Gift Guide 2010: For Your Brainy Pal who Enjoys the Occasional Renaissance Fayre
Before we begin, a caveat: I believe it is a very difficult task to buy a novel for someone. Cookbooks? Easy! Kids' books? Of course! Art books? All right. But novels are so subjective, more often then not you will strike out. It's like buying someone underpants- just because they look like they might fit, doesn't mean they will be comfortable.
That said: you have a friend. An old friend. A dear friend. A distant friend. You rarely see her, because she lives in Bozeman, Montana where she is getting a PhD in molecular biology. Her thesis is on life cycle of parasites that live in cutthroat trout bellies. On the weekends, she likes to put on a snood, drive out to Gallatin, and watch her burly husband joust under the name Lord Burleigh. He's even sort of a ringer for Henry VIII- all thick, bearded and ruddy.
In elementary school, she regaled you with stories of murdered princes, and there was always a Mary Stewart book in her hand when you two were supposed to be studying for that math test. (You got a "C". She got an "A") Later, she graduated to the Tudors. You assumed she would at some point go and study in England, but strangely, she has not. Instead, she went to China. She is fluent in Mandarin now, but still as obsessed with Katherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Katherine and Katherine as she ever was.
Wolf Hall is perfect. Who knew there was something new to be said about the Tudors? I mean, for real- everyone has had a crack at them, from Shakespeare on down to Jonathan Rhys Meyers. But Mantel's approach- telling the story of the ascension of Anne Boleyn, from the point of view of the concurrently rising royal adviser, the scrappy, wily Thomas Cromwell- is eye opening. Her writing is superb- richly detailed, pungent and beautiful. And seriously, this book, which is all about politics and intrigue and people that died centuries ago, is as unputdownable and relevant as the most recent Woodward- even though you know exactly how it's going to end, in the end. The blessing- your friend might already have read it- in which case, you can keep it for yourself. I mean, it did win the Booker. Cross your fingers!
That said: you have a friend. An old friend. A dear friend. A distant friend. You rarely see her, because she lives in Bozeman, Montana where she is getting a PhD in molecular biology. Her thesis is on life cycle of parasites that live in cutthroat trout bellies. On the weekends, she likes to put on a snood, drive out to Gallatin, and watch her burly husband joust under the name Lord Burleigh. He's even sort of a ringer for Henry VIII- all thick, bearded and ruddy.
In elementary school, she regaled you with stories of murdered princes, and there was always a Mary Stewart book in her hand when you two were supposed to be studying for that math test. (You got a "C". She got an "A") Later, she graduated to the Tudors. You assumed she would at some point go and study in England, but strangely, she has not. Instead, she went to China. She is fluent in Mandarin now, but still as obsessed with Katherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Katherine and Katherine as she ever was.
Wolf Hall is perfect. Who knew there was something new to be said about the Tudors? I mean, for real- everyone has had a crack at them, from Shakespeare on down to Jonathan Rhys Meyers. But Mantel's approach- telling the story of the ascension of Anne Boleyn, from the point of view of the concurrently rising royal adviser, the scrappy, wily Thomas Cromwell- is eye opening. Her writing is superb- richly detailed, pungent and beautiful. And seriously, this book, which is all about politics and intrigue and people that died centuries ago, is as unputdownable and relevant as the most recent Woodward- even though you know exactly how it's going to end, in the end. The blessing- your friend might already have read it- in which case, you can keep it for yourself. I mean, it did win the Booker. Cross your fingers!
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