Book Review: Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
Jul. 25th, 2012 12:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunnyskywalkerShort version: Recommended.
Longer version: Dissolution is a historical mystery set during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. The smaller monasteries have already been shut down, their wealth confiscated, but after a brief revolt in favor of the monasteries, Vicar General Cromwell has decided to "persuade" (with the help of a big book o'blackmail material) the larger monasteries to surrender "voluntarily." Unfortunately, the commissioner he sent to the monastery at Scarnsea promptly got murdered on the same night the altar was defiled by an apparent Satanic ritual.
Enter Matthew Shardlake, lawyer, hunchback, and idealistic religious reformer. Cromwell sends him to Scarnsea along with his assistant Mark Poer to figure out what the hell happened, and to get that monastery shut down already.
The book handles the conflict between the monasteries and the reformers well, I thought. On the one hand, we see the corruption, the monks living fat off the humongous wealth they control while occasionally giving a few paltry coins to the poor, the prior who abuses novices under the pretext of "discipline," the lack of accountability for, well, just about everything. On the other hand, as the Moorish infirmary monk points out, the unified international church is the only place that offered a place to a mistrusted foreigner like himself. If the monasteries are dissolved, where can he go? And does curbing corruption and idolatry really have to mean tearing down beautiful historic buildings and melting down ancient artifacts? The atmosphere of confusion and fear due to all the uncertainty about what is or isn't acceptable theology is also palpable. You can't be Catholic, but not Anabaptist either, and where are the lines between too conservative and too radical? Worst of all, even if you grant that major reform is necessary, do you trust the reformers? Shardlake believes fervently in reform, and believes that he's doing God's work and helping create a better church - but as he investigates, he starts uncovering more and more problems with how the reform is being carried out. Is that old Carthusian monk really raving mad when he claims he was tortured into a false conversion, or when he talks about the horrible miscarriage of justice he learned that Cromwell perpetrated from the man in the next cell back in the Tower? And if everything is broken, including the people supposedly making it better, how do you fix it?
Oh, and there is also that murder to solve. And of course in good mystery tradition, it doesn't remain the only murder for long. Two of the others are relevant past murders which were covered up, plus we get more fresh murder. Unfortunately for Shardlake, he starts feeling sympathy for several of the monks, his assistant Mark is turning surly and uncooperative, tramping around in the snow looking for clues is physically difficult with his disability, and he's no longer sure he can trust the people on his side. Having the right theology doesn't stop anyone from being a rotten person, turns out! You can see why Shardlake hoped otherwise (it's not he or his friends had extensive experience with a prior similarly major reform or with living in a religiously plural society to test the hypothesis), so it doesn't come across as unbelievably naive - just sadly a little bit so.
There are no easy answers in this one. Shardlake solves the murders, of course, but he can't fix all his society's problems. Which isn't to say that they're presented as utterly insoluble. Rather, Shardlake has just started realizing how complex they are, and that a simple solution isn't going to make everything better in five years.
Also of note: this book remembers that women, people of color, and gay people existed in Ye Oldene Dayes too, and did not just sit on the sidelines wringing their hands and being oppressed and waiting for the Great Men to tell them what to do but got up and did stuff, even if hardly anyone noticed or everyone pretended it didn't happen. They aren't the main characters, but they are important ones. Some of them even survive the book.
You can also read a longer and more spoilery review of Dissolution and its sequel in this archived Ferretbrain essay.
Longer version: Dissolution is a historical mystery set during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. The smaller monasteries have already been shut down, their wealth confiscated, but after a brief revolt in favor of the monasteries, Vicar General Cromwell has decided to "persuade" (with the help of a big book o'blackmail material) the larger monasteries to surrender "voluntarily." Unfortunately, the commissioner he sent to the monastery at Scarnsea promptly got murdered on the same night the altar was defiled by an apparent Satanic ritual.
Enter Matthew Shardlake, lawyer, hunchback, and idealistic religious reformer. Cromwell sends him to Scarnsea along with his assistant Mark Poer to figure out what the hell happened, and to get that monastery shut down already.
The book handles the conflict between the monasteries and the reformers well, I thought. On the one hand, we see the corruption, the monks living fat off the humongous wealth they control while occasionally giving a few paltry coins to the poor, the prior who abuses novices under the pretext of "discipline," the lack of accountability for, well, just about everything. On the other hand, as the Moorish infirmary monk points out, the unified international church is the only place that offered a place to a mistrusted foreigner like himself. If the monasteries are dissolved, where can he go? And does curbing corruption and idolatry really have to mean tearing down beautiful historic buildings and melting down ancient artifacts? The atmosphere of confusion and fear due to all the uncertainty about what is or isn't acceptable theology is also palpable. You can't be Catholic, but not Anabaptist either, and where are the lines between too conservative and too radical? Worst of all, even if you grant that major reform is necessary, do you trust the reformers? Shardlake believes fervently in reform, and believes that he's doing God's work and helping create a better church - but as he investigates, he starts uncovering more and more problems with how the reform is being carried out. Is that old Carthusian monk really raving mad when he claims he was tortured into a false conversion, or when he talks about the horrible miscarriage of justice he learned that Cromwell perpetrated from the man in the next cell back in the Tower? And if everything is broken, including the people supposedly making it better, how do you fix it?
Oh, and there is also that murder to solve. And of course in good mystery tradition, it doesn't remain the only murder for long. Two of the others are relevant past murders which were covered up, plus we get more fresh murder. Unfortunately for Shardlake, he starts feeling sympathy for several of the monks, his assistant Mark is turning surly and uncooperative, tramping around in the snow looking for clues is physically difficult with his disability, and he's no longer sure he can trust the people on his side. Having the right theology doesn't stop anyone from being a rotten person, turns out! You can see why Shardlake hoped otherwise (it's not he or his friends had extensive experience with a prior similarly major reform or with living in a religiously plural society to test the hypothesis), so it doesn't come across as unbelievably naive - just sadly a little bit so.
There are no easy answers in this one. Shardlake solves the murders, of course, but he can't fix all his society's problems. Which isn't to say that they're presented as utterly insoluble. Rather, Shardlake has just started realizing how complex they are, and that a simple solution isn't going to make everything better in five years.
Also of note: this book remembers that women, people of color, and gay people existed in Ye Oldene Dayes too, and did not just sit on the sidelines wringing their hands and being oppressed and waiting for the Great Men to tell them what to do but got up and did stuff, even if hardly anyone noticed or everyone pretended it didn't happen. They aren't the main characters, but they are important ones. Some of them even survive the book.
You can also read a longer and more spoilery review of Dissolution and its sequel in this archived Ferretbrain essay.
