Church competing for position and favor. Sisters competing for the same man. Husbands being cuckolded by their superiors. Accusations of witchcraft. Real and imagined homosexual affairs. Poisoning, hanging, beheading, disemboweling and more. Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl has it all and more.

This marvelous piece of historical fiction is based on the real loves and lives of Mary and Anne Boleyn, pawns in the positioning of the Howard/Boleyn family as they compete throughout the mid-16th century with the Seymours for fame, fortune, and titles through the favor of the King. Joined by their brother George, the three are directed and guided by their Howard uncles and Boleyn father in the great and deadly serious game of capturing the King’s favor and providing him with a male heir.

At age 14, the younger Boleyn sister, Mary is already married to William Carey, a low level courtier in the royal household. The Queen, Katherine of Aragon, has failed to produce a male heir and at the ancient age of 37, is no longer expected to do so. The Howard/Boleyn faction manages to place Mary as a lady-in-waiting for the Queen and maneuvers to have Mary catch Henry’s eye (as Henry is ever the randy Monarch). The sheer determination and deliberateness of the planning is shown terrifically well in the dialogue:

“Is she fertile?” Uncle Howard asked my mother.
“Her courses are regular enough and she is a healthy girl”
My uncle nodded. “If the King has her, and she conceives his bastard, then we have much to play for…She can’t sleep in Carey’s bed any more. The marriage has to be put aside while the King favors her”

This, discussion, mind you, takes place with Mary present. Gregory tells you all you need to know about blind and brutal ambition in just 3 lines of dialogue.

Mary does indeed catch the King’s eye, and becomes the apple of that eye for a time and bears him two children, first a girl and then a boy. The King’s interest wanes both from familiarity, boredom, and his restless nature. As the King becomes less interested in Mary, there is another family conference and Mary, George, and Anne are directed to now push Anne in the Kings direction.

Anne recognizes quickly that her only hope of winning is marriage to the King and begins the plotting that eventually ends up with Henry divorcing both his Queen of 20 years and the Catholic Church. But Anne has a challenge that Mary did not….she knows that she cannot sleep with the King and remain marriageable. The tightrope dance that Anne must perform takes her every energy and, eventually as Gregory masterfully describes it, her soul. By “adopting” Mary’s children Anne blackmails Mary’s continuing presence at Court to support her ambition to be Queen. Mary submits, but continues to struggle to get her children, and her life, returned to her.

The rest of the story Gregory tells with great skill, making what we already know into a suspense filled thriller. Anne, of course, is successful in her plotting and becomes Queen. Her first child is the girl, Elizabeth. She hides a miscarriage. She cannot hide her third pregnancy, which also results in a miscarriage of a “monster”. Failure to produce a male heir, the enmity of the entire court and country for having deposed the beloved Katherine and her own plotting and unstable behavior produce her undoing…. she is charged and convicted as a witch and for an incestuous relationship with her brother and fellow plotter George. Both are executed and Mary – out of the limelight – is allowed to return to her farm with her new husband, William. It is with William that Mary finally marries for love.

It is a final irony well told that Anne’s undoing might have much to do with the Seymour family’s successful placing of Jane Seymour in the path of the King. Within 24 hours of Anne’s death, Henry was betrothed to Jane, with whom Henry finally produces a male heir. Irony, indeed.

Addendum -- Philippa Gregory's other books are also very good, those included below I have read and very much enjoyed.

The Coffee Trader - David Liss

I like well-written mysteries (I have written more than a few reviews of the efforts of Robert B. Parker and Nelson DeMille). I like historical fiction at lot. When combined well, the result is usually highly entertaining and educational. For a terrific example, I highly recommend Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis among many others. I also highly recommend David Liss’ most recent effort, The Coffee Trader. The interplay of historical context, a pretty good mystery with a few terrific characters, and

If commerce bores you to tears, this might not be the book for you. Liss has done a masterful job of depicting, explaining, and providing the look, feel, emotions and risk inherent in the development of the Amsterdam bourse — the world’s first commodity exchange market. We see the beginnings of the impact of world trade. We also see confirmation, from the very start, that commodities’ trading was both a gambler’s dream and a processor or fabricator nightmare. We also are shown the first principles commodities trading in that all trading must ultimately be grounded in the goods being traded — despite the best wishes and hard work of the traders.

Second, the historical context is not only the growth of commerce but also religion. Our protagonist, Miguel Lienzo, is a refugee from Portugal, having been expelled with all the rest of the Jewish population in the mid 1600’s. The Jewish Diaspora finds relative tolerance in Amsterdam where it is somewhat unclear which passion rules supreme - religion or commerce. The Jewish community is relatively free and self-governing to a large degree. This creates an environment where the Ma’amad (the Jewish governing council) is all-powerful and is responsible self-policing its “citizens” and enforcing the prohibition on doing business with non-Jews.

Into this great context Liss adds a bit of family friction — Miguel — a trade of some reputation -- has been wiped out in some sugar deals gone bad and is forced to live in his younger brother’s house, which includes the presence of his younger brother’s young wife, Hannah. Hannah is both socially and sexually challenged. Socially challenged because she did not know she was Jewish until her parents were expelled from Portugal. Sexually because she was married to Daniel as a child bride, mostly ignored, and is beginning to find the older brother Miguel quite attractive. Proximity does bring its own rewards.

Now to the heart of the action. A Dutchwomen, Geertruid (who has a great story of her own), approaches Miguel with a proposition to corner the market on a commodity just making its presence known in Europe — coffee. Miguel’s mounting debts, diminished position in the community, and worse, diminished position in his family, provide the impetus for not only his involvement, but also his leadership in the plot. And a plot it is and must be. Miguel’s ex-father in law (Miguel is widowed) is a major force in the Amsterdam market and a major force on the Ma’amad and no friend of Miguel — for whom he blames his daughter’s death. Miguel must connive, manipulate, and manufacture resources, funds, and cover stories for his movements and trades — all the while hiding his involvement with a gentile — and women to boot.

Liss’ use of language is strong and his plot development is really quite good — enough clues to make you really wonder, enough explanation to help you understand. There are enough plot turns and enough surprises to keep it enervating and interesting. Liss does a masterful job of describing the underside of Amsterdam — what happens to the “common” people, the working poor, the unfortunate losers in this new game of commerce. His descriptions and picture of the Jewish community are both enlightening and expected, i.e., “they” are just like everyone else — there are good guys and bad guys, folks who abuse power and those that use it for good.

If I had one criticism of the book it would be the few minor occasions where Liss’ attempt to surprise the reader with a plot twist turned out to be simply not credible. However, these were minor and did not interfere much with the overall quality of this book.

Highly recommended.