The Pillars of the Earth

“To someone standing in the nave, looking down the length of the church toward the east, the round window would seem like a huge sun exploding into innumerable shards of gorgeous color.”

Odi et amo, Ken Follett. This book was a gift, so I persevered. Though I enjoyed some aspects of it, it is not without significant flaws. First of all—this took me about half a year to finish reading, give or take a month. Despite that, I was able to keep track of characters and events decently well, for the most part, though of course my brain was wont to forget specific details. Aside from that, its length betrays a plot that is cyclical and predictable and characters that are somewhat static and stereotypical. Despite that, Follett’s descriptions of medieval English life and, in particular, the cathedral building that is the star of the show are incredibly immersive. I’ve a weakness for the medieval period, though I haven’t studied it formally, and a weakness for beautiful architecture, though I couldn’t tell you the first thing about what separates Gothic from Romanesque. Yet, that matters little because here, Follett weaves an atmosphere that, though it may very well be riddled with inaccuracies, somehow feels fitting. Follett preceded this book and the rest of the series with a body of work primarily in the thriller genre, and it shows. His writing style can be rather simplistic; on the one hand, it is easy to get through this book. On the other hand, he often spends dozens of pages focusing on the wrong things. For instance, he has a tendency to drop an intense male gaze on all of the female characters—their anatomy is singled out as an object of some male character in nearly every scene, not to mention the countless scenes of rape and unnecessary sexual acts. I would at least understand if they served a purpose plot-wise, but Follett’s attempts to integrate especially the sexual assault parts of the plot feel very lamentable; surely we are past such tactics? I couldn’t help but cringe at, for instance, a victim of rape objectifying herself as a sexual conquest for a certain protagonist who almost felt like a wish fulfillment self-insert. But enough on that, as other reviewers have discussed this point to death already, and have expressed it much better than I could.The plot itself is fairly repetitive; you are rooting for certain characters, and things seem to be going well for them—until they aren’t. Rinse and repeat. It does follow that standard thriller format, I suppose, since I was almost ‘on the edge of my seat’, in a slightly lukewarm sense, waiting for the next series of events and to see how our characters would finally prevail (for there was no question of them prevailing in my mind). I will say, I did appreciate Follet weaving in major historical events; I’m woefully ignorant about medieval English history, especially during the years of the civil war covered here, and it was a nice way to become familiar with some of the major players and events that take place. There is a particular event and figure who makes an appearance in the last third or so that I was quite intrigued by, and his inclusion in the story also provided some added intrigue to the plot. Of course, some things happen almost cartoonishly, being convenient (or not) for particular characters, but after a while you sort of get used to it.The cast of characters is quite large, and I do think Follett does a decent job keeping track of them and their various storylines. Since we’ve got a generational storyline, it is fascinating seeing characters grow and develop into their ideals and goals. Our main characters shift throughout the story, but the changing spotlight is a bit too generous at times. With the character of Jack, for instance, his actions seemed largely forgivable and perfect from the narrative’s point of view; ditto on some of the other viewpoints, like Tom. William of Hamleigh was an almost laughably cartoon-level evil villain, though the book did succeed in making me despise him absolutely with every fiber of my being. Even reading from his perspective felt scummy. Female characters like Ellen, Martha, or even Aliena are given decent page-time, but nothing comprehensive; and aside from Aliena, they are one-dimensional and usually subservient to the male characters, even with Aliena’s own goals for a majority of the novel.This novel may not be of the highest literary merits, but it is still quite a feeling of accomplishment having finished it—or at least having stuck with it all the way through. I likely will read the next volumes in the series, partly because I’m curious about what happens with Kingsbridge, and since I’m already aware of the drawbacks specific to Follett’s writing style. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to most people unless you are willing to overlook and forgive quite a lot of literary sins; but for cultivating a medieval atmosphere and high-stakes revenge narrative, it can scratch a slight itch. I came to love and hate parts of this novel, but at the conclusion, I did feel quite relieved to finally have finished it. However, it did leave me wanting for a book that goes more into the mechanics and procedures for building Gothic cathedrals… or even just a halfway decent historical fiction novel about the events in question. I’ve got my eye on some other books that may fit that role—we’ll see.

I got this book because I'm an IT architect and was interested in reading about a similar job in a different world. The master builder of a medieval cathedral fits the bill. You have to understand what is needed, do sketch level design to get the sponsor and the other stakeholders to support your ideas, then do the detailed design and then make sure it is built to specifications. Your responsibility if it fails.
That part I enjoyed. It is also a fast-paced thriller as the main characters go from success to disaster and back in a chapter per cycle.
However, it was a bit too long for me and the writing wasn't anything special. I bought it used and got the sequel as well but I'm not going to read that, though I might have a go at his Century trilogy in the hopes that his writing will have improved.

This book is a mixed bag.

When Follett writes about the cathedral it's quite good. He describes the construction in detail, from the techniques used to create huge structures by pure manpower to the cultural forces that inform their design. It's fascinating stuff.

Unfortunately, he drowns it in a swamp of melodrama. A series of virtuous commoners devote their lives to building the cathedral while villainous aristocrats oppose them. The good guys outsmart the bad guys. The prose is functional but doesn't remedy the dull plot.

Still, the central subject of the cathedral was compelling enough to keep me interested until the end. It's worth a skim.

The Pillars of the Earth follows the building of a cathedral in the town of Kingsbridge, England in the middle of the 12th century. Set during the time of King Stephen and the Anarchy, it explores the lives of Tom Builder and his family as he finally gets to achieve his dream of being master builder for a cathedral. There are forces that are working against the completion of this church for reasons of power and greed.

Ken Follett was an author of trashy thrillers before turning his hand to the epic novels. So it is not surprising that the novel attempts to explore themes of intrigue and conspiracy against this historical event. I’ve only ever read one other Follett novel (The Eye of the Needle) and while I thought this was a better book they are very similar.

One of the biggest problems I had with both novels is Ken Follett’s approach to women. In particular his creepy schoolboy approach to breasts, I’m not saying I’m not a fan but the way Follett’s writes about them, reminds me of George R. R. Martin and Haruki Murakami. I don’t know about you but it felt like every woman in Kingsbridge has massive breasts and if they didn’t they will be forever alone. On the plus side they won’t be raped either; but all the large breasted women ended up married and the flat chested ones were left for bigger boobs.

One of the positives of this novel was the cathedral; it was the most interesting character in the whole novel. We get to witness the rise in gothic architecture in the Romanesque age and I found the insights into the architectural evolution were so interesting. This seems to be the most researched part of the novel and I think was the only reason to read this book.

My wife loves this novel and I can see why people will enjoy this novel but considering that her favourite novels include this and Outlander makes me worry. She seems to be interesting in epic novels with incredibly flawed men. I hope she isn’t trying to tell me anything but I can appreciate her passion towards these epics.

Every man in the novel seems overly flawed with the exception of the asexual Prior. I know Follett’s loves sexual frustrated men and he struggled to write Prior Philip’s so he decided to make him completely uninterested in sex. Which is a huge contrast to every other male in the book. At times I had to stop reading this novel out of frustration but managed to power through.

I think if you really love this epic you don’t mind how long this novel is but if not this feels like it could use a good editing. This book sits at over a thousand pages and there is so much padding that could have been cut out to bring this book back down to at least 750. The themes in this novel didn’t feel like they were executed properly; there are many medieval novels that talk about the corruption of the Christian church, abuse of power, greed and gender politics. What The Pillars of the Earth did that felt unique was explore passion and base an entire novel around the construction of this one cathedral. The passion and architecture is the key to this book and really without them it would have just been a thriller written as a historical novel.

While I had a lot of problems with The Pillars of the Earth, I did like parts of this novel and enjoyed raging at the other parts. I can know join in on the cultural conversation for this novel, but maybe I’m too late for this. I read Twilight for the same reason and do enjoy raging in reviews but I can’t say this was a bad read. I respect everyone who loved this book and I’m not saying that because my wife loved it, I just can see what would interest people here.

This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2013/09/29/book-review-the-pillars-of-the-earth/

I would give this book a 3.5 if we could do half stars. I enjoyed the historical context and architectural details. I even liked the characters, but they were way too one dimensional. The bad guys were completely bad. The good guys were completely good. This prevented me from really emotionally connecting to any of them. Overall, I'm glad that I read the book.

J’ai adoré cette vaste fresque historique qui s’étale sur plus de 40 ans. Tout y est, l’amour, la violence, le sexe, les batailles, les gentils et les méchants. De l’action, il y en a revendre. De la réflexion aussi, mais on est vite emporté dans le tourbillon des aventures des héros et le côté existentiel on le met de côté. Le thème de la religion, de l’homme et du repos de son âme est omniprésent, c’est même le noyau du livre. Les descriptions sont complètes, les personnages plus qu’attachants et le contexte fascinant. L’univers et l’époque sont formidablement décrits. Le monde des religieux du XIIème siècle, des cathédrales, de l’architecture à la gloire de dieu est passionnant, noir et violent. Pourtant je ferai deux reproches au livre

Tout d’abord la lourdeur de certains passages/phrases. Le point de vue omniscient, là, il est à son apogée. On sait tout, rien ne nous est caché ou suggéré. Le moindre état d’âme des personnages, pourtant sautant aux yeux, nous est décrit dans tous les sens. Follet donne l’air de prendre ses lecteurs pour des idiots longs à la comprenette. Vous voyez là, le héros est veuf, du coup qu’est-ce qu’il est malheureux ! parce que sa femme est morte, alors il est tout triste, son coeur est brisé…Et vas-y que je te décris pourquoi comment il pense ou vit ceci à cause de cela…des fois qu’on aurait pas compris du premier coup !
Bref, si ce n’était ce gros détail qui devient vite énervant, j’aurais mis ce livre en coup de cœur, mais il y a des procédés franchement rédhibitoires, et les descriptions inutiles de ce type en font partie.
Ensuite, le côté purement manichéen de la chose. Des gentils qui souffrent beaucoup et gagnent rarement (et ce de manière répétitive jusqu’à la fin) et les méchants qui souffrent un peu et gagnent souvent. Mais que l’on ne s’inquiète pas ! Les méchants finissent par en baver pour de bon et les gentils sortent victorieux de l’histoire.

Mais sinon c’est un merveilleux moment d’évasion ^^