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A review by jjmann3
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
3.0
“The boys despised everything their elders valued. They scorned beauty and mocked goodness. They would hoot with laughter at the sight of a cripple, and if they saw a wounded animal they would stone it to death. They boasted of injuries and wore their scars with pride, and they reserved their special admiration for mutilation: a boy with a finger missing could be their king. They loved violence; they would run miles to see bloodshed; and they never missed a hanging.”
The insular accidents of history that mold our present day fascinate me. What if… an Eastern Roman Army didn’t follow the Saracens to Mu’tah? … Lincoln didn’t send Lamon to Richmond? … Benedetti didn’t bump into Wilhelm at Bad Ems?
The White Ship Disaster is one of those ‘accidents of history’ that laid the foundation to our today. English King and Duke of Normandy, Henry I secured a solid alliance between his realm and the Count of Anjou and the King of Jerusalem, much to the lament of the French King Louis.
Brexit anyone?
The epic tale’s characters at first came across a bit one dimensional — the talented yet similarly uni-dimensional Oliver Pötzsch could be it’s narrator. Yet, thank’s to its complexity and detail, the end Pillars is awesome and memorable.
This book is for the more patient reader. It is to be enjoyed over time and not gobbled up on a beach weekend. A friend commented to me that that she remembered Pillars of the Earth as a story in which “the same thing happened again and again.” In a way, that is true, but I think my friend missed Pillar’s magic. Pillar’s is a story of our oftentimes wretched humanity and history: its keystone is our ancestor’s individual and collective resilience against extreme heartache and loss. Amazingly, even though it is nearly 1,000 pages long, the end of Pillar’s seems hurried and shallow compared to the first 800 or so pages. Maybe it could have been better, but I still consider it an excellent tale that is very much worth your time.
That said, William is a really bad dude.
The insular accidents of history that mold our present day fascinate me. What if… an Eastern Roman Army didn’t follow the Saracens to Mu’tah? … Lincoln didn’t send Lamon to Richmond? … Benedetti didn’t bump into Wilhelm at Bad Ems?
The White Ship Disaster is one of those ‘accidents of history’ that laid the foundation to our today. English King and Duke of Normandy, Henry I secured a solid alliance between his realm and the Count of Anjou and the King of Jerusalem, much to the lament of the French King Louis.
Brexit anyone?
The epic tale’s characters at first came across a bit one dimensional — the talented yet similarly uni-dimensional Oliver Pötzsch could be it’s narrator. Yet, thank’s to its complexity and detail, the end Pillars is awesome and memorable.
This book is for the more patient reader. It is to be enjoyed over time and not gobbled up on a beach weekend. A friend commented to me that that she remembered Pillars of the Earth as a story in which “the same thing happened again and again.” In a way, that is true, but I think my friend missed Pillar’s magic. Pillar’s is a story of our oftentimes wretched humanity and history: its keystone is our ancestor’s individual and collective resilience against extreme heartache and loss. Amazingly, even though it is nearly 1,000 pages long, the end of Pillar’s seems hurried and shallow compared to the first 800 or so pages. Maybe it could have been better, but I still consider it an excellent tale that is very much worth your time.
That said, William is a really bad dude.