February 5, 2007
British journalist Bennett (Crying Wolf: The Return of War to Chechnya
) makes her fiction debut with a sweeping reinterpretation of Sir Thomas More's family as it coped with the vicissitudes of Henry VIII's reign. Narrated by More's brilliant foster daughter, Meg Giggs, the narrative is framed by two paintings crafted five years apart by husky, ebullient German artist Hans Holbein; commissioned by the family, each was completed at radically different periods in the More clan's turbulent history. As the book opens, family tutor John Clement stimulates both Meg's apothecary interest and engages her in a love affair; she eventually marries him and bears him a son, though aware that Holbein also has romantic potential. As John, whose origins are shrouded in mystery, grows distant, Holbein returns to London to paint the More family again. Meanwhile, the Reformation bleeds across Europe, inciting religious upheaval, and Meg's staunch Catholic father continues to violently defend his faith against Protestant heretics. Duplicity involving Meg's flirtatious sister, Elizabeth, provides the novel's rousing climax. The vernacular doesn't quite hold, and the religious-political speechifying can be heavy-handed. But Bennett constructs lush backdrops and costumes, and has impeccable historical sense. She luminously shades in an ambiguous period with lavish strokes of humanity, unbridled passion and mystery.
September 15, 2007
In 1527, portraitist Hans Holbein fled a Europe ravaged by religious ferment and journeyed to Henry VIIIs England under commission to Sir Thomas More to paint a family portrait. Journalist Bennett has written a novel as oblique and layered as a Holbein painting, brilliantly depicting this turbulent time in English history through the eyes of Mores adopted daughter, Meg Giggs, who becomes physically attracted to Hans despite romantic links to her former tutor, John Clement, who himself becomes a medical doctor and hides a mysteriouseven royalpast. John is attracted to Meg, admiring her inquisitive mind and interest in herbal medicine, and knows they can make a successful, quiet life together. Meg must come to terms with the secrets of her adoptive father, her feelings for Hans, her suspicions of her sister, Elizabeth, and her longing for happiness in a world bubbling with the beginnings of religious strife. Award-winning narrator Josephine Bailey brings a rich, husky voice suggestive of smoke and chocolate to the reading of this book, which is further enhanced by her ability with accents such as the heavy German of Hans. She modifies her own voice in dramatizations of many characters, including the slightly shrill, nasal voices of several children and of the somewhat smug voice of Elizabeth. Recommended for libraries with historical fiction collections.David Faucheux, Louisiana Audio Information & Reading Svc., Lafayette
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