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A review by bimblinghill
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
4.0
I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. A collection of contemporary / recently set short stories is a very different format from Mantel's historical novels, but it gives her the chance to bring her meticulous eye for character and grubby detail to the fore.
Most of the stories are unsettling, and some are quite disturbing. If there's a theme it's 'complicity' - characters often slip through ignorance or cowardice into exploitation or cruelty.
It's her tight and vivid prose that earns the 4 stars for me, but while I've rated her novels 5 star, these stories are often unsatisfying and sometimes appear unfinished, so I can't rate this volume as highly.
Most of the stories are unsettling, and some are quite disturbing. If there's a theme it's 'complicity' - characters often slip through ignorance or cowardice into exploitation or cruelty.
It's her tight and vivid prose that earns the 4 stars for me, but while I've rated her novels 5 star, these stories are often unsatisfying and sometimes appear unfinished, so I can't rate this volume as highly.