Pillars of The Earth by Ken Follet

9.4/10 dropps

Ken Follett had always been known primarily as a writer of modern-day thrillers in which some extreme situation forces a group of characters to undergo trying circumstances over seven hundred-or-so-pages. He was formulaic, but enjoyable and his books sold very well. In 1989, he surprised his fan-base and much of the literary world with the epicThe Pillars of the Earth. A brief historical excerpt describes how the death of many of the King’s heirs in a devastating shipwreck ultimately led to a sustained period of civil war in 12th century England that would later be called “The Anarchy.” With an epic civil war as a backdrop set against a lawless medieval England, Follett sets out to detail the challenges faced by those who attempt to build a glorious cathedral for God. Cathedrals can take as much as a century to build to completion, and ultimately The Pillars of the Earth covers the entire lives of its numerous characters.

Follett introduces us to Tom Builder, a family man in search of work and whose dream is to build a great cathedral. Brother Philip is a pious monk who finds himself in the role of prior at a young age. Philip hopes to create a prosperous town out of Kingsbridge, but he must contend with the deceitful Bishop Waleran Bigod and a family of nobleman with insatiable ambition and zero empathy. Bigod and William, the only child of the aforementioned noble family, are two of the most formidable villains in modern literature. William’s only fear is that he will die and go to Hell, Bigod circumvents this obstacle by absolving William of crimes he will soon commit in order to further Bigod’s reprehensible machinations. There’s also Jack Builder, Tom’s gifted stepson and apprentice, and Aliena, the girl he yearns for and who is on a mission to avenge her father after he was unjustly stripped of his title and left to die in prison.

The book is fictional, but it dips its toes into historical events on occasion. The shipwreck that led to the Anarchy is real, as are several battles some of Follett’s characters find themselves participating in. Follett is truly gifted at writing thrilling fiction, most readers will probably be hooked by the end of the prologue. Where Follett transcends his other work by miles is in his ability to construct the most accessible portrait of life in England at that time available today. One gets a real sense of the day to day concerns of people at that time. It isn’t long before the reader views the world as Folltett’s characters do, which is a real testament to Follett’s writing when one considers not only the quantity of characters in Pillars, but also to the quantity of time from each character’s perspective.

There’s a lot of standard mainstream fiction stuff at work here: there’s graphic romance, graphic violence and an epic main story riddled with involving side plots. It’s a crowd-pleasing book, but it’s an awesome one. Definitely worth picking up, and you can also check out the not-as-good 8-part miniseries of the same name that was released by Starz last summer.

-John Jamieson