Book Review: The PIllars Of The Earth

I chose to read a novel by Ken Follet based solely on his reputation for writing critically acclaimed novels. I chose The Pillars Of The Earth because it is a historical novel about a period that I knew little about, 12th century England, and a subject I even knew less about, cathedral building and how English life centered around it.

This is not a fast-paced novel. It is 943 pages rich in details and language that takes you on a journey through a time where might was right, religion played an enormous part in everyone’s lives for good and bad, and showed a modern reader how tenuous one’s hold on life could be during that time.

My favorite chapter was the prologue. I had not read a chapter written in an entirely omnipresent point of view in a long time, and even longer for one done well. I actually read it twice, and even read it again to my son to show him how using details effectively can truly paint pictures in someone’s mind. Here is the opening line and first paragraph:

The small boys came early to the hanging.

It was still dark when the first three or four of them sidled out of the hovels, quiet as cats in their felt boots. A thin layer of fresh snow covered the little town like a new coat of paint, and theirs were the first footprints to blemish its perfect surface. They picked their way through the huddled wooden huts and along the streets of frozen mud to the silent marketplace, where the gallows stood waiting.

While I praise Follet’s writing for his use of details and language, be forewarned these details are used in every aspect of the book, whether it’s the building of the church, character descriptions, sex, murder, and rape.

While the first chapter is written in omnipresent, the rest is written in third person with alternating perspectives.

I enjoyed The Pillars Of The Earth, but it is very long and at times felt like it.