The Pillars of the Earth
The Kingsbridge series, Book 1
Ken Follett
Penguin
Fiction, Historical Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: England in the twelfth century is a land in the midst of turmoil. Ever since the infamous storm that sank the White Ship and, with it, a vast swath of royal heirs, the line of succession has been muddied - a power struggle that explodes when King Henry dies in a hunting accident in Normandy. The people need their faith more than ever: the commoners to keep their spirits alight in the grimmest times, and the nobility to legitimize their rule. But too often the men of God covet earthly power, and the men of royalty forget their spiritual obligations. When the tainted words of three powerful men lead to an innocent man's hanging, his wild golden-eyed lover casts a curse in blood at the liars' feet. Even she does not suspect just how long it will take the curse to come to fruition, and the many lives it will touch through the decades...
Tom Builder was supporting his family by building a new home for the young nobleman William Hamleigh to begin his married life. It's steady work in trying times, though he would much rather work on something bigger, something grander: a cathedral, the ultimate test of a mason's skills. Then his job is abruptly canceled when William's intended - Lady Aliena, daughter of the Earl of Shiring - calls off their wedding. With his wife, teen son, and young daughter in tow, Tom sets off in search of work, all the while harboring his secret dream, but few people are hiring builders in these times, and before long the Builder family is starving. After great tragedy and many twists of fate, Tom finds himself in Kingsbridge, a small town with a run-down monastery and a sagging old church that has seen better days. This could be his chance to make his mark and leave a legacy for generations, rebuilding the dank Kingsbridge chapel into a true monument to the glory of God, a job that could last decades and see his family well provided for... if only he can convince the new prior.
Philip came to the church as a young boy, after he watched bloodthirsty soldiers butcher his peasant parents and almost kill himself and his brother, only to be stopped by an abbot with nothing but the word of God on his lips. From that moment on, he devoted himself to his faith, becoming the leader of a small monastery in the English countryside, while his brother Francis went into a more interesting and dangerous line of work as a spy for the royal crown. When Francis asks Philip to intervene in a possible rebel plot, the faithful man becomes entangled with the scheming arch-deacon Waleran. The relationship leads to Philip's rise to the priory of Kingsbridge... but the monastery was depleted by its former leader, and the humble new prior has his work cut out for him winning over the apathetic and hostile monks and restoring its fortunes. Perhaps the worst affront to his faith is the state of the church. It should be a place of light and grandeur, drawing the faithful from miles around, not dank and dark and fallen half to ruin and neglect. When providence sends a master builder to him, it seems a sign from God Himself... but there will be many challenges ahead, not just for Philip and Tom but for Kingsbridge and the whole of England.
REVIEW: This classic hardly needs an introduction, an epic historical fiction spanning decades (and, in later volumes, centuries). I enjoy sinking into a nice, thick epic fantasy, and there would seem to be quite a bit of overlap. But for some reason, I often felt like I was being kept at arm's length, and despite several interesting moments and characters that almost intrigued me, I often struggled to pick it back up after I set it down.
Replete with details of life in medieval England, Follett does a solid job establishing the setting, as well as the incredible amount of labor that went into the construction of a Gothic cathedral, the work of decades or even generations. The people are of their time and world... but they also, unfortunately, sometimes feel flat. There is a clear split between the villains and the heroes, those who abuse their power and faith for personal gain and those who hold true to their values, and it's fairly clear who will turn out to be a traitor (to the reader, if not the people in the story). The villains are so repulsively monstrous or glaringly devious it was hard to read their sections of the story; yes, I understand, people can be terrible to other people, especially nobles flaunting their essentially unfettered power over their subjects, but at some point the rapes and dehumanizing tortures and humiliations just go over the top, making me reluctant to pick the book back up when I got to their chapters. On the other hand, some characters who are set up to be intriguing fade to nothing but background names, or are written off in time jumps between sections, making me wonder why they had been introduced to begin with. The writing style also grated on me at times; Follett tends to flat-out explain things that should've been clear from a character's words and actions, stating to the reader that "he was angry" or "she was scared", summarizing their thoughts and experiences and even repeating things unnecessarily. This contributed to a sense of bloat and meandering, though when the story moves forward, it could be exciting, and there were moments of beauty and heartbreak along the way. The final parts bookend the opening scene nicely, but it lacked some impact for me as I never really immersed myself in the story as I'd hoped to.
In the end, while I can see why many people praise this book, The Pillars of the Earth just was not for me, and I doubt I'll read more in the series.
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