Straight-A historical novel: The Pillars of the Earth review

Straight-A historical novel: The Pillars of the Earth review

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Published: November 14th, 2022

Author details

Although The Pillars of the Earth was my first book by Ken Follett, I’ve heard quite a lot about this author. In contrast to authors of a single hit, at least in my head, he was a bestselling writer, with his most famous work being obviously The Pillars of the Earth. And really, more than 150 million copies of his books sold (relevant for 2016, probably even higher now).

Being approximately in the middle of this book, I started feeling sad that it was about to end soon. So I went on the Internet to read about its sequels. And more than once, I stumbled upon opinions that some of his books are seemingly written based on some kind of formula and just happen in different scenes. I rarely read books by the same author one by one (unless they are parts of the same series), but it’s an interesting observation.

What is it about

The Pillars of the Earth is an exciting story of various characters happening approximately a thousand years ago in a fictional part of England. The building of a cathedral permeates the whole book. However, it’s just a symbol, a point that attracts different characters with their stories, tragedies and goals. Still, Follett spends some time explaining some architectural details to a reader through the mouths of the characters. I cannot say it was super interesting, but the author’s erudition fascinates me.

There are several characters in The Pillars of the Book. And one of the reasons I put this Straight-A in the heading is that some parts of the novel feel too well crafted. As a result, you rarely believe that this story may be accurate. It’s too exciting to be real. The same goes for characters. Their lives are no less than rollercoasters (which is a perfect formula for a reader). And if you could believe that one could live such a life, you’d probably never believe it’s possible for all the story’s heroes. And I guess, to make the story more realistic, the author added some details and twists that you’d never expect from a story with a single goal: to entertain a reader.

My impression

Despite all of this, I really liked the book. I was reading this book in English and although it has more than 1000 pages and English is not my first language, I finished it in less than a month.

If I didn’t read the details of Follett’s writing that I described in the first section, I guess I’d already picked his other work. But I don’t want to dive into yet another perfectly crafted piece.

Contemporary fiction (works by Donna Tartt, Hanya Yanagihara, David Mitchell, Jonathan Franzen, etc.) has one outstanding feature: it attracts both fans and haters. And there can be quite a few of the latter.

At the same time, I think it’s hard to hate such a masterpiece as The Pillars of the Earth. It’s something you could recommend to basically everyone.

Something similar

I still have to try it, but from what I read, almost all of Follett’s novels are made the same way, so they should be equally enjoyable.

In terms of straight-A crafting, I’d recommend Stephen King, the author who can create novels anyone would like. It can be It, The Stand, 11/22/63, Under the Dome or many other of his works.

Who recommended

It’s such a popular book that I didn’t need some specific recommendation from anyone to pick it up. In my head, it always was one of the most popular contemporary historical novels. Since I read too few books of this genre, I just waited for the right time to start this one. But again, I think almost anyone would’ve recommended it.

Retrospective

I consider myself a slow thinker, so usually, I come up with additional thoughts about everything I work with. So, this section may or may not be filled later after the initial publication to provide more feedback.