Scrumptious reading! I gave the ladies in our book club the summer to read the book (all 973 pages). It was well worth the time. This is an Oprah pick and she has plenty of information on the author, along with a staggering number of reading questions on her website.
Follett, a bestselling author, is considered a master at international suspense and intrigue. “Eye of the Needle,” Follett’s eleventh book became his first success. The idea for “Pillars,” had been with Follett for a long time, but his literary people wanted him to continue on his successful run of espionage novels. Finally, and thankfully, Follett was able to sell the idea of “Pillars,” and the rest is history.
“Pillars,” reminds me of a novel I read a long time ago, “Sarum,” by Edward Rutherford. Where “Pillars,” concentrates on a specific time, “Sarum,” was a fictional history of England focusing on a few families and their rise and fall thoughout time from caves to the boardrooms. I loved “Sarum,” and recommended it to everyone I knew. I equally enjoyed “Pillars.”
Our forefathers (and mothers) lived through famines, wars, plagues and an assortment of horrendous misfortunes that our generation can only imagine. Follett cleverly lets us experience the magnitude of our forefathers’ burden while keeping our eye on the building of a cathedral. Cathedrals were vital to this time period as the cornerstone of 12th century religion, society, and art, and a great place to focus our attention. It was a time when laypeople’s last names revealed their professions.
James Michener, Follett is not, but he does provide plenty of information for our imaginations to take over and propel us back to merry old England and the hardships of most of its inhabitants. (Of course, if Michener wrote this book it would be 2,000 pages.)
Follett gathered a believable set of characters that harvest compassion and sympathy from the reader. Tom Builder’s heartbreaking quest to find work, walking from town to town, all over England, while his family slowly withers away from lack of shelter and food, is just a sampling of what life was like in the 12th century. (There’s no welfare check or food stamps to help someone back on their feet.)
Prior Philip, also pulls at reader’s heartstrings, not because of his sincere goal to build a cathedral in Kingsbridge, but because he had to overcome adversity all along the way. Philip struggles with everyone and everything, but his single-mindedness is admirable. Most of the central characters lives begin to wraparound Philip’s quest to build a cathedral and in the end the benefits for those who shared his vision would be life changing.
Book clubs have so much to discuss with this book. Oprah has a tremendous amount of questions if you want very specific questions. I think her questions are well-thought out and worth a look. If you don’t want such specific topics, you could also pick overall themes with this book. For example, surviving in the 12th century and what our ancestors had to endure; good v. evil; the impact the church and the sovereignty had on the people; and the strength of love.
So much to talk about – an excellent choice for book clubs!
Rating: 9