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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
This could've been edited way down.
It had interesting and funny bits but it took more supplementary reading than I cared for at times.
The narrator did his best but they really could've helped him more on some of those pronunciations.
It had interesting and funny bits but it took more supplementary reading than I cared for at times.
The narrator did his best but they really could've helped him more on some of those pronunciations.
First audiobook ever.
I read eight months on ghazza st twenty something years ago and didn’t love it, so had avoided reading Hilary Mantel since then.
Looking at my list of read books I apparently like historical fiction.
This is really good historical fiction.
After finishing, I am tempted to either actually read or re-listen.
Will have to give the wolf hall trilogy a shot now.
I read eight months on ghazza st twenty something years ago and didn’t love it, so had avoided reading Hilary Mantel since then.
Looking at my list of read books I apparently like historical fiction.
This is really good historical fiction.
After finishing, I am tempted to either actually read or re-listen.
Will have to give the wolf hall trilogy a shot now.
I agree with other reviewers, that this book needs lots of background info on the readers' side, and no less concentration.
The pace was slow (at least until half of the book), and the plotline tends to drown among tons of details.
The pace was slow (at least until half of the book), and the plotline tends to drown among tons of details.
A Place of Greater Safety was Hilary Mantel’s debut novel, and boy does it show.
I see a lot of the seeds of Wolf Hall in A Place of Greater Safety. Unfortunately, Wolf Hall, for all its failed experimentation, is simply the more polished piece. It can still shake off its flaws to be an enjoyable read. A Place of Greater Safety… less so. I didn’t appreciate inconsistent tone at all. The book shuttles from first person to third person, from prose to play script, apparently without rhyme or reason. Page space is sometimes wasted on the perspective of characters who are not part of the main cast, delivering their own personal backstory, only to be never mentioned again. The novel often gets bogged down in the minutiae and drudgery of daily life, while key events in the revolution are summarised in a quick handful of sentences from a third person omniscient narrator. It feels like the writing is all over the place and lacks direction, and I think it could have easily been tightened up to lose about a quarter of the length and been a more coherent read for it. I wanted to enjoy it, I even had a background of study of the French revolution – and Mantel does assume the reader is intimately familiar with the era, so don’t expect the basics to be explained – but I didn’t. It was a slog to get through and a relief when the final page was turned.
6 out of 10
I see a lot of the seeds of Wolf Hall in A Place of Greater Safety. Unfortunately, Wolf Hall, for all its failed experimentation, is simply the more polished piece. It can still shake off its flaws to be an enjoyable read. A Place of Greater Safety… less so. I didn’t appreciate inconsistent tone at all. The book shuttles from first person to third person, from prose to play script, apparently without rhyme or reason. Page space is sometimes wasted on the perspective of characters who are not part of the main cast, delivering their own personal backstory, only to be never mentioned again. The novel often gets bogged down in the minutiae and drudgery of daily life, while key events in the revolution are summarised in a quick handful of sentences from a third person omniscient narrator. It feels like the writing is all over the place and lacks direction, and I think it could have easily been tightened up to lose about a quarter of the length and been a more coherent read for it. I wanted to enjoy it, I even had a background of study of the French revolution – and Mantel does assume the reader is intimately familiar with the era, so don’t expect the basics to be explained – but I didn’t. It was a slog to get through and a relief when the final page was turned.
6 out of 10
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
On the whole, I really enjoyed this novel! Although not the first novel she published, it was the first novel that Hilary Mantel wrote and it's fascinating to see her first pass at some of the writing techniques that she perfects in the Cromwell trilogy. Like in Wolf Hall, Mantel is not interested in telling history per se, but in getting inside historical figures' heads and showing their life and times as the characters may have perceived them. As a character study, and as an invitation to reconsider characters' historical reputations, I think the novel works really well. Also, I always love Mantel's turns of phrase.
Unlike the Cromwell trilogy which is exclusively told from Thomas Cromwell's eyes, here she explores the point of view of multiple figures of the French Revolution (primarily Camille Desmoulins, Georges-Jacques Danton, and Maximilien Robespierre), and to a lesser extent their friends, family, and enemies. The effect is that the narrative is more wholistic and the reader can make judgments of characters and events for themselves rather than relying on one narrator, but also makes it harder for the reader to keep track of everyone.
Additionally while most of the narrative is told in 3rd person limited (with rotating pov characters), some passages are written as a transcript and others are written in 1st person to enhance either the opacity or transparency of the characters' thoughts. The shifts aren't particularly jarring, but the style goes so against the grain of how I've been taught to write that I still can't decide whether it's a brilliant or sloppy move (or both? can it be both?).
Because the book focuses more on the characters than the events of the Revolution per se, some sections may be hard to follow for readers who don't have more than a cursory knowledge of the French Revolution. I went into the book only knowing what I had learned in school and I found that Wikipedia was my friend to help fill in some gaps (but I also don't mind spoilers!). I wonder if she could have explored events more if this book had been turned into a trilogy rather than a standalone.
All in all, absolutely worth a read if you like historical fiction, character-driven novels, studying the French Revolution, or Hilary Mantel's other work, but with one star taken off because it's not quite at the level of her later books.
Unlike the Cromwell trilogy which is exclusively told from Thomas Cromwell's eyes, here she explores the point of view of multiple figures of the French Revolution (primarily Camille Desmoulins, Georges-Jacques Danton, and Maximilien Robespierre), and to a lesser extent their friends, family, and enemies. The effect is that the narrative is more wholistic and the reader can make judgments of characters and events for themselves rather than relying on one narrator, but also makes it harder for the reader to keep track of everyone.
Additionally while most of the narrative is told in 3rd person limited (with rotating pov characters), some passages are written as a transcript and others are written in 1st person to enhance either the opacity or transparency of the characters' thoughts. The shifts aren't particularly jarring, but the style goes so against the grain of how I've been taught to write that I still can't decide whether it's a brilliant or sloppy move (or both? can it be both?).
Because the book focuses more on the characters than the events of the Revolution per se, some sections may be hard to follow for readers who don't have more than a cursory knowledge of the French Revolution. I went into the book only knowing what I had learned in school and I found that Wikipedia was my friend to help fill in some gaps (but I also don't mind spoilers!). I wonder if she could have explored events more if this book had been turned into a trilogy rather than a standalone.
All in all, absolutely worth a read if you like historical fiction, character-driven novels, studying the French Revolution, or Hilary Mantel's other work, but with one star taken off because it's not quite at the level of her later books.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes