The Children of Henry VIII by John Guy

The Children of Henry VIII by John Guy is the biography of the four known children of Henry VII, three of whom would eventually take the throne.  Most people know of the three who ruled:  Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I; the fourth was a son, Henry Fitzroy, who died before the king and was not likely to ever take the throne because he was not legitimate.  The book offers a mostly superficial look at the individual lives of these four children. 

For anyone unfamiliar with the Tudor history, this book is either a blessing, bypassing many details and bringing only the most relevant events on the page.  Guy has a clear theme throughout the book, emphasizing the drive to protect the Tudor dynasty by producing a legitimate and viable heir.  Edward VI was very young when his father died and did not live long enough, after he became king, to marry and produce an heir.  Mary, although married, was unable to conceive and died childless.  Elizabeth refused to marry and with her died the dynasty.  By putting so much emphasis on this one small facet of each of the children’s personalities, the author is reductive in his approach which is how this book can cover such a significant time in England’s history in so few pages.  Elizabeth’s entire reign consumes fewer pages than Edward’s or Mary’s chapters although she reigned four times longer than the two of them combined. 

Because he is sparse in content, I don’t know if a reader utterly unfamiliar with the history of the period would not find some of the names mentioned a bit confusing.  However, by not over indulging in giving a lot of the history and interplay of politics throughout Europe, it may very well be that this book, because of its sharp focus, is the perfect book for a Tudor novice.  It is well researched and short enough to be read in a day or two.

That Guy’s own biases come through in his writing is evident in his easy dismissal of anything said in praise of the children, especially Elizabeth, while completely accepting any criticism made by the contemporaries.  He suggests that tutors praised the children’s intelligence out of personal vanity while not questioning an ambassador’s harsher criticism.  If there are two sides to every story and the truth lies somewhere in between, the author has clearly chosen sides and is less interested in what may or may not be true.  For me, this was its weakest point.  Biographers often interpret history and are too often guilty of slanting what they say to align with their own beliefs.  I don’t know that I have ever been so aware of a biased approach before but I’ll certainly be reading future biographies more closely after reading this one.

In the end, I liked this book but did not, could not, love it.  I wanted more and am glad there are other books out there about Henry VII’s off-spring to sate that curiosity.

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala is a slender memoir by a woman who survived the tsunami that hit Sri Lanka in 2004.  She and her family—her husband, her sons, and her parents—were on vacation, waking up from a Christmas celebration the day before, when they saw the wave coming and tried to escape.  Only she survives and the rest of the book explores the impossibility of her grief while sharing the abbreviated story of the lives of those she lost. 

How does a mother, a wife, a daughter write about these things?  How does a woman write about the death of her husband, both of her sons, her parents?  How does she stay sane in the face of so much loss?  How does she face her survivor’s guilt without falling into self-abuse or without falling apart altogether?

Deraniyagala is able to balance a brutal honesty with self-compassion.  She does not withhold the reality of her anger, resenting a child who survives when she still wonders if her own sons have survived.  She exposes a guilt for not having paused at the door of her parents’ room to warn them of the oncoming wave. 

But the memoir also shares the stories of each of the people and through Deraniyagala’s eyes we come to know her sons so well that it becomes easy to imagine what their lives might have been like had they survived.  You fall in love with her husband and admire her parents for giving her wings to fly.  The back story is told alongside her grief so that the two are never really separate on the page or in the reader’s mind.  Above all else, the author manages to exude a delicate love for each of the people she lost in one impossible moment that I found myself feeling like the world had lost some very precious souls, people who could have made the world lighter and brighter but are now no longer with us. 

To share about the experience of being swept away in the tsunami itself.  To explore her grief in having lost so much.  To put into words the love she had growing up, in her marriage, as a mother.  It is a testament to her that the author has done so in so few pages.   And that she does also manages to write a memoir that leaves the reader feeling light in spite of the weight of her story is too remarkable for words. 

I cannot praise this book enough.   One I will recommend to everyone.  One that I will share with anyone who wants to borrow it.   Breathtaking.  Devastating.  Beautiful.  I wish I could thank Deraniyagala for creating this miraculous memoir in person.

Thank you, Sonali Deraniyagala.  Thank you.

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde is the third book in the Thursday Next series.  I chose to take it with me on my trip because I wanted something light and easy to read, something I could enjoy while escaping the depth of my own emotions.  Which may be why I didn’t especially like this novel.

In this third book of the series, Thursday Next is hiding in a book while being trained by Mrs Havisham to serve in Jurisfiction which is possibly a dangerous thing because other characters are being killed off.  Although Thursday does go in and out of some classic novels—Wuthering Heights and Sense and Sensibility, in particular—but she is hiding in an unpublished novel which may be part of the reason why I wasn’t blown away by this novel.

My favorite part of the book were the footnotes in which the story of Anna Karenina is told through two gossiping women and Thursday Next’s pet dodo Pickwick and her grandmother who visits Thursday to ensure her safety.  But these small elements were not enough and I felt that this novel was weaker than the previous two.  However, I admit that part of my disappointment could just as easily be blamed on my feeling sad about Romanov and not quite so casually amused.  I plan on reading the fourth book and even anticipate enjoying it as much as I did the first two books.

Three Unfortunate Events Book Reviews

Years ago, while visiting my friend Love, her son gave me a copy of A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snickett.  He loved the book and wanted me to love it as well.  I refused to accept it but I promised to read the books.  Then I forgot.  I forgot to read it because there were already so many books to be read.

Then a couple of years ago, my son gave Rob the first book in A Series of Unfortunate Events and I was reminded of a promise I made to Dash, my friend’s son.  So I finally read the book and I thought it was cute but I didn’t immediately fall in love.  I couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would think it would make a good movie because it’s certainly not a cheerful story, as the series title clearly suggests.

Eventually I got around to reading the second book, borrowing a copy from the library and last year I read the third book but apparently forgot to write a review.  Last month, I breezed through the next two books.

I know I’m not alone in loving the narrative voice of these books and I can see why they are so popular with children.  The story reads like it is being told orally, with “Lemony Snickett” interjecting asides and comments, warning the reader that bad things will happen and that things are only going to get worse, even inviting the reader to put the book down now, read a less sad book, and other quirky things that all add up to a fun read.

The reader needs these to make what would otherwise be a bleak series of books to read a little fun.  The Baudelaire orphans are shuffled from one place to another, inevitably followed by Count Olaf who, in the first book, tried to marry the eldest of the children, Violet, so he could take control of their inheritance. 

These books are dark, the way traditional fairy tales are dark.  The adults are foolish in the extreme, not unlike the adults The Little Prince and Milo in The PhantomTollbooth meet in their journeys.  That the children are able to outwit or at least stand up in the face of seeming endless bad luck.  It is their undying hope and the relationships with one another that also add a lightness to these stories.  You care about the children, obviously, and want to see them live happily ever after, as one would in any good fairy tale.  In the meantime, however, you have to suffer along with them as they go from one unfortunate circumstance to another.

Children readers will learn in spite of themselves because of the interjected comments from the narrator and, sometimes, through the characters.  For instance, in The Wide Window, their new guardian Aunt Josephine is a grammarian so she corrects mistakes and her corrections serve as an amusing way for children to pick up some language skills.  And what parent doesn’t want a child to pick up an education while reading something that is actually fun to read?  As for the dark, even grim, humor, this is not unique to this series and, while some may find it strange, children’s appreciation for the macabre didn’t end with Grimm’s Fairy Tales and will continue to touch something essential in the psyche. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike—A Dark Place by Gischler and Lee

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike—A Dark Place is a graphic novel by Victor Gischler and Paul Lee.  The events take place sometime after BtVS S8.  The adventures begin on the dark side of the moon, hence the title, and things quickly spiral beyond Spike’s control.  As is typical of his character, however, he does manage to maintain his cool, or loses it when it is most convenient in several well drawn fight sequences.  But is it a gratifying read for the die-hard Buffy fan?

Frankly, you’d have to be a die hard to find much pleasure in this attempt at keeping the story alive.  Spike does occasionally say some things that are spot on familiar but so much so that I’m positive they are derivative rather than original.  (Okay, I did like the V C Andrews reference.  One point to the writer for that.)  When Spike meets Morgan, a succubus who has her own agenda, one event leads to another and, when the graphic novel is finished, Spike is pretty much where he belongs in the scheme of things. 

If you haven’t been keeping up with the Buffy-verse and don’t know what Spike has been up to, you may be somewhat confused at first.  You’ll be even more confused if you haven’t read BtVS: S8.  This book simply isn’t meant to be read without some context and that is, in my opinion, its greatest weakness.  It relies too much on what should be known and doesn’t bring much new to the table.   I don’t know if this is intentional but there are elements of a ‘segue’ story arch in this book meaning that it reads as if the writers were trying to get Spike to a particular place physically, emotionally, narratively, so that they could get the story where they want and need for it to be.  When done brilliantly, the reader won’t notice.  When done well but only adequately, the end result is evident but still somewhat gratifying.  This graphic novel was good but not good enough for me to go out of my way to buy it and if I don’t want to own something that has to do with a character I love in a series I love then I can’t help but feel it failed at some fundamental level.   Not even the artwork, which is good but not as good as I’ve seen in other Whedonverse books, is enough to inspire me to purchase this book.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.