Book Review: The Pillars of the Earth is long, but goes by quickly. This is good, old-fashioned story telling. Not brilliantly written, no hidden meanings, just a plot-heavy, fast-reading monster of a book. Character development is not the point. Cliches abound and are common as dirt. The cliches tend to grate on my snobbiness, but do little harm. They're easy to understand, go by quickly, and are often shorthand for concepts that might require lengthier explanations. Listen to public speakers (even in, say, Ted Talks) who often use cliches and common sayings in their presentations. They're used for the same reason: to move the discussion quickly, to encapsulate ideas, to provide a general basis of understanding. As the story's the thing, character development isn't the point. Story telling: a riveting story in which one wonders what comes next and what will happen to the characters we care about, while hoping the characters we hate get their comeuppance. In The Pillars of the Earth we have un-nuanced, purely evil villains. The chief bad guy is a (literally) sadistic, murderous rapist. Our primary hero is a saintly and unrealistically chaste monk whose primary fault is being a little too ambitious to see the success of his do-gooding, and who can become discouraged after murder and arson rule the day. While reading it seemed to me that Ken Follett had done extensive research, but a little checking on-line indicates that his accuracy is open to question, so I'll express no opinion on the matter. The plot does in fact, however, connect (awkwardly) to actual historical events of the time. I did wonder if The Pillars of the Earth is a male-centric historical romance. Georgette Heyer from a man's perspective. For the more delicate readers, Ken Follett's individual fetishes and obsessions are blatantly on display here. Although good story-telling, I won't be reading more Ken Follett. [3★]
No comments:
Post a Comment