A Brie Grows in Brooklyn

I love this essay on “Royal Bodies” by Hilary Mantel in the London Review of Books:

“I used to think that the interesting issue was whether we should have a monarchy or not. But now I think that question is rather like, should we have pandas or not? Our current royal family doesn’t have the difficulties in breeding that pandas do, but pandas and royal persons alike are expensive to conserve and ill-adapted to any modern environment. But aren’t they interesting? Aren’t they nice to look at? Some people find them endearing; some pity them for their precarious situation; everybody stares at them, and however airy the enclosure they inhabit, it’s still a cage.”

I wish I were Hilary Mantel so badly.

“He thinks, perhaps I have got over Liz. It didn’t seem possible that weight would ever shift from inside his chest, but it has lightened enough to let him get on with his life. I could marry again, he thinks, but is this not what people are always telling me? He says to himself, I never think of Johane Williamson now: not Johane as she was for me. Her body once had special meaning, but that meaning is now unmade; the flesh created beneath his fingertips, hallowed by desire, becomes just the ordinary substance of a city wife, a fading woman with no particular looks. he says to himself, I never think of Anselma now; she is just the woman in the tapestry, the woman in the weave.”

—From Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I just finished the book, which I found difficult to begin even after I was 300 pages in. I liked it more towards the end, when I gave it my attention. Should I read the sequel? I’ve been dissuaded by more than one person, but the problem is, I want to see Anne die just as much as I did Cersei. Someone please help me.

I just finished reading “The Keep” (eh), and I’m in the market for a good read. Right now, I have “American Pastoral” (snore) and “Sex Tips for Girls” (that’s for Caleb) on my nightstand, but neither one of them are grabbing my interest.

I’m thinking of going to buy “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel, a work of historical fiction about Thomas Cromwell, but I’m a little fatigued of the Tudors. If you have any other suggestions, please email me!