i can't stress enough how not good this book was. (everett says he likes it that i pan books, so he will be pleased with this review.)

where does one start when explaining what makes a piece of shit unpleasant? is it the smell? is it the origins? is it its inherent turdness?

this book is inherently a turd.

mr follett's preface says that people have told him it is the best book they have ever read, and i have to seriously question what they're comparing it to. sweet valley high? maybe, but not necessarily.

okay, compliment sandwich time - something nice, something not nice, something nice.

something nice: it's filled with precise information about industries during the middle ages (1130s-1170s, approx.) informative!

something not nice: these bits of information were not interesting, not really. also, the characters are not even one dimensional. they are, say 1/3 dimensional. all the good guys are attractive, all the bad guys are ugly. everyone things in contemporary ways. the book drones on and on in a mind-numbing sequence of "something good happens! something terrible happens! something good happens, that is just in time! something bad happens that seems like a disaster! something happens to redeem the badness!" you just don't care after a while. also, the central premise of the story, this commitment by these men to built a cathedral, is HELLA flimsy. mr. follett is supposedly something of a church architecture buff, so maybe for him that seems plausible, but i wasn't enrolled. yeah, they're impressive and lovely. NEXT. not funny, not intelligent, not exciting, not suspenseful, not sexy.

something nice: the cover of the book is very lovely, and the book itself is nice and long. hundreds and hundreds of pages of not-very-good writing.

there you go. this book was a piece of crap and oprah should be ashamed of herself for putting it in her book club alongside books like 'white oleander' and 'east of eden.'

4.5

“What you’re doing is wrong,” he said. “I mean evil. To give up happiness like this is like throwing jewels into the ocean. It’s far worse than any sin.”

Since there is pretty much nothing I didn't like about this book, and since the only reason why the fifth star is missing is that Medieval history isn't really my thing and so I loved the Century trilogy far too much more in comparison with The Pillars of the Earth to give the latter the same rating as the former, in this review I will only be trying to explain you why I find Ken Follett's stories simply, utterly irrestistible.

The thing is, they are like cathedrals.

No, I'm not saying that just because, well, The Pillars of the Earth, generally speaking, is about the building of a cathedral. That may be what triggered the comparison, but it really is true: so huge, so vast, so fearfully majestic. When you read Follett's historical novels, just as when you enter a cathedral, you feel humbled. You feel small. You feel tears well up in your eyes at the thought of how insignificant your life, a single man's life is in front of everything. And then you feel grateful, because if insignificant is what we are, what we always have been and always will be, Follett's characters refuse to play by this single inevitable, wicked rule. They rise as high as the most untouchable roof of the most humbling cathedral; why, they build that very cathedral. They make of that cathedral their dream, the one that's closest to their heart, as if they could take the everything that building stands for and put in it in their human, human minds.

I love it. I love Follett's way of mixing up tranche de vie and history, I love his characters and the way their lives inescapably intersect and get more and more tangled up with each other as the story unfolds. Stories like this one are the ultimate wish of my heart as a reader. Reading them makes me feel so happy and fulfilled, I could take to the streets to dance in circle and kiss strangers.

I want to re-read both this and the Century trilogy all over again.

El llamado gran maestro de la narrativa y el suspense nos transporta a la Edad Media, a un fascinante mundo de reyes, damas, caballeros, pugnas feudales, castillos y ciudades amuralladas. El amor y la muerte se entrecruzan vibrantemente en este magistral tapiz cuyo centro es la construcción de una catedral gótica.

La historia se inicia con el ahorcamiento público de un inocente y finaliza con la humillación de un rey. "Los pilares de la tierra" es aclamada como la obra maestra de Ken Follett y desde luego constituye una excepcional evocación de una época de violentas pasiones.

Basado en la Edad Media y la arquitectura gótica de las catedrales de la época. Aunque esto pueda sonar a libro pesado no lo es.

Follet hace que el gran número de páginas que tiene el libro vuelen y quieras más mientras lo lees es una gozada exquisita el aspecto tanto histórico de la época como las construcciones.

Una documentación y labor histórico magnífico e irreprochable. Prosa adecuada y ágil que nos encandila desde el principio. Todo acompañado de personajes que nos interesan, sobretodo su devenir. Ingredientes de todo tipo. Tenemos de todo en esta historia.

Historia que te engancha desde el principio, en la que hay traición, mucha muerte, aventura, amor y dolor.

Describe muy bien cómo se debió vivir en ese tiempo y sus costumbres. Ycon la Iglesia por encima de todo el reino cual halcón.

Pero debo decir que al terminarlo no sé si es debido a la fama de este libro como uno de los más vendidos y una obra maestra que no voy a discutirlo, no me ha impresionado tanto como para ponerlo en dicha categoría. Se me vienen a la mente varios que pondría antes en mi lista que este. Buenísimo sin duda pero tampoco me ha parecido tan espectacular.

Ha tenido sus momentos. Ya sabemos lo de los gustos, colores, momentos y creo que también la trayectoria como lector influye. Si esto hubiera caído hace 3 años antes de que llevase todo lo que llevo a la espalda.. quién sabe..✍️

The duck swallows the worm, the fox kills the duck, the men shoot the fox, and the devil hunts the men.
-William Hamleigh, The Pillars of the Earth

This is probably the fifth review I've started for The Pillars of the Earth. The first thing you'll notice is that it's a long read, 900+ pages. Whenever I've attacked a book with similar length I've usually felt that the author was trying to impress me with his big phallic novel, as though the book were really about the size of the book and his ability to produce such an enormous work. This is not true with Pillars.... It starts where it should start, ands where it should end, and everything that happens in between is meaningful.

I have to admit that I bought Pillars... without really knowing anything about it. I knew Ken Follett was an author of books my dad read on planes but that was about it. I had no idea that Pillars... was an Oprah Book Club selection, but found that out shortly after I purchased it (and then I realized that that was the reason Pillars... was front and center when I was browsing.

I bought it because the concept intrigued me. I'm a history dork and a novel structured around the building of a 12th century cathedral is in my wheelhouse. But for the first eighth of the book or so I kept hearing Oprah and my dad talking and making feel as though I shouldn't like the book because I generally don't like what they like. In fact, for a month or so I let their imaginary voices talk me out of reading it altogether and I simply put it down and left it.

After the month, though, I realized that if I didn't pick it up right then I'd lose the story and never read it. So I put my preconceptions out of my head and dug in. And wow, how I was rewarded.

Pillars... doesn't strike me as a book that I'd have been assigned to read in grad school. It's not a heavily intellectual treatise about the inequities of power, or distribution of wealth or something. It's a novel, a story, one well-told. Actually it's many stories that weave in and out of each other. Each story is gripping in its own peculiar way.

One of the most striking aspects about Pillars... is that Follett masterfully heightens the tension and conflict for so long. 900 pages is a really long time to build suspense and he pulls it off on nearly every page. There are so many defeats, victories, and reversals of fortune that you never feel stable, or bored. If a character gets sick you feel there's an equal chance that that character will die, or get better with no affect to the story, or cause a plague that wipes out five more characters. You just don't know. There were many moments when a character's actions made me gasp, sometimes because I was shocked at their malevolence, sometimes because I was shocked at their fate, and sometimes because I was truly happy for them.

And there are some truly malevolent characters. Loathsome in the extreme. It's also surprising how Follett was able to create such truly horrible people without making them cartoonish, or like that evil guy from silent movies who always tied the heroine to the train tracks. They felt real, despicable, but real.

But what knocked my rating up from 4 to 5 stars was that when I'd finished reading, I felt like I'd just read a really gripping best seller that actually meant something. After going all that way when I finally got to the destination there was really something there. It was a good trip that was worth the journey.

And one final thought, after putting Pillars... down for a month (or longer) when I finally picked it up again, I could barely put it down again. I was riveted, edge of my seat riveted.

(below were my initial impressions of the book as I began reading it.)


I just started this the other day. It's not bad, some of the writing is entirely gripping and it's such a monumental effort that there's huge promise. But so far there's been a fair amount of sex and struggles of desire. Normally I'm all about sex and struggling with desire, but this comes across as titillating for an older generation. Like maybe your parents, or people who watch JAG would find it provocative. More later.


ADDENDUM

Okay, so I'm several chapters away from the clumsy sex of the opening chapter. Follet, not surprising, is significantly more interesting when he's weaving his narrative around political intrigue. Significantly. But the point isn't just to dwell in the tower with the power brokers, he wants to be in the dirt with the little people too. And showing how they are connected brings a power to the book because of the way they are handled. I still find the sexuality to be stilted and overwrought, but I'm fascinated by the grand human drama he's able to tease out with from the delicate strands of seemingly small interactions and decisions. I've still got over half a book to read though.

ADDENDUM 2

It's not good that I haven't touched it in several days is it? I just can't get into this book as much as I'd like to.

n  “The most expensive part of building is the mistakes.”n

Look, it's difficult to explain exactly why I liked this book. Seriously, if you take a look at the blurb, note the 973 pages, and the fact it's a very long story about building a cathedral in Medieval England, you might think I've been smoking something. But for me - and I'm assuming for a large number of other readers - it was so damn compelling.

I'm going to get the crap out of the way first - if you are sensitive to scenes of rape, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. Medieval England is a shitfest of misogyny, violence, accusations of witchcraft and, yes, rape. One of the scenes is especially disturbing and graphic; I actually had to take a break from the book after reading it.

I should say that it is not portrayed as a positive, or even a normal, thing. Scenes of rape and brutal violence in the book largely serve to make us despise William Hamleigh with a ferocious passion. It turns out that a deep, seething hatred can really keep you turning pages, waiting for that bastard to get what he rightly deserves.

Anyway, yes, the main plot is about the building of the fictional Kingsbridge cathedral. But, really, it is about all the characters that come into contact with Kingsbridge, its cathedral, and Prior Philip - their loves, desires, ambitions, conflicts and heartbreaks. I was pulled in from the very dramatic prologue when a young woman arrives at a hanging and curses the three men who guaranteed her beloved's execution.

There are love stories in here, as well as tales of ruthless ambition, and betrayal. Follett has created some incredible and unforgettable characters: Tom Builder, Philip, Ellen, Jack, Aliena, and Waleran Bigod. And, of course, that snivelling stain on humanity that is William Hamleigh.

I haven't read any of Follett's other work, but it is not surprising to hear he was a thriller writer before beginning The Pillars of the Earth. He has carried that with him into this story. Just when everything seems to be going right, some catastrophe happens to throw a spanner in the works. Just when it looks like Philip is going to succeed, some more shit happens. But it was an effective way to keep me looking over my shoulder.

It's a strange book because it's a bloody, heart-pounding page-turner wrapped up in a 900-page, serious-looking, cathedral-building package. Strange, and yet I find myself wanting more. I guess I'll have to read World Without End.

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Full review...

Pillars of Earth has literally shattered my world! In this audacious and breathtaking novel, Ken Follett creates a true masterpiece of historical fiction!

Follett’s ‘Pillars of the Earth’ is a astonishing accomplishment in story creation, character development and most impressively a beautiful narrative! How does one create a story of almost 1000 pages about ‘the building of a cathedral’ and make it relevant and engaging? How does Follett incorporate ‘historical fiction’ and the epoch of the medieval period and make it synergistic to the storyline? Where does Follett come up with half of this stuff in this incredible book, yet makes a story placed in the medieval period feel so relevant? Given his God given talent, Follett is able to incorporate the perfect ingredients in this superbly written story.


Medieval Cathedral


From the very prologue, Follett had me intrigued and completely hooked! Follett describes a hanging, in typical medieval style, and an extraordinary event that will set the tone for the entire book! Writing in the historical fiction genre can be a double edged sword: add too much detail and the book becomes a good ol’ boring history book; yet without enough background and historical perspective all your left is pure fiction!

Pillars of the Earth is set literally in the middle of the medieval age, in the years of 1135 until 1174. The historical background in England of that time is fascinating. A shipwreck containing royal nobles, and most importantly King Henry’s direct heir, are all lost at sea. The consequences are profound and after the death of King Henry and no apparent heir to the throne, chaos, civil war and bloodshed ensues for the large part of 40 years! Follett masterfully builds up the tension in his book, by placing his story during the peak years of this political upheaval.


Shipwreck at Sea


The book is the first of 3 books in the “Kingsbridge’ series. Most of the events in the story occur in or around the small town of ‘Kingsbridge’. Kingsbridge is essentially a small village, revolving around a modest monastery of monks or a priory. The relationship of the monks with each other, the royal family and the ‘earl’ of Shiring are constantly at play in the book. Never, did I think reading about monks and their daily lives could be so damn fascinating! This is the magic of Follett: he writes about the simple and mundane, yet makes it spellbounding!


Medieval Monks


“The symbol of Kingsbridge’s life and vigor was the cathedral. If only it could be finished by a miracle!”



n  In essence the nucleus of the story revolves about building a cathedral!n Follett’s narrative is so simple yet beautiful, but all is not what it seems. The major events of ‘Pillars’ occur surrounding the construction of this magnificent cathedral, and Follett creates major plot arcs around this simple concept. The story can is interwoven in multiple layers and different POVs. Characterization is one of the strongest ‘pillars’ in this wonderful story. There’s a masonry expert, ‘Tom the builder’, a genuinely good hearted monk ‘Phillip’, a beautiful earl’s daughter ‘Aliena’ and a promising red headed boy ‘Jack’. Their lives all eventually tangle in a web of love, deceit, violence and hope. It’s pure genius. There’s so much character building, that Follett keeps developing plot lines until the last 20 pages of the book!


Kingsbridge


Pillars of the Earth also give us one of the most evil characters that I’ve ever read in ‘William Hamleigh’. The son of prominent landowner, William is the devil incarnate. He’s all that’s bad in this earth: a murdered, a liar, a coward and blasphemous. Oh, did I mention he’s a sadomasochist, diabolical, and a rapist? This brings another point to the book. Themes of violence, love, brotherhood and religion are widespread. Make no mistake, this is not a tale for the weak of heart, due to the sheer brutality portrayed in ‘living life’ that Follett offers us. There’s violence with some gore, warring between competing factions, but it’s all appropriately done. Follett is a true master storyteller!

There are multiple sex scenes in the book, some graphic but never done distastefully, and ultimately adding a great deal to the narrative. There is an unfortunate ‘rape’ scene which is hard to stomach but so important to the entire book and a to a specific character development. Also, Follett exposes the brutal reality of the medieval times as a patriarchal society where woman were mostly treated as inferior and sexual abuse was prevalent, especially in lower social classes. ‘Whoring’ or prostitution was an accepted means of entertainment, for workers, masons, soldiers and at times even monks! Follett doesn’t hold anything back, but all is done temperately with the historical accuracy of the epoch.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Follett’s writing is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Follett’s writing style of ‘simplicity’ and ‘directness’ narrative makes for a real engaging experience! His writing is raw, the narrative so unique without embellishment or unnecessary verbiage. How else could you expose so much human emotion, if not writing purely from the heart with simple words? His narrative was so effective, that the near 1000 pages flew by. At times I forgot about the 21st century, and found myself in the small village of ‘Kingsbridge’ surrounded by the construction of a glorious cathedral and a world long lived.


“They turned toward Kingsbridge. It was twenty miles away. Philip began to walk. He felt wonderful…I lost in court, he thought, but that was only about stones. What I gained was something infinitely more valuable. Today I won a man’s soul.”


5 Stars

Full video review here: https://youtu.be/hk36yExrXII

In 1996 I was a junior in high school and had never read a historical fiction book. A friend of mine was reading this massive brick and I assumed it was a fantasy book. I asked him what it was and, really, he had me interested with just the title.

Trying to explain what makes this story so great is hard since most people nope out when you tell them it is about building a cathedral in 12th century Europe. That is the backdrop but there is so much more to it. Follett loves to abuse his characters and, in turn, makes you root even harder for them. If you love characters that work hard and do whatever it takes to overcome the odds, this one has a dozen you'll love and will never leave your head.

Major content warning for the weak of heart. Follett pulls no punches and even gives the main antagonist POV chapters and it is NOT pretty. But as long as you understand things were different in the world almost 900 years ago you'll be okay. This is a trip that is absolutely worth your time.

A fantastic story and incredible read. So many layers: 12th century rural life - the power of the monastery in everyday life; the defined strata of people's lives; and overlayed by incredible, rich characters. I binge read this the first volume. ( I purchased an e-version, since the book was too heavy to hold). Now I am into volume 2.

How does one review a book that one cannot even describe?

So many times after gushing about how good Pillars was, people ask me, What’s it about?

And I, swirling in the happy aftermath of a mind so blown away that it’s still traveling near the speed of light, struggle to gather what’s left of analytical thinking and dumbly blurt, “Um, it’s about building this cathedral…”



Way to not to sell a book.

I still have trouble really describing Pillars in a way that satisfies. Because while it is about building a cathedral, it’s about so much more. It’s about love, hate, sacrifice, duty, honor, sorrow, ambition, dreams… It’s about cold, hard life in the Middle Ages during decades of civil unrest where both good and bad people, downtrodden and as hungry as they are, still dream and compete and seek a sense of accomplishment in their lives.

People like you and me, just some centuries and a culture apart.

And like life, not everything is pleasant.

There are many ups and downs in the novel, so many that you learn to brace yourself for the worst when someone emerges victorious because you know that there will be payback. The characters go through a lot of hardships, and it’s pretty darn painful to read. The devastation that Prior Phillip felt when some part of his cathedral project was foiled is just as heartbreaking as the physical violation of Aliena’s body.

On the flip side, when the characters felt joy, it was extremely acute. When Tom finally landed a job, I breathed a sigh of relief. When Aliena got revenge on the priest who was supposed to “take care” of her father’s money, I felt a ruthless surge of satisfaction. It’s like I’m with these characters, that they are real and I am next to them. Their life is not a bucket full of cotton candy. It’s bitter, vile, and hard; but it’s also sweet, gentle, and satisfying in turn.

Pillars does dramatize the lives of these characters by placing them in a zero sum system; when one gains, the other has to lose. What resulted was an intricate web between the characters, some more attached to one than the other. Each move that one character made had a profound effect on the other. While this may have been contrived for some, I found it fascinating to follow these lives and see how much they crisscross and tangle. The concept that every action has consequences is something that is definitely fleshed out in Pillars, which I think is a life lesson that not many people dwell on.

Despite their differences, what every character had in common was that the thread of their lives all intersect at the focal point of this one cathedral. Every significant action in the novel is somehow directly or indirectly connected to the construction of this cathedral.

And my, what a construction project it is to build a cathedral! Ken Follett really studied up on this subject and did a fantastic job depicting the grandeur and openness of cathedrals. Cathedrals really are complicated works of architecture. Even the darker, more foreboding ones of the early middle ages were incredibly expensive and a huge pain to build. The type of “open air” cathedral with flying buttresses and colored glass that so amazed Jack is really a sight to behold, even in modern standards, with their intricacy and careful architectural balancing. Some of Follett’s best writing emerges when he describes the smooth arches, the interior of the nave, the structure of the transepts, and the light streaming in through elongated windows that brightened darkened corners, an innovation thought to be structurally impossible in a stone building.

The book does have its faults. Follett’s writing was not all that consistent. It was jarring to read Follett’s grandiose descriptions of cathedrals and then, on the next page, read about William Hamleigh fantasizing about violating women. The violence was graphic, almost to the point of being gratuitous, but then again everything about Follett's writing was graphic. I personally take no issue with graphic violence, but people who do should take note that the prose of this novel is in-your-face blunt.

My overall impression of the novel is that it is a tour de force of storytelling; a story that weaves together the lives of enemies and friends who are not all completely evil or good, who have their own dreams and ambitions, and who are willing to do dirty yet necessary things to achieve their ends. Some are more good than others, some are almost saintly, and others are steaming piles of doo. But somehow, amazingly, they are all parties in the construction of this one cathedral, and the cathedral connects them in both death and life.

Faults aside, the sheer force of the story compelled me to give this five stars. It’s not a perfect novel, and the novel doesn't showcase perfect writing. But it’s a really good story, something so grand and epic that it can’t be adequately captured in just a few sentences.

FIVE SHINY GOLD STARS AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I'm not sure there are words to describe the level of loathing I have for this book. I hated the majority of the main characters. In most cases the hatred was immediate, but there were a few that I thought might be okay.

I was wrong.

Between the cocky, entitled lordling whose head I was forced to share as he grew more and more excited by torturing a man who'd had the audacity to laugh at him . . . and then compared the excitement (b/c torture) to cornering a servant girl in the stables, and the out-of-work carpenter who abandons the baby his wife died giving birth to . . . and those two are only the most memorable in a parade of horrible things. *squints at masses who laud and praise this book*

It literally made me sick to my stomach.

NOT recommended.

A tale large in scope and filled with trial, tribulation and triumph.

The characters were well rounded and developed a lot during the course of the book. Slow at times but with great pay-off!

I read this one awhile ago. I remember it as one of my top five reads of all time even though I mostly dwell within the mystery/thriller genre. I'm hot and cold on Ken Follett books but this one is a wonderful read. I am always on the look out for a book that first and foremost immerses me in the Fictive Dream and this is one of them. And it's an epic so the ride was long and comfortable. My world fell away as I entered this one.
Highly recommend.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.