Book Club November Review: Restoration by Rose Tremain

I hate to admit it, but this book managed to defeat me and I haven’t actually finished it yet (although I will finish it, I swear!)

However, I’ve read enough to pick out a few good parts, a lot of bad parts and give a provisional rating to be updated once I’ve managed to get through it. Kudos to CY for actually finishing it, although even she didn’t manage to finish the book by the end of the month for the first time ever.

Restoration follows the story of Merivel, a student physician, turned King’s fool, turned fake husband of the King’s mistress who is being constantly cuckolded by the King himself. That is about as much about the plot as I can tell you as, despite being halfway through the book, not much happens!

The Good Stuff

This review feels a little harsh, because the book is actually very well-written. Rose Tremain did a good job of capturing the essence of the 17th century and the intricacies of society at that time.

That’s about all the praise I can give this book. That said, I feel this is a case of personal taste. For some I’m sure this book would be profound, witty, interesting and highly recommended and so don’t let this review put you off. If you’re a fan of historical fiction especially, this book may be for you!

The Not So Good Stuff

Unfortunately, the good writing and scene setting was not enough to make this book interesting for me. I found it profoundly boring, with little plot and so few interesting events that after reading a few pages I would be falling asleep each time.

I think the worst part of the book for me was Merivel. He is such an unlikeable main character that I was not invested in his story one bit. I found his inner monologue to vary from unremarkable to completely insufferable. That said, I know I’m not finished yet and I still have hope that in the rest of the book his character’s growth will draw me in (although from the comments made by CY I’m not so sure that will happen). None of the other characters in the book made much of an impression either, especially given that it is all portrayed through Merivel’s dry perspective.

I have mixed feelings about the style of writing, as whilst I know the language used does a good job of representing the time period in which it is set, it also added to my difficulty in reading this book. I think if the book was more interesting, I might have liked the writing style and not minded it taking me a little longer to get through it. But as it stands, this just increased my frustration with the book and made it a hard slog to get through.

I was very disappointed in this read, as I’ve read other historical fictions that I count amongst my favourite books, so I think I had higher expectations for this one after seeing the good reviews it had been given. I felt that The Other Boleyn Girl was a good example of historical fiction with real-life characters and an appropriate tone, but that still managed to draw the reader in and get you rooting for the characters to succeed. For me, Restoration fell far from that standard.

Rating

Kay – I think the fact that I have yet to finish it says enough. I wouldn’t recommend it, because I honestly struggled to find anything interesting to say about this book. 1/5.

CY - This book made me realise that you can technically write well and still bore your readers at the same time. I did not care about Merivel’s journey one bit. 2/5.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve read it: we’d love to know if it also put you to sleep, or if it had you on the edge of your seat!