Pretense reviewed Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Review of 'Pillars of the Earth' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
“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 …
“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.
