Book Review | The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

If you like history you will like this history book. If you like romance you will like this romance novel. If like intrigue you will like this thriller. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett fits whatever category you like and you will bear through the parts you don't like just to get a glimpse at the characters and events you're interested in. That's how I see it and that's how it happened to me.

Ken Follett is brilliant in making the reader get attached to a character and want to know everything about such person. In this book, so much different from the thrillers he writes, he inserts careful details about construction, architecture, and beauty in general. He made me interested in religious construction, which is a feat in itself. I never really thought about it when I saw churches and cathedrals, but now I want to see more such buildings so that I can see them through Follett's eyes, and not just see them for their general beauty as I did before.

I was more interested in Aliena and Ellen above all. Those two female characters who defied the Middle Age way of thinking, were clever, astute, and powerful in their own way made me want to keep reading all day so that I could get to know them more as the plot developed. Some scenes were quite funny, some were outrageous, some were quite erotic. Whenever Aliena and Ellen made their appearance, I forgot I was reading a book and thought I was meeting the most stunning women on earth, and wanted to be friends with them.

Some of the political and historical intrigues were hard to swallow after a detailed adventure or a romance scene. They slightly cut the pacing and inserted what seemed to me to be useless information. I'm sure I will need a second reading to figure out why certain scenes were included and why certain characters got into the plot, but at the first glance some parts made the book a bit tedious.

It was one of the cases where some of the historical remarks and characters made me enjoy the "lighter" parts even more and even yearn for them so that I could rest my mind.

I have been meaning to read this book for so long that now I feel sad and somewhat empty that I made it through. Readers will understand me. Fortunately I now have a television series to dissect and complain about for not respecting the book or something of the sort... and I have the sequel World Without End to dive into when I get the chance. I'm glad Ken Follett exists. Someone should build a cathedral to honor such man.

8/10

Vanessa