Review: The Pillars of the Earth

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: A multi generational medieval England set of characters pivoted around the building of a cathedral and all that it entails socially, politically and religiously.

1000+ pages! You need to be Ken Follett to pull this off coming from a background of writing thrillers and to delve into historical fiction saga. A simple task - to build a cathedral but there are so many subplots around it - personal ambitions, rapes, societal pressure, rapes, natural disasters, rapes etc. The character development especially of the main protagonists is done real well as they grow mentally and physically through this journey which has multi generational protagonists going through their lifetimes ambling along at times and rushing through at others. I could nitpick into some oddities in timelines but this is not a history textbook.

There is a rhythmic pattern the book falls into - Cathedral work progresses, some road block, Prior comes up with a rescue plan against all odds, a rape, success and repeat. That format adds an air of familiarity and when you are building out a 1000 pager, such a framework makes it easier on the reader to get through in 3-4 sittings and not lose the flow.

The characters are very clearly good guys/gals or bad guys/gals and you are rooting for them when they do wrong to do good or hating them when they are doing good to do wrong. That's what makes this an easier read as you don't try to get perplexed with multi layer complexities like building a cathedral in cutting edge fashion St Denis. (1000 years ago) .

I don't know if rape was a common place scenario back then as it is today but it does get overemphasized in the book , and it plays a turning point role couple of times.

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