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Journalism of Courage
It has been a good week for the English language,to paraphrase another tribute,another victory night,for American President Barack Obama. The man who famously ran for the most powerful job in the world on two stirring books about his life so far has now taken the Nobel peace prize for 2009 less than nine months into his presidency for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,for capturing the worlds attention and giving its people hope for a better future. It has to be,perhaps,the first time that a person has prize-winningly sustained diplomacy,has re-positioned his superpower of a country in international relations,on the strength of his words,his commitment to talking through every issue. Barack Obama should,if you really thought about it,have actually got a Nobel prize this year for literature.
This week too,Hilary Mantel became a rare favourite to actually win the Man Booker Prize,for her fictional rehabilitation of Thomas Cromwell. The storyline is all too familiar. King Henry VIII is desperate to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. To achieve this he will not just manage the politics of his court,but set off events that will change church-state relations and change England in ways perhaps not originally intended. Mantels achievement lies not only in capturing the personal and political undercurrents in the court of Henry VIII to bring Cromwell centrestage,but also to inquire into the influence personalities have on how power is used,into how matters of state can change ordinary lives in the realm.
You get a sense of how over-peopled this book is before the action begins,with the first seven pages given to naming the cast of characters and drawing out the relevant branch of the Tudor family tree. Mantel draws this multitude into an energetic novel by using as much dialogue as possible to take the story forward sometimes,it must be said,to the bewilderment of the reader. Yet,that confusion seems part of her plan,because it only adds to the sense that events are occasionally beyond the full comprehension,or imagination,of some of the individuals involved. It is also a brilliantly deployed narrative device to insinuate Cromwell as character more knowing than maybe thought.
So,even as petty rivalry enlivens the court,this is what it is really about,determined collaboratively halfway through the novel by the main character and the narrator: It is time to say what England is,her scope and boundaries: not to count and measure her harbour defences and border walls,but to estimate her capacity for self-rule. It is time to say what a king is,and what trust and guardianship he owes his people: what protection from foreign incursions moral or physical,what freedom from the pretensions of those who would like to tell an Englishman how to speak to God.
The story of Henry VIII and his wives is still a particular favourite with writers and film-makers. Mantel wades into this familiar mix to tell it on her terms and does so in a manner that makes the narrative so current. However,as Wolf Hall gets going,it may be a good idea to remind yourself that this is fiction,not history. In this,at least the Booker has got the categorisation right.
