Apparently this book was quite a departure for Mr. Follett, and I admit that when I hear his name I think low-brow mass market crime or mystery novels.  Yes, I am a book snob.  The worst kind of book snob, seeing as I’ve never read one of books before this one.

The Pillars of the Earth tracks the building of a cathedral, the story of the man who wants to build it, as well as the stories of those with whom he has entwined his life in various ways.  It is, like so many books I seem to be reading these days, historical fiction.

Pillars starts off slow, which is not fun when the book is 800+ pages or so.  If you’re going to be reading seemingly forever, it’s good to be pulled in from the start.  I wasn’t, but thankfully this was my only reading material on a 9 hour flight, so I kept with it.  In the end I truly enjoyed it, and am curious about the sequel.

While there are many characters in this book, Follett fleshes out most of them to a satisfying degree.   Jack, Tom the Builder, Ellen and even Aliena are all people with at least two layers.  Characters like William however, are much less developed, and it becomes clear that he is meant only to be an evil rapist who gets off (quite literally) on women’s fear, or Alfred, who gets even less development and exists mainly to be an annoyance to Jack.

But then again, it’s easier to hate the less developed characters, and you get the feeling that that’s what Follett wants you to do.  Except for Martha.  Folliett raises the question of why she sticks with Jack, but he never answers it, which is very annoying.

It was interesting reading this book on a flight back from Italy, where basilicas and cathedrals abound.  It leaves you wanting to see the Kingsbridge cathedral, much like the ones I’ve just seen, and wondering what the builders of *those* cathedrals were thinking and dealing with in the years it took them to build.

Overall, a good, long read, and despite it’s rather abrupt end, will leave you wanting more.