Famous Ken Follett novel from the Kingsbridge series, The Pillars of the Earth will devour you into a captivating story in the 12th century in England, where Christianity, political manipulation and hunger for power are met with the ruthless life of war and famine.
We are introduced to one of the most important characters of this story, Tom Builder, his pregnant wife and two kids. How they are fighting with the hard conditions of the period, unfairness and really bad luck. His need and responsibility to provide for his family and the dream of building a great cathedral, which will be admired for centuries, pushed him more and more towards the greatness of his life. A gifted monk Phillip becoming the prior of Kingsbridge and Earl’s daughter, Aliena losing everything from her status, money to her virginity and childhood, due to the maleficent, jealous and power hunger William Hamleigh, who had for sure an inferiority complex.
It was my first book from Ken Follett and to be honest, I started to read this book years ago but somehow could not bring myself to get through the first fifty pages. It is said that you must mature for some books, like Anna Kareninova or Crime and Punishment. This book belongs for me in this category, and I am happy that I rather waited than to push myself to finish it years ago. I found it captivating, thrilling and at the same time calming. It is a long and complex story spread throughout lifespans of multiple characters. We are not even one hundred pages into the book, when one of the presumed main characters dies. I know it is the 12th century, but Tom could take more time to mourn his wife, who died giving birth to their son. My emotions and thoughts were split. Tom would not get on my top list of characters in this book. Also, his ignorance to the cruelty of his son was for me not acceptable. Overall, he loved his new wife, accepted her son, provided for his family and somehow still stayed faithful to the memory of his first love. In the end, he was a good man trying to get through the hardness of being the protector and breadwinner of the family. The end of his story was something I was not prepared for, and I don’t think he deserved it. But life is cruel.
Who I really liked most of the time, was Phillip. How he stood up to life, his responsibilities and decisions, his brothers and residents of Kingsbridge. I did not agree with all of his decisions, but he showed us, how to learn from the bad ones and never give up on your dreams. His need to leave something great behind himself was inspiring, but could it also be the arrogance he always polemized about? His greatest sin. Hard to tell, no one is holly and truly without sins. Even the hardest and bravest personalities have inner demons they must fight.
Why do I say, most of the time? The characters had they good sides and they had their bad and hard times, followed by wrong decisions. Besides William, who was a complete lunatic. A prototype of a not intelligent and cruel man with power in his hands, manipulated by his controlling mother and bishop Waleran. I could bring myself to favour most of the characters at some point of their lives, but not him. So many times, I hoped he would finally be at the end of his story, but no. He was like a cockroach you cannot get out of your cellar. The small detail about his fear of hell was great. Even an unholy man doing unholy thing was afraid of the burning fire of the underworld. That was a great manipulation trick from his mother, how to get him do things her way. Despite all the cruelty and stupidity, he came through life quite far, not to be rewarded with a knight’s death.
Aliena and Jack. A partly inspiring and a partly sad love story. Aliena was in the beginning a pampered earl’s daughter, with no worries in her life. With a snap of fingers, everything was taken away from her and yet, she kept her head high and went to do the best with her and her brother’s life. Becoming, not just once, but three times a rich, independent woman, showed us the strength of believing in yourself, and power of a promise given to your parent. To bring back through her brother fame and status of the family name. Falling in love with Jack was the only luxury she could take for herself, without thinking of her family or the promise. She often thought about her past and the marriage proposal of William. And to be honest, don’t get me wrong, if she didn’t say no to the marriage with William, most of the things would not happen in the book. Yet, something has to trigger the domino effect of the story. I am not saying it was a good or a bad decision, just pointing out, that her thoughts showed us the burden of decisions influencing, not just your, but also other’s people lives. Jack, a kind-hearted educated fella with more dreams than all of Kingsbridge together. His desire to learn and understand things, loyalty and love were the things I liked about him the most. He did not deserve the multiple backstabbingâs of Aliena and yet, he remained faithful to her.
The length of the novel gave the opportunity to understand the characters, relationships and their development. What I must point out are the well-developed relationships in this book. Even if characters liked and lived with each other for years, they didn’t necessarily follow the decisions of other family members blindly and without any criticism. For example, Aliena and Philip. Philip helped Aliena, when no one else was willing to buy from her wool. But she was more than furious with the decision not to live and be with Jack as a couple until she was still officially married to his stepbrother. Honestly, what would she await from a monk, it’s one of their most common rules. Would Philip turn away from her first marriage, just to keep Jack and Alien in Kingsbridge with their children? No. Both of them had their values and believingâs. It was refreshing and real. The last fifty pages where for me too fast written, too many things happened to get us the happy end we all awaited. When a book has over 900 pages, you can invest 50 more to make the final spectacular. I was bit afraid, half of the characters I liked would die or would not get their happy end, but calmness of the book kept me believing that it would all end good.