Tag: historical-fiction

BLACK & WHITE

One wonders if Abdulrazak Gurnah is proffering an opinion about race relations in the world or just leaving a lifeline for those disappointed by relationship failures.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Admiring Silence 

By: Abdulerazak Gurnah

Narrated By: Unnamed person from Zanzibar

Abdulerazak Gurnah (Author, Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic, moved to the UK in 1960.)

A little context for “Admiring Silence” will help understand Abdulerazak Gurnah’s interesting and troubling story. Gurnah received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021. “Admiring Silence” is the latest book published by Gurnah in 2020. He had written four earlier books: Memory of Departure (1987), Paradise (1994), By the Sea (2001), and Desertion (2005).

“Admiring Silence” is not a biography but an interesting story about a long-term relationship of a Black emigrant and a white woman who meet in Zanzibar (an island archipelago off the coast of Tanzania) and move to London. The two had met in a Zanzibar’ restaurant where they both worked. The Black emigrant leaves his native country with his restaurant mate.

Gurnah describes the two as lovers who are struggling restaurant workers who wish to improve their lives through higher education. An opportunity to attend a university leads the two to decide to emigrate to London because of their similar academic ambition. The two are enrolled at a university and both become teachers in England. Gurnah sets a table for understanding what life is like for an unwed mixed-race couple in mid-twentieth century England.

Their life together is complicated by the birth of a daughter and the father’s decision to visit his homeland when he is in his forties.

No one in Zanzibar knows he has a teenage daughter with an unmarried white woman he lives with in England. His mother wishes to fix him up with a future Black Muslim wife. The interest one has grows with the circumstances of Gurnah’s imaginative story.

  • What is it like to be in a racially mixed marriage in 1960s England?
  • How does a mixed-race child feel about her life in a predominantly white country?
  • What does a Black family think about their son having a mixed-race family?
  • Having lived together for 20 years and had a child, why haven’t they married?
  • How does the relationship between different races affect the feelings of a couple that chooses not to marry but have a child born to them?
  • Is Gurnah’s story representative enough to give one the answers?

The first question is largely unanswered. The last question is impossible to answer but the other four imply Gurnah’s opinion. Marriage is always a work in progress whether it is of a mixed-race couple or not. However, there is a distinction based on race when it comes to a man’s and woman’s personal relationship because of the dimension of racism. Every couple chooses to work through differences and become more or less committed to staying together but two people of different races face discrimination associated with racism, unequal treatment, and economic inequality existing in a country’s dominant racial profile.

Gurnah does not address how a mixed-race child deals with life in a predominantly white country, but one can imagine it depends in part on how distinctive a difference is in the color of their skin in relation to the dominate racial profile.

In terms of the daughter’s relationship with her parents, one presumes it is likely the same parent/child conflicts of all families. Some fathers are more distant than others just as some mothers range from helicopter to equally distant parents.

That these two lovers who have been together for so long without getting married, after their daughter is born, seems like a flashing yellow light, a cautionary notice of something is about to change.

When the father’s mother writes from Zanzibar to have him visit after being away for so long, flashes a yellow light that eventually turns red. He returns for a visit to Zanzibar at the encouragement of his partner. The partner’s encouragement seems disingenuous, i.e. more like a desire for a relationship break than a supportive gesture. The last chapters confirm that suspicion. A break-up occurs soon after the father returns. There is a brief father/daughter reconciliation, but the daughter also decides to separate from her father.

An interesting point is made by Gurnah about a Muslim Black person leaving a poverty-stricken country of his birth to a country of wealth and a different culture.

It is the wish of his Zanzibar’ family for the father to return to help with the disarray and economic disparity of his home country; as well as marry a local Black Muslim girl who wishes to become a doctor. The presumption is that if one leaves their poor country to become prosperous in a wealthy country, they have some magical power to help their poverty-stricken home-countries. It is of little concern to the family about his committed relationship to another but more about what his life is like in his newly adopted country and what he can offer to his homeland from what he has learned. The Muslim girl the mother wishes him to marry is twenty years old. Her son is in his 40s. Tt appears the primary reason for such a marriage is to help the young woman become a doctor. In the end, the son recognizes this is not practical but clearly understandable considering the poverty in Zanzibar.

Gurnah cleverly injects a conversation with a Nigerian Muslim woman on his plane ride back to London before his white lover’s rejection of their relationship.

The Nigerian woman has been divorced from her English husband for several years. It was an emotionally difficult divorce for her. A mix-up on a missing passport allows the father to find contact information for the divorcee. One wonders if Gurnah is proffering an opinion about race relations in the world or just leaving a lifeline for those disappointed by relationship failures.

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CULTURE

Paulette Giles offers a story of America’s unique racial, ethnic, religious and experiential culture.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

News of the World (A Novel)

By: Paulette Jiles

Narrated By: Grover Gardner

Paulette Jiles (Author, poet, finalist for the National Book Award for “News of the World”)

“News of the World” is a story of a young German American girl abducted by Indians in the 1860s, near San Antonio, Texas. She is recovered by a 71-year-old veteran of the Civil War. The author’s contextual research is impressive. Having personally lived in Texas for several years and knowing there is a small Texas town north of San Antonio with a large German ancestral population,”News of the World” becomes immediately credible.

Jiles fictional story is about a young white girl who is 10 years old when she is recovered from an Indian tribe by a Civil War veteran.

The young girl was abducted when she was six. Her four years of captivity were in the formative years of life. She successfully adapts to her tribal environment but does not completely lose knowledge of her younger past. Jiles hero is a Texas oldster who travels the country making a living as a reader of newspapers to citizens interested in news of the world. Many American citizens did not have the money, or the education, to read news of the world. To have that news read to them became an entertainment for many willing to pay a penny, a dime, or as much as a quarter. The former veteran, as an officer in the Rebel army during the war is well educated with experience of combat during the Civil War. That combat experience becomes important in the return of the captive to her German immigrant family.

A bounty of $50 is offered for return of the abducted girl.

The veteran takes the job. Jiles writing is excellent, but the narration of Grover Gardner gives the story an extra level of interest. Experience of life is a trial by fire for most human beings. Imagine being abducted from your family at the age of six by a culture different than your own and how traumatic it would be but how life expanding it could become. This six-year-old represents the melting pot of America. Jiles creates a fictional representative of three cultures, i.e. German, Indian, and pioneer that influences the melding of American culture.

Though Giles may not have meant to illustrate the melding of cultures by her entertaining story, much of what American culture represents is an amalgam of older cultures.

America’s Civil War, the Indian wars, and living life makes American culture unique. Every nation is made up of different races, ethnicities, religions, and experiences that make them unique. Paulette Giles offers a story of America’s unique racial, ethnic, religious and experiential culture.

OCCUPATION

“The Nightengale” is a story that shows how occupation begins, how occupation fails, and why it’s tragic economic and human costs never end. Occupation is not an answer for Russia’s war on Ukraine or Israel’s war on Palestine. Occupation is only war by other means.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Nightingale 

By: Kristin Hannah

Narrated By: Polly Stone

Kristin Hannah (Author)

History offers an opportunity to recognize mistakes of the past. Fiction offers tests for a future yet to be realized. The experience of history and written fiction offer behavioral change that can alter the future. However, the difficulty of future change is in understanding history and the limits of testing behavioral recommendations. “The Nightingale” is historical fiction.

Importantly, it offers relevance to today’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s actions in the Middle East.

Kristin Hannah creates a French family during Germany’s occupation of France during WWII. The story begins with an elderly woman nearing the end of her life who climbs the stairs into her attic to pull out an old chest filled with memories of her life in France. Isabelle Rossignol is a fictional character who joins the resistance. Isabelle’s experience is a lesson to the world about occupation of foreign countries by others, whether democratic or authoritarian.

“The Nightingale” is about the French reaction to Nazi Germany’s occupation of France during WWII. Germany’s occupation of France did not Nazify the French just as Putin will not Russianize Ukraine or Israel will Israelize Palestine. War is not an act of diplomacy and occupation never offers peace.

Isabelle, from a cultural perspective, is a patriot of France. She fervently believes in the sovereignty of her country just as most who have lived in any culture in which they grow to become adults. A country that tries to dominate another sovereign nation takes on a cultural and economic burden too hard to bear in perpetuity. The difficulty lies in cultural ignorance and the hardship of changing a native population that is culturally reinforced by generations of human life.

(In a recent trip to the Baltics, the dislike of Russians is palpable. Part of the tour is of the terrible Russian jails, the stories of Russian torture and murder of dissidents, and the fear that was felt by the now grown children of parents who lived during the long Russian occupation of their countries. Today the Baltics are among the most modern countries in Eastern Europe, but that accomplishment only began after their liberation from Russian occupation.)

Upon occupation of a French town in which Isabelle lives, German soldiers are billeted in local residences.

Isabelle lives in one of these residences as a teenage sister of Vianne whose French husband is alleged to be a POW in Germany. A German pilot is assigned to Vianne’s home. She has no realistic alternative to accepting the presence of a German officer in her home. He is a young man with a wife in Germany who politely explains he will be staying in their home while assigned to the Luftwaffe that occupies their town. Vianne objects but realizes she has little choice and takes the German officer into her house.

Wolfgang Beck, the German officer, speaks broken French but is able to communicate well enough to make the French family understand his demands. Isabelle, Vianne’s sister, is incensed by the intrusion and objects to his presence but realizes there is nothing she can do about it. As the story progresses, the Germans begin to exercise increasing control over the French population. The newly billeted officer at the Rossignol’ house seems respectful and apologetic as he moves into the family house.

An unspoken reason Vianne cooperates, though she has no choice, is she wishes to know the fate of her husband. A German officer might be able to find what happened to her husband.

The officer recognizes an opportunity to ingratiate himself to the family. He compiles a list of alleged POWs. Vianne finds her husband is at a particular POW camp, along with other captured combatants. The list Beck creates is an opportunity for wives, mothers, children, and girlfriends to send postcards to their loved ones. Vianne asks the German officer if he would send the postcards for wives wishing to communicate with their husbands and lovers who are now POWs. He agrees, and a strained level of cooperation is established.

As a local teacher, Vianne is asked by Officer Beck to provide a list of fellow teachers who are either Jewish or communist sympathizers.

At first, Vianne resists but eventually names names. The identified teachers mysteriously disappear from the school which is explained by known history of Nazi’ gas chambers and mass murders. Vianne belatedly realizes her error and is deeply remorseful for having given the names to the commander. She goes to a Catholic nun to explain her mistake and asks for advice. The nun treats her kindly and tells her to be careful about naming anyone that is requested by the Nazis. The nun offers advice about life being out of her control and that she should pray to God for guidance. This gives Vianne some comfort, but she recognizes her mistake while accepting the nun’s council. One thinks that was good for her but not for the missing Jews and communists. Vianne chooses to hide Jewish children from deportation as a way of compensating for her foolish mistake in listing Jewish teachers.

Charles de Gaulle (Leader of the Free French Forces during the Nazi occupation.)

Despite the outward appearing cooperation with German occupiers from some French citizens, there is a growing underground opposition. Isabelle becomes part of that opposition by distributing anti-German posters and aiding French resistance fighters who are wounded by German occupiers. The author offers many stories of the heroism of the French people and its underground during the war.

As the German army is nearing defeat, the brutality of the Germans in France escalates. The brutality of the story becomes numbing but gives one a clearer understanding of how humans endure under circumstances that can hardly be believed. Isabelle is caught, tortured and confesses to her identity as “The Nightingale”. She is sent to RAVENSBRüCK concentration camp. Her older sister is brutalized by her German guest who only becomes more brutal as the war nears its end. Both women survive the war in Hannah’s fictional story while reader/listeners are left to think about the brutality of war and occupation.

War and foreign countries occupation’ costs far exceed their value to either the victim’ countries or their victimizers.

So, what is the lesson of “The Nightengale”. Occupation may work for many years as it did in the Baltic countries. There are three reasons for occupation failures. One is failure to understand cultural difference, two is the rationale for one countries occupation of another, and three–the occupier’s failure to understand the real cost of occupation.

“The Nightengale” is a story that shows how occupation begins, how occupation fails, and why it’s tragic economic and human costs never end. Occupation is not an answer for Russia’s war on Ukraine or Israel’s war on Palestine. Occupation is only war by other means.

BOOK LOVERS

In the end, “…History of the Book…”is brought together by Smyth’s review of book circulation. From early written manuscripts, small accumulations by the few grew into massive libraries for the general public.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Book-Makers (A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives) 

By: Adam Smith

Narrated By: Adam Smith

Adam Smyth (Author, Professor of English Literature and the History of the Book at Oxford University.)

The Gutenberg press is invented in the mid-15th century in Germany. Not surprisingly, the most widely printed book is the Christian Bible that began with the Guttenberg Bible, a 42-line Bible also called the Mazarin Bible, printed in 1455. Adam Smyth notes the first non-religious, widely popular book is printed in 1494, titled “Das Narrenschiff” or “Ship of Fools”.

“The Ship of Fools” is written by Sebastian Brant in 1494. It is a collection of satirical poems and illustrations depicting the foolish behavior of humans and the corruption of the church.

Printed originally in German in Basel, Switzerland, “The Ship of Fools” was lavishly illustrated and became a best seller in Europe. Its popularity came from its satirical content, wide translation, and visual appeal. Smyth explains the book critiques human folly and vice with 112 chapters, each of which is accompanied by a woodcut illustration.

Smyth explains how bookbinding and printing grew as an art.

Contributions to the art were made by both men and women. Elizabeth Collett and Sarah Benlowes were instrumental in improving the quality and continuity of noted books in the 17th century. They pioneered a “cut and paste” technique that made famous books more consistent, unique, and artistic without changing their author’s meaning.

John Baskerville (1706-1775) created and, with the management of his wife, distributed the Baskerville typeface. Not surprisingly, no picture is available on the internet of his wife Sarah Eaves.

John Baskerville and his future wife, Sarah Eaves, made significant contributions to the quality of the printed page. Baskerville created Baskerville typeface in 1757. The new typeface set a new standard for typography with sharp serifs, high contrast thick and thin strokes, and overall clarity. His future wife managed their print business and helped implement Baskerville’s innovations. Together, they improved ink color and sharpness to provide higher quality printing for books.

No story of the “History of the Book…” could be complete without addressing Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).

Smyth reveals the contributions Franklin makes while using Caslon typeface created by Baskerville for the publication of newspapers, advertising, and the most successful non-religious book of the 18th century, “Poor Richard’s Almanac”. Franklin is the quintessential American by exemplifying the strengths and weakness of capitalism.

Money is important to Franklin in different ways.

Franklin used his newspaper to support and print paper money for the U.S. government. Franklin’s industriousness is well documented by historians, but Smyth notes a glaring flaw in Franklin’s character. Of course, this flaw is taken out of historical context and Franklin eventually changes his view, but he supported and brokered the slave trade between the 1750s and 60s. He is seduced by amorality, presumably because of the human desire for money, power, and/or prestige. Of course, this is being human; like all citizens of any economy or government.

Franklin’s views on slavery changed in the 1780s when he became a vocal abolitionist, but he certainly enriched himself in slavery’s earlier years.

Smyth flashes back to the invention of paper. The early beginning of paper is traced back to China in the 2nd century CE. Ts’al Lun (Cai Lun), a court official, is credited for developing papermaking techniques. Paper production spreads to the Islamic world in the 7th century with the printing of the Koran. It extends to Europe in the 12th century. The truly big jump in paper production came in the early 19th century with Louis-Nicolas Robert in France. The Fourdrinier machine could produce huge rolls of paper, but Louis-Nicolas Robert is unable to capitalize on the process because patenting was not available in France. Paper production process improves with John Gamble and Bryan Donkin in England. Paper production became faster, more efficient, and cost-effective.

The truly big jump in paper production came in the early 19th century with Louis-Nicolas Robert in France.

In the end, “…History of the Book…”is brought together by Smyth’s review of book circulation. From early written manuscripts, small accumulations by the few grew into massive libraries for the general public. Access to great and inane writings of genius and pulp producers reached wider and wider audiences. The final chapters address some of the great writers of modern times, particularly poets of which this reviewer is minimally interested and sadly ignorant.

One of the largest libraries in the world is in France, The Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

TO BE FREE

The neglect and brutal treatment of Lithuanian citizens by Russia during WWII is graphically depicted in “Between Shades of Gray”.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Between Shades of Gray 

By: Ruta Sepetys

Narrated By: Emily Klein

Ruta Sepetys (Author, Lithuanian American writer of fiction, daughter of a Lithuanian refugee.)

This is a novel that many Americans will choose not to read. It is so relentlessly brutal that one is inclined to stop listening to, or reading, the novel. Many Americans take freedom for granted. Sepetys’ story reveals how ignorant the generational free are about what it is like to exist in a nation ruled by an unrestricted authoritarian leader. Sepetys recreates a story from a young girl’s notes and drawings of a Lithuania family’s loss of freedom during Stalin’s authoritarian rule.

The weight of “…Shades of Gray” makes one’s heart go out to the many Ukrainians losing their freedom and lives at Vladimir Putin’s monomaniacal direction.

Sepetys makes one see and understand how fortunate Americans are to live in a democratic country. The broad outline of the story is about the rounding up of Lithuania citizens during WWII to be sent to work camps in Siberia under the control of the Russian NKVD, the precursor of today’s Russian SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) and GRU (General Staff of the Armed Forces). At the beginning of WWII, Stalin orders the taking of the Baltic States into the U.S.S.R. by dismantling the in-place governments of the acquired countries. Any political opposition is to be arrested and deported to labor camps designed to serve the Russian economy.

Sepety’s novel is the story of one group of Lithuanians that are rounded up, sent to Siberia, and later moved to an even more hostile camp inside the Arctic Circle.

The essence of the story is based on a young girl’s notes and drawings about her experience. The neglect and brutal treatment of Lithuanian citizens by Russia during WWII is graphically depicted in “Between Shades of Gray”. The title alludes to the few Russian guards that surreptitiously aid the work camp prisoners. It is only gray because the help is often in return for cooperation or favor from the un-free.

AN IMMIGRANT LIFE

Immigrants treated equitably are more likely to bring positive additions to countries in which they choose to live.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“The House of Broken Angels”

By: Luis Alberto Urrea

Narrated By: Luis Alberto Urrea

Luis Alberto Urrea (Author, Mexican American poet, novelist, and essayist.)

“The House of Broken Angels” tells many Americans what they may not know about Latino Mexican culture. Luise Alberto Urrea explains what it is like to be Mexican American and/or raised in Mexico before emigrating. The Mexican American’ picture is harsh, but Urrea’s picture of being raised in Mexico is heart rending.

Not surprisingly, emigrating to America raises more social barriers for non-white immigrants than white immigrants.

The first barrier is skin color, but there is also language, education, and most importantly gainful employment. When a Mexican enters the country, all four barriers make their lives hard. If they were raised in Mexico, Urrea suggests they are poor and misogynistic but spiritually tough.

Poverty in Mexico and America comes from low wages and few jobs.

Misogyny lives in most countries of the world, but it is exacerbated by the strong patriarchal nature of families in Mexico. On the other hand, spiritual toughness comes from patriarchal parents (when they are present) because of influences like the Catholic Church in Mexican culture. Urrea explains how some Mexican fathers beat their male children to make them understand life is hard with belief that physical beatings will make them tough. He goes on to suggest Mexican’ girls are raised as bearers of children and companions or servers of men. Mexican fathers set the stage for their sons to be either tough or hopeless. Urrea infers Mexican mothers and fathers insist their children be raised to believe in God because the way people live make heaven or hell life’s only destination.

Urrea paints a picture of being poor and raised in Mexico.

He infers a table is set for many Mexican Americans who use their spiritual toughness and survival experience to get ahead. Women seem relegated to being wives, sex-objects, or mothers, rather than independent, potentially successful human beings. Spiritual toughness may lead to excelling in a job, or at school for men, and a minority of women, to become productive citizens of their new country. Urrea infers the spiritual and physical toughness can take different courses in an immigrant’s life, one is criminal, and the other is not.

Urrea’s story notes some Mexican immigrants choose to join gangs and use their toughness to fight for higher position, more money, and power within a gang.

Education and jobs are one of the ladders, but gang membership and crime become a less difficult path to follow in a foreign culture. Both ladders suffer from macho and misogynistic views of life, but Urrea argues Mexican immigrant life is tempered by the strength of paternalistic family hierarchies and religion.

The main character in “The House of Broken Angels” is Big Angel, the patriarch of a family with many sons, daughters, and grandchildren.

Big Angel is born in Mexico and is raised by a mother whose husband leaves his mother with nothing but a motorcycle which she is compelled to sell to feed her family. Big Angel chooses to leave home. He tries to make a living in Mexico but leaves under suspicious circumstances to join his father in America. Big Angel becomes a self-educated technology programmer through hard work and self-discipline. His offspring in Urrea’s story is about immigrant offspring and their lives in America.

America is shown to be less hospitable than one would hope considering how valuable immigrants have been to its economic growth.

Some like Big Angel choose to stay within the culture of their new homeland with the intent of becoming a positive contribution to society. They take the best lessons of their lives to adjust to a new culture despite unequal treatment. The generations that are related to Big Angel, like all humans, make their own choices in life. Their innate intelligence and life experiences are not the same as Big Angel’s, but they are influenced by his paternal care.

Some listener/readers will use Urrea’s story to argue immigration is bad for America because some choices made by descendants of immigrants have violently robbed, injured, or murdered others.

The fallacy of their argument is that bad actors come from all walks of life. Mexican culture, like all cultures that have survived history, have good and bad qualities. Immigrants treated equitably are more likely to bring positive additions to countries in which they choose to live. That is not Urrea’s story, but he explains how one Mexican immigrant overcame unfair treatment to become a contributor to his adopted country. Big Angel brought something valuable from Mexico to America. Big Angel’s story brought hard work, family, and caring for others as examples of what truly makes America Great.

POWER & INTRIGUE

Lessons may be drawn into the 21st century by the power and intrigue of the 16th century.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“The Mirror and the Light” (Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Optimism)

By: Hilary Mantel

Narrated by: Ben Miles

Hilary Mantel (1952-2022, British author, Booker Prize winner acclaimed for historical fiction like the Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Died at the age of 70.)

Historical fiction is a valuable tool when combined with a research-driven imagination. Hiliary Mantel’s trilogy, “Wolf Hall”, “Bring Up the Bodies”, and “The Mirror and the Light”, offer a fascinating picture of Thomas Cromwell.

Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540. English statesman, and lawyer, died at age 54 or 55.)

Thomas Cromwell has been labeled as a dictator by some and a hero of liberty by others. He gained a reputation as a consummate power broker and political advisor, but some consider his protestant religious convictions bordered on zealotry. The famous Winston Churchill disparaged Cromwell’s role in England’s 16th century as a dictator. Winston Churchill was an aristocrat from a wealthy family. One is inclined to think Churchill would have been one of many noblemen in King Henry’s time that would have disparaged Cromwell for being the son of a blacksmith. Mantel’s historical fiction envisions Cromwell as a brilliant political tactician who initiated democratization of England’s government. (By democratization, one must recognize Cromwell believed the King’s decisions were paramount, but that monarchy is limited by dependence on consent.) Far from being a dictator, Mantel shows Cromwell was an astute leader of men superior to him in rank but beneath him in ability.

Henry VIII (1491-1547, King of England from 1509-1547, died at the age of 55.)

Many views of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell have been offered by historians. One is that the King was a great sportsman who enjoyed participating in violent competitions like jousting. Mantel mentions one of those events when the King is unhorsed and appears dead from the impact of an opponent’s lance. The King is unconscious for some time and is pounded on the chest by an attendant that brings him back to consciousness. This is later in his reign, possibly after the beheading of Anne Boleyn. One wonders if his many marriages are in part because of something more than want of a male heir. There is little doubt that a male heir was extremely important, but six wives seem extreme and his decision to execute Cromwell unjust.

Some fundamental truths about King Henry VIII’s era make Mantel’s fictionalized history easier to follow.

King Henry needed money to expand and sustain his monarchy. His greatest opportunity to gain wealth was in confiscation of assets held by the papist Church in England. The King and Cromwell opposed the idea of the Roman Catholic Church’s influence on England’s affairs. Papal opposition was reinforced by Cromwell’s Calvinist beliefs, aligned with England’s Puritan radicals who offered support for history’s course of events. The King needed money. Cromwell’s Puritan and political beliefs coincided with the monarchy’s needs.

Anne Boleyn (Born 1501 or 1507, beheaded in 1536 at age 29 or 35.)

A second fundamental truth is that Anne Boleyn was unable to give the King a surviving male heir. One might question Boleyn’s alleged affairs, but her motives were obscured by history. Maybe Boleyn simply exercised her libido in the same way men often did and still do. On the other hand, if King Henry could not sire a male heir, maybe Boleyn believed a secret conjugal partner would provide an heir. A male heir may have insured Boleyn’s life as long as secrets are kept.

(The great number of historical characters in “The Mirror and the Light” distract from Mantel’s view of King Henry’s time. One often has to look-up the characters she has introduced to keep track of the story. Thirty to forty characters are too many for a casual reader to appreciate the context of an historical novel’s era.)

Human nature’s faults, like desire for money, power, and prestige were the same then as they are now.

The King’s prestige was dealt a blow when Boleyn’s affairs become public. Like today, a cuckolded husband rarely forgives a wife’s extramarital affairs. With the King’s need for a male heir, accusation, trial, and execution were justification for getting rid of Henry’s second wife. She was beheaded by a sword’s blade alluded to in the title of Mantel’s novel. Cromwell provided the evidence, which is to this day, questioned by historians.

Martin Luther (1481-1546)

Cromwell lived in the time of Martin Luther’s attack on the Catholic church and the printing of the Tyndale Bible in Germany.

The middle of “The Mirror and the Light” gives its listeners a view of the religious evolution of Thomas Cromwell. The King’s desire for the wealth of Papal holdings in England seems enough to motivate the King. One wonders if Cromwell’s experience with “royal power” or protestant belief are the primary motivation for his actions.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530, English statesman and Catholic cardinal.)

Cardinal Wolsey resisted King Henry’s desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey was dismissed by the King. Ironically, Cromwell owed his rise in parliament to Wolsey and remained loyal to Wolsey despite the King’s dismissal. Despite Wolsey’s resistance and dismissal by the King, he died of natural causes. Cromwell’s abilities and skill as a go-between came to the attention of King Henry. However, Mantel suggests Cromwell is never forgiven by Wolsey’s children for the King’s demotion of their father. What remains in Mantel’s story is how the King loses faith in Cromwell as his advisor.

Holbein portrait of Anne of Cleaves (1515-1557, the fourth wife of King Henry VIII.)

The proximate cause of Cromwell’s conviction for treason and heresy was his negotiation and recommendation to King Henry for marriage to the Duke of Cleaves’ sister.

Thomas Cromwell was executed for treason and heresy in 1540. Cromwell’s intent was to provide an alliance with the Duke of Cleaves against the Holy Roman Empire. Hans Holbein’s painting of Anne was said to have unfairly enhanced her looks. The Duke of Cleaves alliance did not appreciably improve England’s defense and the questionable value of the alliance was laid at the feet of Cromwell. King Henry declared his six-month marriage to Anne of Cleaves was unconsummated. Cromwell’s English aristocratic enemies used the King’s discontent as grounds for the accusation of treason and heresy for which he was executed.

The power and intrigue of King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromell are munificently rendered by Hilliary Mantel in her trilogy. Lessons may be drawn into the 21st century by the power and intrigue of the 16th century.

HISTORY’S RHYME

One leaves this novel hoping Russia leaves Ukraine in peace, Palestine and Israel with an acceptable agreement for both countries, and a war that does not widen.

Blog: awalkingdelight

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“The Winter Soldier” A Novel

By: Daniel Mason

Narrated by: Laurence Dobiesz

Daniel Mason (Author, physician, winner of 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize.)

Daniel Mason’s “The Winter Soldier” is a reminder of WWI and the heartbreak of war. It is a love story created out of the horror of injuries, desperation of commanders for recruits, and the collateral damage of civilians. All of this is a reminder of what is happening today in Israel/Palestine, Ukraine, and Russia. Told from the losing side of war, it makes one think of WWI’s history and the aftermath of today’s military actions.

The well-known triggering incident that led to WWI was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.

There are many other fundamental reasons for the war ranging from mutual defense alliances to imperialism to national security and disputed borders but as in all wars there are no winners, only losers. The losers are disabled combatants, children, and the survivors who cannot forget what they have been through. For the dead, life is simply over.

Mason’s story is about an Austro-Hungarian’ medical student from an aristocratic family who is thrown into the maelstrom of war. By circumstance, he is recruited into a field hospital in Poland because he is the only academically trained medical person. He is still a student, but his sketchy understanding of medicine and the human body give him some guidance on how to amputate limbs and treat life threatening diseases. The field hospital is in a former church that is managed by a nun who worked with former doctors and had some practical knowledge of medical treatment. Lucius, the hero, a 22-year-old is introduced to Margareta, a nun who is one year older. She has much more firsthand experience with war’s casualties. Her judgment sustains much of what Lucius does that tempers his novitiate understanding of medical practice.

It is a “…Winter Soldier” who survives the war that offers a surprising ending to Mason’s imaginative and well-written novel.

The precursor to the story’s surprising ending is that Lucius falls in love with Margareta, but they are separated by the invasion of Russian soldiers. They find each other after Lucius marriage and pending divorce to another woman. Lucius travels back to where Margareta lived and finds she has moved to another town. He travels to the new town and finds Margareta at a local hospital. This is not the end of the story. A surprise remains.

Mason’s story is an entertaining novel of particular interest today because of the truth of Mark Twain’s observation: “History never repeat itself, but it does often rhyme”. One leaves this novel hoping Russia leaves Ukraine in peace, Palestine and Israel with an acceptable agreement for both countries, and a war that does not widen.