After reading many books about the Middle Ages this book puts it all together. I was turned onto this book by a guy I worked with. As he put it, “I love it when a good book it really long, that way you can enjoy it for a while.” Pillars of the earth is historical fiction at its best.
To say I like this book is an understatement. It ties together everything I had been reading about the time period, the 12th Century and adds a compelling story than spans two generations. There are many characters but the book manly follows a monk, a family lead by Tom Builder and his children, a mysterious witch women and her son, the family of a deposed lord and the family that is trying to take away his title. Whew! But in 992 pages there is plenty of room for them all.
Ken Follett really recreates the time. From building the church, to the layout of the town. How busyness what done at the fairs and markets. The daily lives of the characters are covered from how they slept and cooked to how they quarried the stone and transported it to the building site.
I can talk and talk about the crappy books, nit picking them, telling you everything that is wrong with them. But the good ones? Well it’s easier to tell you to just read them.
I really can’t say enough good things about this book. So what are you waiting for? An endorsement by Oprah? Well she’s given it. Now just hope that they don’t make this into a movie and ruin the whole thing. Oh and if you like Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett came out with a sort of sequel at the end of 2007, World Without End
. Yeah once I get around to reading books in 2008 this one is definitely on my list.
