The Clearing

I just finished reading this very atypical Ken Follet novel called `Pillars of the Earth'. The central `character' is actually a church whose history the book traces out. It's of the historical fiction genre; it's the first time I've read something like this (Aside: No I haven't read `Da Vinci's Code', and don't plan to read it either from the mediocre descriptions I have heard about it from friends although I realize they are completely at odds with what the media has to say about it. I do plan to see the movie however). The setting is medieval England in the 12th century. I enjoyed reading it for its plot which I found engaging, for what seemed to me a very authentic description of life in those times, and for the incidental history lesson I received about the war of succession after the death of Henry I.

I came across a very favorable description of the book on a booklist on some website (I forget which), and since my reading has been somewhat down lately I decided to take up this monster of a novel---it's about a thousand pages. It was pretty interesting reading the preface of the novel where Follet writes about the misgivings his editor/agent had about his taking up something so different from the usual thriller type stuff he wrote. Follet goes on to assure his editor that his intention is not to give a pedantic history lesson, it's to write an entertaining story in a historically accurate setting. That's something I think the author was able to achieve, the story is indeed quite captivating, it's no joke to sustain the interest of the reader over a thousand pages. Reading the novel is almost like watching a Hollywood epic: there's death, love, rape, revenge scenarios, ego hassle issues, carnage, travel --- I guess a thousand pages gives you a large enough canvas to explore various themes. It also, inevitably, reads somewhat like a fairytale since it's about beautiful women with bodies of perfect proportions, knights, earls, and kings (some of whom actually live up to the chivalry ideal). The setting also seems fairly authentic, Follet obviously did his homework, the book is very thoroughly researched.

The characters are not 2-dimensional, but I sometimes had trouble with the black-or-white morality of the characters. This issue became especially problematic for me after around the 700 pages mark when the moral themes started to feel too repetitive and boring. The other issue is the language and style of the author which easily reveal his thriller-writing background. The book is very accessible which is also its shortcoming---I like books which require a little bit of effort, I want to be able to appreciate well written English, see unusual words in action...


All in all, considering I raced through the novel in 3 days flat I would have to say that the book is worth a read.

Labels: Reviews