Restoration by Rose Tremain

This is a very clever and well-written book, it's not exactly my type of book, but I really enjoyed it. I found it really emotionally involved and touching in some parts, and those were the bits I liked best. I wouldn't say that I became particularly attached to the main character, Robert Merivel, who struck me as pathetic and witty by turns, but he was a complex and interesting character. I loved the way the entire book seems to be presided over by the rather god-like and somewhat sinister figure of my favourite British monarch, Charles II, who seems omnipotent, sinister, and utterly compelling. Merivel's obsession with the King and his adoration for him was to me the most interesting part of the book. I wouldn't recommend reading this before, after, or during a meal, since bodily fluids and waste are a constant and distressing theme, but this fits perfectly with the early modern mentality. If there's anything I've learned from my years of taking courses on early modern literature, it's that everyone in the 16th and 17th centuries loved talking about bodily fluids and making revolting jokes about them. Maybe I like Victorian literature so much because by the 19th century, it was no longer fashionable to talk about excrement at all times. This is a book that's very hard to describe and summarise, because its plot is very nebulous. Merivel repeatedly calls himself 'a man of his time', and he actually becomes several different 'men of his time', inhabiting a wide variety of roles. The blurb on the back of the book highlights Merivel falling in love with his in-name-only wife, who is the King's mistress, but this completely misses the point, and you can't expect anything like a straightforward love story. I really liked the fact that the book doesn't feed into expectations of that kind.