I came back to blogging after almost a year, and I was sad to see that many old friends had abandoned their blogs. (Really, who am I to talk?) So I’m looking for some more bookish blogs to track now, so the recommendations can continue to pile and pile. I will continue to frequent my good buddies on the blogroll, of course, and let me know if you have a recommendation for me!
July 22, 2008
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH: Ken Follett.
Oh, Mr. Follett, what am I to do with you? Maybe this is why I’ve been avoiding blogging about books I finished recently: I don’t know quite where to go with this one.
A friend of my uncle’s recommended this book to me quite some time ago, I’m thinking at least a year. I bought it immediately, as I tend to do, before I could forget about it. A little more expensive than keeping a list, but hey.
I finally picked it up this summer. I was really in the mood to dive head-first into a book and really immerse myself in it, and I thought what better way than to pick up this 1,000-page monster. A story of 12th Century England: a mason aspires to build an entire cathedral, a woman kept from her “husband” due to suspicion that she is a witch, an orphan grows up in a monestary, an awkward boy is in love with an earl’s daughter, an upstanding monk navigates a corrupt bishopric, a woman declares revenge on the usurper of her father’s earldom in accordance with his dying wishes. Whew. If you can’t dive into all that, then what can you?
Let’s start with good things: I was impressed with the pacing. The book spans a lifetime, which is quite a number of years, and over the course of 1,000 pages. It always managed to hold my attention, which is no small feat for me. And indeed, it is a book that is dive-into-able. Hm. It would seem that the praise ends there. I mean, I have nothing really to say about any of the characters, any plot twists… It just kind of is what it is.
My biggest problem with the book overall, and really what caused any other problem I tended to have with the book: it was awkward as all hell. Not the pacing, obviously, but in every other regard. It was as if Follett actually sat there and thought, “What is the most awkward way I could possibly say what I’m saying here?” BUT, that’s usually a major deal-breaker for me, so the story really must be pretty absorbing for me to have withstood 1,000 pages of that.
Let me put it this way: at several points throughout the book I did find myself thinking “Wow, I could be reading [insert name of classic I've been meaning to get to here] right now. Uggh.” But it does get suspenseful, and there are some rewarding moments, and I suppose that overall I am glad that I read it. I simply don’t have much to say about it.
It’s an easy read – go for it.
