Send via SMS

A Guy's Moleskine Notebook

Thoughts and reflections on works of fiction and literature. Pondering of life through pictures and words. Babbling about gay rights. Travelogues and anecdotes.

  • [1] Annie Proulx: Brokeback Mountain
  • [2] Arthur Golden: Memoirs of a Geisha
  • [3] Yu Hua: To Live
  • [4] Alan Hollinghurst: The Line of Beauty
  • [5] Colm Toibin: The Master
  • [6] Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Shadow of the Wind
  • [7] William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience
  • [8] Charles Higham: The Civilization of Angkor
  • [9] Graham Greene: A Burnt-Out Case
  • [10] Dai Sijie: Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch
  • [11] Alan Hollinghurst: The Swimming-Pool Library
  • [12] Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita
  • [13] Colm Toibin: The Blackwater Lightship
  • [14] Alan Hollinghurst: The Folding Star
  • [15] Ross King: Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
  • [16] Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov
  • [17] Jonathan Franzen: The Corrections
  • [18] Colm Toibin: The Story of the Night
  • [19] John Banville: Shroud
  • [20] Leo Tolstoy: Resurrection
  • [21] Peter Hessler: River Town, Two Years on the Yangtze
  • [22] Ian McEwan: The Atonement
  • [24] Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Love in the Time of Cholera
  • [25] Ignacio Padilla: Shadow without a Name
  • [26] Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
  • [27] Richard Russo: Straight Man
  • [28] Fyodor Dostoevsky: Notes from Underground
  • [29] Alan Hollinghurst: The Spell
  • [30] Hermann Broch: The Death of Virgil
  • [31] James Baldwin: Giovanni's Room
  • [32] Ken Kesey: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
  • [33] Xingjian Gao: One Man's Bible
  • [34] C. Jay Cox: Latter Days
  • [35] Harper Lee: To Kill A Mockingbird
  • [36] William Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew
  • [37] Daniel A. Helminiak: What The Bible Really Says about Homosexuality
  • [38] James Baldwin: Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone
  • [39] Kenji Yoshino: Covering - The Hidden Assault of Civil Rights
  • [40] Italo Calvino: If, On a Winter's Night A Traveler
  • [41] Arthur Phillips: The Egyptologist
  • [42] George Orwell: 1984
  • [43] Michael Warner: The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and Ethics of Queer Life
  • [44] Andrew Sullivan: Virtually Normal
  • [45] Henry James: The Wings of the Dove
  • [46] Jose Saramago: Blindness
  • [47] Umberto Eco: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
  • [48] Dan Brown: Da Vinci Code
  • [49] Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go
  • [50] Ken Follett: The Pillars of Earth
  • [51] Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace
  • [52] Michael Thomas Ford: Alec Baldwin Doesn't Like Me
  • [53] Jonathan Franzen: How To Be Alone
  • [54] Jonathan Lethem: The Fortress of Solitude
  • [55] Matthew Pearl: The Dante Club
  • [56] Zadie Smith: White Teeth
  • [57] Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Double
  • [58] Jose Saramago: The Double
  • [59] Andrew Holleran: Dancer from the Dance
  • [60] Heinrich von Kleist: The Marquise of O & Other Stories
  • [61] Andrew Holleran: In September, the Light Changes
  • [62] Tom Perrotta: Little Children
  • June 30, 2006

     

    [50] The Pillars of Earth - Ken Follett

    If life is really meant to be and fate is ineluctable, then the cathedral of Kingsbridge has amazingly brought together people whose lives would have never crossed paths. A starving family wandered around the countryside looking for work and food. A master builder whose wife died from exhaustion and excess blood loss after giving birth to a baby met a young prior who was aspired to straighten discipline at his monastery and eventually to build a new cathedral. A doomed heiress of earldom imposed upon the hospitality of the prior's monastery after the man with whom she broke the engagement raided the castle and killed her father. The prior's brother found an abandoned baby on his way to the town and decided to raise him for God.

    The Pillars of Earth is an epic covering over four decades' time that tells the story of a priest who despite all the difficulty, challenge, and vile monarchs was aspired to build a new cathedral at Kingsbridge. An orphan raised by the monks, Philip had spent his entire life in monastery. It's clear that after his being the cellarer at a young age and then the prior of a small remote monastery for years, the hand of God was on him. The dilapidated look of Kingsbridge struck him--the broken stones of a collapsed tower lay where they had fallen--and more importantly, he was indignant for years at the disgraceful ways the priory was run, how it was allowed to surrender to slackness and ungodliness.

    The building of a new cathedral proceeded sluggishly under the thriving power struggle between kings, earls, knights, barons, and bishops. The modest, peace-loving prior found himself inevitably involved in the dangerous meddling of royal politics. On top of a blaze that incurred further damage to the half-collapsed church, in a war that raged over the three decades, the vile bishop had done everything he could to destroy Philip and the priory. Colluding with William Hamleigh who was seethed with greed and lust, he contrived to humiliate Philip--to build a new church at his Shiring in lieu of the one in Kingsbridge, and to move the diocese in Shiring. In an evil attempt to rid of the town and its people altogether, Hamleigh attacked and burned down the marketplace. However troubled, heart-broken and demoralizing it might be to Philip, he managed to rebuild, to remain meek, to outmaneuver, and to triumph over without weapon and free of violence.

    As the years went by Tom Builder had cultivated a relationship with Philip that had rooted in trust and respect--he had become the master builder of the cathedral at the height of his skills. He reflected how the prior with his faith and unflinching conviction had kept Kingsbridge together: he ruled the village, administered justice, settled quarrels, and decided where houses should be built, employed most of village residents, managed the priory, negotiated with monarchs, and fought predatory bureaus. He apropos demonstrated how weakness and scruples had defeated strengths and ruthlessness.

    The doomed heiress, Aliena, had proven to be one of the most noblest and admirable characters in literature. Living the life of an incessant revenge’s victim, she stood her ground but not without qualms. William whom she rejected to marry, had ruined her father, raped her, taken her castle, burned her wool trade and exiled her brother, but every time the villain thought he had crushed her she came back again, rising from defeat to new heights of power, wealth, and strength. Her obstinacy of not succumbing to adversity intrigued everyone, although she still lived in the shame of her past.

    The Pillars of Earth is a very poignant and despondent read at times but the nuanced historical details and etched characterization, and the impetus to do justice of all the heinous, ruthless, and insidious deeds to which Kingsbridge had been subjected over decades make it an incredible page turner. If there is ever a novel that proclaims hope and perseverance, that will be The Pillars of Earth. There is always a gleam of hope at any inferno situation--no matter how people were shaken to the core or how poor the morale was. The passion sparked the motivation and determination to build the most spellbound Gothic cathedral and all it took was one man's faith that was like mustard seed.

    8 Comments:

    Blogger matty said...

    This sounds so interesting --- I can just see the film version!!! If I were not already trying to get thru a stack of 14 books I would add it on right now! Soon, tho!

    6/30/2006 3:12 PM  
    Blogger Greg said...

    This book's on my "Must Read" list, and I already have a copy!

    6/30/2006 4:13 PM  
    Blogger Cipriano said...

    Matt, what a terrific review and/or synoptical ground-zero on the book. As you know, it is one of my favorites of all time. I am so glad you enjoyed it, too.
    Amazingly, I have not read even one more Follett book, even though I have at least five or six others, right here within reach.
    I just started the new Matthew Pearl one, tonight.
    The Poe Shadow.
    Incredible. Possibly surpassing The Dante Club even, in incrediblosity!
    I agree with you that Aliena... she is an unforgettable character.
    The best to you.

    6/30/2006 8:49 PM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    The information of this site is really important since it counts on specific details for interested in real estate. The illustration that offers on the life in Costa Rica and its people seems to me very advisable the image of the country and contributes great benefits for the tourism, business that offers many economic advantages for the country.
    Great investment opportunity at Costa Rica Pacific Coast, Preconstruction condos in costa rica ,
    Condo sales in costa rica, Retirement property in costa rica. Visit us for more info at: http://www.ramadajaco.com/

    3/30/2007 2:55 PM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    This article is fantastic; the information you show us is very interesting and is really good written. It’s just great!! Do you want to know something more? Read it... Great investment opportunity at Costa Rica Pacific Coast, Preconstruction condos in costa rica ,
    Condo sales in costa rica, Retirement property in costa rica. Visit us for more info at: http://www.costa-ricarealestate.com/

    4/19/2007 9:48 AM  
    Blogger Unknown said...

    The Pillars of the Earth is a historical novel by Ken Follett about the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge. It is set in the middle of the 12th century, primarily during the time known as The Anarchy. Follett's publishers were apprehensive about both the content and the length, which is 973 pages. When the novel was published in 1989, Follett surprised his readers, since he had previously been known for thrillers. However, this book became Follett's best-selling work, over time. It was especially popular with German readers.
    The novel covers the period between the sinking of the White Ship and the murder of Thomas Becket. This period is often called The Anarchy.
    The book traces the development of Gothic Architecture out of the preceding Romanesque Architecture. In the early part of the book, sportsbook, a mason builds a Romanesque cathedral; later, his stepson builds a true Gothic cathedral in its place.
    The book features some explicit sexuality, including a rape scene. In 1994, it was banned by the Chanute, Kansas school library.
    The Italian edition of the sequel World without End was released in September 2007. Editions in other languages will be released in October 2007
    The book was listed #33 on the BBC's Big Read, a 2003 survey with the goal of finding the "Nation's Best-loved Book"
    http://www.enterbet.com

    11/12/2007 1:03 PM  
    Blogger elizabeth bernot said...

    Reading the book is not an additional complication, which undoubtedly helps the speed with which the end is greater. But unlike other works also characterized by having a large number of pages, no boring stretches in which it is willing to go to other events in the novel.costa rica fishing
    The interest is maintained almost throughout its development. The result is a novel very entertaining, enriching and captivating. An original plot, based on a clever puzzle of characters that does not disappoint. Thriller, story, action and love. A mixture varied and effective. http://www.fishingcostaricaexperts.com

    12/19/2009 8:44 AM  
    Blogger Farooq Khan said...

    Its very interesting to watch, i remember i was in one of the krabi hotels during my trip to Thailand where i watch this lying on my bed and its 1am night time in Thailand.

    11/08/2011 11:37 AM  

    Post a Comment

    << Home