The Pillars of the Earth

I was disappointed. Characters were either good guys or bad guys (or, in the case of women, all good, strong, highly competent, independent–fighting off rapists while becoming successful businesswomen). Hints of a mystery pop up here and there, then fade away for another 150 pages, until the mystery is solved anticlimactically near the end of the book. No attempt is made to give the characters the sensibilities of their own time–Philip, as the prior of the monastery, probably comes the closest, simply because being the prior of a monastery is a rather medieval thing to be. And at 900 pages, the book is flabby. A lot happens in that 900 pages, but not all of it is interesting or significant. I was expecting something gorgeous, like Edith Pargeter's The Heaven Tree (which some web sites recommend to people who liked Pillars of the Earth), a story about moral conflict and being true to oneself. Instead, I thought this book was more like a novel you'd buy at the supermarket.

A book about the life of common folk in medieval Europe. Well written and researched, excellent character development, but not interesting to me. I like stories to have, if no intellectual components, then at least something extraordinary. That's why I read fantasy and science fiction. This is historical fiction, and the pacing is too slow for my taste.

Judging by what I heard of the book, it will have a lot of really well fleshed out characters, and their stories will all connect somehow. Indeed I felt empathy for the protagonists, which is very good.

The first character if a mason worker, the father of 2 children that he must provide for. His wife is expecting another child, and if he doesn't find work soon, by winter they will starve. He is fascinated by the building of cathedrals, and will put his livelihood at risk to find the job he loves the most.

We get to experience his strive to survive, the risks he takes to get paid when his employer tries to back down, the passion for his work and the devoutness to his family. We feel the the agony of him being refused work town after town and the danger of traveling between towns in the woods, where outlaws live.

Eventually he fails to get a job, his wife dies during birth and he abandons his newborn in the forest, because he doesn't have money to feed him.

His story stops here for now, and another protagonist comes into play, a priest who lives in an isolated monastery. His life is about to change with the arrival of a newborn baby that another priest found in the woods. They decided that this was a sign of god, and must therefore take care of him.

Now the priest story is unfolded, we learn how he lost his parents to English soldiers who butchered them in their houses even after the war was over, and so on.

Read 3:59/40:55 10%

This is a great story with a passionate cast of characters. Follett has a gift for writing from the perspective of characters you just cannot like - he does it so masterfully.

I had to go back and read some history alongside and after this book because that is the way with historical fiction. There are quite a few adult scenes in the story. I heartily recommend it's for all who are not concerned by that.

I had heard a lot of praise for this book. I found that some of it is deserved but the book also fell flat for me in some ways.

Some characters such as william hamleigh we flat 2 dimensional characters that did not show any growth or development while others like Aliena were written well and showed development.

I found the story to be very cyclical and repetitive in many ways and while each new problem was different it was a constant build a church, something gets in the way, build some more, something stops them etc

So for me it loses some points for repetitive writing and flat characters it wins points for the good characters and their individual stories.

There was good opportunity to wrap things up probably 200 pages before the end of the book but I felt follet failed to do so.

So it was ok. Not terrible but not great. To be honest I am split 50/50 I have certainly read worse books but I have also read much better.