Edge of Eternity

"I genitori di Lili ritenevano che la musica fosse una cosa frivola. Per loro solo la politica era seria. Ma non capivano che per Lili e la sua generazione la musica era politica, persino quando le canzoni parlavano d'amore."

Ho letto recensioni de I giorni dell'eternità che mi hanno un po' confusa. Qualcuno dice che è troppo politico e che Follett si è lasciato trasportare dal suo chiaro orientamento di sinistra.
Io mi chiedo cosa ci sia di sbagliato in questa gente. Mi sembra naturale che spesso dalle pagine di un libro simile debba emergere un qualche orientamento, semplicemente perché in questa cosa aliena chiamata romanzo esistono cose ancora più aliene chiamate personaggi, e tali personaggi sono di solito plasmati a immagine delle persone reali. E, correggetemi se sbaglio, le persone reali pensano (lo so, questa dichiarazione stupirà molti; devo tuttavia ammettere che le prove tangibili che ho per suffragarla sono tristemente poche). Non mi pare che che Follett sia pedante, né moralizzante, né che abbia riempito il testo di banalità e tiritere su uguaglianza e diritti. Al contrario, ho trovato pienamente adeguato il modo in cui ha descritto questi anni: come nei due precedenti romanzi, presenta la storia filtrandola attraverso le esperienze personali dei suoi personaggi, positivi, negativi, o via di mezzo che siano. Spesso ci si chiede se la Storia sia un pretesto per presentare le storie o viceversa, e questo non posso che considerarlo un punto a favore, perché in fin dei conti è questo amalgama, queste integrazione e interazione perfette che rendono meravigliosi e appassionanti i volumi della Trilogia del secolo. Questo e un'altra cosa.

Ho parlato dei personaggi come parte del processo storico, ma anche studiati nella loro singolarità la loro forza è, a mio avviso, stupefacente. Alcuni sono statici, altri incredibilmente dinamici; ce ne sono di piatti, certo, ma in compenso ce ne sono anche di magnifici. Nei passati sono rimasta stregata da Ethel, Grigorij, Lloyd e Daisy, di questo mi hanno conquistata Dave, George, ma soprattutto Tanja e Vasilij, la giornalista russa e lo scrittore dissidente.

"Vasilij non era un uomo completamente sconfitto: qualcosa aveva dato a quel relitto d'uomo la forza di scrivere una storia meravigliosa."

Mi ha ricordato -come se ce ne fosse bisogno; ma un promemoria di tanto in tanto non fa mai male- perché amo tanto la letteratura.
Inoltre, trovo semplicemente delizioso il modo in cui le strade di queste cinque famiglie s'intrecciano. Alla fine è un po' come se la famiglia fosse una sola, ma super allargata. Credo che se estraessi a caso da un cilindro due dei loro nomi, con il sessanta per cento delle probabilità questi due sarebbero cugini di un qualche grado. A meno che non stiamo parlando di Lev... in tal caso l'altro sarebbe di certo un suo figlio o nipote.
A questo proposito, devo ammettere che il primo terzo del romanzo mi ha un po' fatto temere per il seguito, farcito com'era di sesso spesso alquanto casuale. Le ultime pagine, di contro, hanno sorvolato fin troppo sugli sviluppi personali per concentrarsi sugli avvenimenti storici, ma suppongo che essendo arrivati già a mille pagine un taglio fosse doveroso, per quanto fastidioso. L'opera nel complesso è però talmente ricca e mi ha soddisfatta talmente tanto che queste pecche non bastano a intaccare significativamente il mio giudizio finale.

Sono abbastanza certa che in futuro rileggerò questa trilogia. Sarà romanzata -anomalo sarebbe il contrario- e forse a tratti anche troppo, ma è innegabile che la documentazione e lo studio di Follett sono incredibilmente solidi, e ancor più innegabile è che quest'uomo ha un dono per la narrazione. Nelle sue mani la storia diventa un'avventura strepitosa anche per i più refrattari. Io credevo di non avere memoria per le date e di non apprezzare particolarmente la materia, ma questa avventura lunga un secolo mi ha fatto cambiare idea. In diversi mi avevano già consigliato La caduta dei giganti, ma io mi sono decisa a prenderlo in mano solamente dopo l'esortazione della mia professoressa di storia e filosofia del quinto liceo. Non so se leggerà mai queste righe, prof, ma, che lo faccia o meno, qui c'è un ringraziamento per lei, uno tra i tanti che le devo.

E nel caso ve lo stiate chiedendo, sì: Follett mi fa diventare sentimentale. Ma d'altronde, dopo cento anni mano nella mano con questi uomini e donne, grandi e piccoli, energici o insulsi, una piccola lacrima credo possa anche scappare.

Não tenho palavras para descrever esta trilogia. Sem dúvida a melhor obra que já li. Sinto que vivi com estas personagens tudo o que elas viveram: concordei e discordei com elas, tive pena delas, ri com elas, senti, carinho e tristeza, mas, acima de tudo senti raiva e desespero perante as injustiças retratadas nestes três livros. Demorei demasiado a ler a última página e apercebi-me que estava com medo de acabar. Vai ser difícil não ter a companhia desta história que me ensinou tanto durante os últimos meses. Obrigada Ken Follett

I love Ken Follett. I have sung the praises of Pillars of the Earth and the previous two books in this trilogy to my husband and friends and coworkers alike. Just added to my disappoint at how incredibly terrible this was. It's hard to believe it was even written by the same person. I hated George. He was cold and had no personality. In fact, I didn't like one single person and I don't like being politically manipulated by a book. It was like he had a Wikipedia print out of "facts about the 1960s" and was just checking them off the list and throwing them into sentences with zero grace. I mean come on: "Hoover is a cocksucker" George: "no!? Do you really think so or are you just calling him a name?" Ugh. I have been waiting for so long for this final book, really disappointed.

WOW. Ken Follett continues to produce great novels. The third book in the Century Trilogy is bookended by the creation and destruction of the Berlin Wall, symbolizing the rise and fall of communism. But the book has so much more, covering the civil rights movement, concluding with the election of Barack Obama. Follett also integrates the key political figures, assassinations, protests, and strife of the past 50 years. But, what really makes the novel are the great characters he has created and their descendants, who help bring together all of the seminal historical events. Most of the novel, perhaps even too much, focuses on the 1960s: love, war, drugs, rock 'n roll, political leaders in the US and abroad. Who were the good guys and the bad guys, which are clearer in retrospect than they were in real time. I think Follett missed the space race in his portrayal of US/USSR relations, but including it would have pushed the book well over the 1,098 pages. This is a good one to read in e-book form.

What a sensational series to begin 2015 reading!!!

Follett ties up the Century Trilogy with the best novel yet, Edge of Eternity. Tackling the largest historical arc, Follett brings his characters to life at a time when the world saw epic change, continuing storylines from past novels and adding new layers with another generation of characters to push the trilogy ahead. Follett continues to follow five intertwined families through the major social, political, and economic turmoil of the 1960s through the 1980s. Follett addresses the rise of civil rights, assassinations of key political figures, development of political movements and Vietnam, which touched America and shaped the world. International historical events such as the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, numerous communist revolutions, and rock and roll. Readers of the first two Trilogy novels will bask in this most powerful novel, leaving not a page free of major character development and dramatic build-up. Follett remains a master of his craft and many others could learn from his ease of presentation.

Follett skips ahead a dozen years in this last novel. With the country firmly divided, East German teacher Rebecca Hoffman learns the Stasi has been invading her life for years, choosing to alter her own history in hopes of betterment. George Jakes, a young man of mixed-race joins Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department, where the civil rights movement develops around him as American history is also shaped in the evolving 1960s. Cameron Dewar ignores his familial political history and joins Nixon's team to shape a country tired of Vietnam's casualties. Dimka Dvorkin, working for Nikita Khrushchev, witnesses the height of Cold War tensions as nuclear war becomes an almost-certain reality. Dvorkin's twin sister, Tania, leaves the comforts of Moscow to shape communist sentiment in Cuba and behind the Iron Curtain, where the Soviet nucleus wanes and political discord waxes. These are but a drop in the bucket of the characters, storylines, and dramatic narratives that pull the novel and the saga together once and for all.

Over a twenty-eight year historical arc, from 1961 through to 1989, Follett presents his brilliantly researched novel, picking key events and weaving backstories for a plethora of characters, whose lives are more than vessels for the political and social upheaval seen throughout. Even the most attentive reader may struggle with how the characters tie together, crossing national backgrounds and creating relationships that are best plotted on a genealogy tree. The novel is about more than living through history, but also using history as an ever-shaping backdrop. However, Follett pushes the argument (in all three novels) that history shapes not only borders and elections, but also those who create it, from commoner to political giant alike.

For those, like me, who invested the time in the audio version of the novel, a word about John Lee is surely in order. Lee, a master story teller with his nuanced accents and narrative abilities, brings the story to life with his ever-changing voices and calm style. He takes on so many characters, but is sure to give each their own voice and personality. He is a Follett favourite when it comes to audiobook renditions, and Lee has done a wonderful job in colouring the narrative from the opening pages in a Welsh coal mine through to the election of a black president of the United States of America.

Kudos, Mr. Follett for this literary gem. I have and will continue to recommend the series to friends and fellow readers alike.

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In EDGE OF ETERNITY, the third volume of Ken Follett’s 20th century trilogy, the author continues to amaze his readers with his lengthy fictional history of the last hundred years through the prism of five interconnected families that he developed in “FALL OF THE GIANTS, AND “WINTER OF THE WORLD.” The construct of the Russian, English, Welsh, German, and American families continues as the novel opens with Rebecca Hoffman, a Russian language teacher at the Friedrich Engels Polytechnic Secondary School being summoned to an East German police station to be questioned by the Stasi. Upon entering the Stasi office in East Berlin she learns that her husband is a spy and that their marriage was a sham resulting in the end of her marriage, and a Stasi officer husband who would pursue a revengeful course against Rebecca and her family for years to come. With the first strand of the novel laid out, Follett develops the character of George Jakes, a young black lawyer who has just graduated from Harvard Law School. Jakes agrees to take part in the Freedom Bus Rides then embarking for Alabama. The result is white backlash and violence against the Freedom Riders as southern law officials stand by. Jakes’ journey following his experience in Alabama leads him to a position in the Justice Department in Washington, working with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. By presenting these two historical threads Follett begins to unravel his narrative by juxtaposing the lack of freedom in the “communist world,” represented by East Berlin and the lack of freedom in the “democratic world” in the American south. A third thread leads the reader into the political machinations of the Kremlin through the characters of Dimka Dvorkin, an aide to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and his twin sister, Tanya, a reporter for the TASS news agency.

The evolution of these characters, in conjunction with numerous others will take the reader through the 1960s and culminates with the downing of the Berlin Wall with an epilogue featuring the inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States. During the journey, the reader will become engrossed in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Movement, the Berlin Crisis, the Vietnam War; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Soviet dissident movement, the rise of Solidarity, the Iran-Contra affair, and the development of rock music during the period. Throughout, Follett links characters from the first two volumes in his trilogy to create further continuity with the current volume. Based on the length of the narrative and the complexity of the different plot lines Follett must have engaged in a great deal of historical research and I would love to see the sources he consulted.

Follett’s representation of historical events is mostly accurate though there are a few missteps. He does a superb job discussing the 1961 Vienna Summit between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev as he agrees with the standard account that the Soviet Premier walked out of the summit firmly believing that he could push the young American president around. He follows this part of the narrative employing Dvorkin and other aides to powerful Kremlin figures in highlighting the debate concerning the exodus of people from East Berlin to the west and finally coming to the solution of building a wall to divide the city. The reader is then lead through an account of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Many of the well known details of the crisis are available to the reader but some of the debate within the Kremlin and Kennedy’s cabinet seem general and lacking credibility. For example, placing a young aide to Khrushchev to be in charge of riding heard on the conservative forces in the Soviet Defense Ministry as a main component of the narrative is hard to fathom even if we accept the artistic license of historical fiction. The evolution of Dimka Dvorkin to such a position of power is very difficult to accept. In addition, Follett’s chronology dealing with the crisis is somewhat confusing. The author is not clear about the Soviet downing of a U-2 plane, first alluding to the 1960 incident of Francis Gary Powers, and then finally mentioning the downing of a U-2 plane during the crisis. More importantly it takes Follett more than half the book to allude to the role that Communist China played in the geopolitical world. He forgoes any mention of the competition between Mao Zedong and Khrushchev for the hearts and minds of the third world. Further, Follett’s elevation of George Jakes to being a primary aide to Robert Kennedy so quickly is also hard to accept as is the author’s integration of JFK’s sexual peccadilloes into the narrative, but leaving out his role in the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. Again, I accept that this is a work of fiction and there are certain needs that have to be met to draw the reader’s attention, but let’s at least stay the historical course.

Follett does a much better job detailing the Civil Rights Movement through his fictional characters. We witness an accurate portrayal of Martin Luther King and the portrayal captures other civil rights leaders and the political roadblocks that needed to be overcome very nicely. We see the waffling of the Kennedy administration over civil rights and the fear of how it will impact the 1964 presidential election. Follett seems to favor Lyndon Johnson as a civil rights president after Kennedy is assassinated. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how Follett weaves a “mini” history of rock music in the 1960s into the narrative by developing characters that go through the process of discovery, writing music, performing in the midst of the Cold War. Follett also does an exceptional job developing the dissident movement in the Soviet Union through the character of Vasili Yenkov, an Alexander Solzhenitsyn type character who is exiled to Siberia and has his writings smuggled out of the Soviet Union through East Germany. Once Follett’s narrative dealing with the Kennedys is complete the book seems to be on firmer ground and becomes a much better read. We have the Jane Fonda type character in Edie Williams, the Angela Davis type character in Verena Marquand, the G. Gordon Liddy type in Tim Tedder, and for baby boomers it is fun to try and pick out which characters are replicating actual historical figures.

As previously mentioned, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the novel deals with rock music. Employing the characters of Walli Franck and David Williams, Follett provides the evolution of a rock band in the context of the Cold War. The character of Walli is especially important because it is intertwined with the situation in East Germany and a family that is haunted and harassed by a Stasi agent, Hans Hoffman, who is also Rachel’s husband. We witness Walli’s escape to West Berlin as did his sister Rachel and her boyfriend before him. Walli’s story is especially poignant. He will escape East Berlin but his pregnant girlfriend refuses to leave. It takes over twenty five years for Walli to finally be reunited with his daughter Alice. The juxtaposition of Walli’s drug addiction and music career to events in Germany and Eastern Europe is accomplished successfully, and enhances the storyline as the novel comes to a conclusion, with the uniting of the Franck family as the Berlin Wall comes down.

The conclusion of Follett’s “century trilogy,” accomplishes a great deal. It takes the reader through the most important events of the Cold War in Europe and the United States culminating in the end of communism as we knew it in 1989. For those who are historically curious about this period they will emerge very satisfied with the characters and the role they play in Follett’s historical novel. Events are fairly accurate considering this is a work of fiction and if one pays attention; the author provides his own analysis as the reader moves through the story. Follett’s own view is clear as Tim Tedder, the former CIA operative watches the opening of the Berlin Wall and provides a toast to the end of communism, “Everything we did was completely ineffective. Despite all our efforts Vietnam, Cuba, and Nicaragua became Communist countries. Look at other places where we tried to prevent Communism: Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Cambodia, Laos…None of them does us much credit. And now Eastern Europe is abandoning Communism with no help from us.” (1093)

In big multi POV stories you always have that one character who's chapters you can't stand and slog through just to get to the good characters. That dude was Dimka. Dimka sucked.

For me, George Jakes carried the book. He was definitely the strongest and most interesting character of the bunch.

El más entretenido de la trilogía y el que mejor ha sabido mezclar la historia con la trama de los personajes.
Tal vez sea porque esta época, la Guerra Fría, me atrae mucho más que la I y II Guerras Mundiales pero creo que Ken Follet ha sabido encontrar el punto para contar los acontecimientos del siglo XX a partir de la mirada de distintas familias de Europa y Estados Unidos.
En los dos primeros libros lo quiso contar desde el sentimiento y las relaciones entre personajes y cómo los hechos que ocurrían en Europa afectaban en su día a día.
En cambio ahora ha puesto a sus personajes en primera línea de historia: al lado de Kennedy, de Martin Luther King, de Kruschev y de Gorbachov. Y lo he disfrutado como un niño.