World Without End by Ken Follett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of World Without End
Book Review: It was awful
Summary: 2 Stars
I read Pillars and like the story a lot. I read the reviews of World Without End and decided not to buy it but I rented it from the library. About 300 pages in I stopped reading it. The story is the same; the young plucky heroine, the smart young builder, etc. Instead of the building of a cathedral they have to build a bridge (they encounter the same problems). The characters were shallow and there was no great villain. If you really liked Pillars, read it again, don't buy this book.Book Review: Rape, revenge and lesbian nuns, oh my!
Summary: 3 Stars
I read The Pillars of the Earth and am now plowing through World Without End. Gritty, earthy and raw, these books depict the town of Kingsbridge, England during two medieval periods. Follett is a master at depicting the brutal and desperate lifestyles of all echelons of society during the Middle Ages through compelling characters and thorough research, but these are not for the faint of heart. Both the length of the books and the gory details could be a little off-putting to some readers, but overall, the triumph of the human spirit shines through.
I was so looking forward to reading World Without End and so hoping that Follett would have grown as an author in the almost two decades since The Pillars of the Earth. I am disappointed. Again, compelling characters and thorough research are the stars of this book, but alas, the same weaknesses as before -- slippages of language where medieval characters sound startlingly modern and historical anomalies that just don't fit. These, as always, are forgivable when the tale is well-spun and the characters well-crafted.
As before, my biggest complaint with WWE is the graphic sexual content that just doesn't fit and is totally unnecessary. I get that the Middle Ages were brutal. There was little privacy and the entire cycle of life from birth to death was lived out in almost animal-like desperation except for the privileged few. This is compelling enough fodder without having to show to the minutest detail every rape, pillage and plunder in all its fantastical gore. We get it, Mr. Follett. The Bad Guys were really, really bad. The lesbian nun sub-plot too, was contrived and unbelievable. Without giving too much away, the details of lesbian intimacies were unnecessary and could have been depicted in a much more tactful manner than the clumsy, guy/boorish way that Follett chose. Again, titillating tripe.
I wrote this for POTE and the same is true for WWE, the gratuitous sex is just garbage, but the main characters are so compelling and enjoyable that you want to spend the 1000 pages with them and will think about their lives long after you have closed the book. It's just such a shame that Follett had to sully up a great book with smut.
Book Review: Second Verse, Same as the First
Summary: 3 Stars
WWE has basically the same plot as POTE. Some obvious similarities:
Jack-Merthin
Lady Aliena-Philippa
William Hamleigh-Ralph Fitzgerald
The list goes on. This book is repetitous and has the same pattern as POTE, good versus evil with a lot of architectural jargon thrown in. I loved Pillars abut soon tired of WWE. Follett is a gifted writer. He deserves to write a book about a subject that fascinates him. It was just too much for this reader.
Book Review: It's no wonder why Follett is so popular...
Summary: 2 Stars
When I came across Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" I was very intrigued to see a historical fiction receiving the praise it did and continually gaining such popularity over the years. It's a historical fiction after all--those aren't supposed to be popular! It struck me after reading this book--"World Without End" is emblematic of his works--as to why his historical fictions maintain such popularity. The reason is that they aren't historical fictions.
They certainly take place in historical settings and probably contain many elements of what happened during the time period he writes about (the High Medieval), but those historical elements are only there in order to dress up the elements that modern dramas thrive on (i.e. sex and violence). With so much lurid sex and sensational violence, it is no wonder why these books are so popular--they fit right in with the other popular books and tv shows and movies of the day--The Tudors is an example of another titillating historical that isn't historical. Who can resist the fascination? All the sex and violence we want and the facade of a significant history to validate it all!
The problem is not necessarily that sex and violence did not occur during the time period described. Indeed, it probably did take place to a great degree. But it is not a historical fiction if the sex and violence are the main elements in the story. A historical fiction must have as its overriding theme the ideas and mood of the past time. In the High Medieval period, the ideas and mood of the time was highly spiritual, devout, pious and decidedly nonsexual and nonviolent. You can't write about the period without fully believing in and bowing to the period's beliefs. Follett indulges his own beliefs.
Look at the art and poetry of the time period to gain a better idea of how it was like then, and read Monaco: A Novel for a good recently-written historical fiction the way it should be recited.
Book Review: Green Eyes Are Bad
Summary: 3 Stars
When a novelist resorts to a green-eyed heroine, I know I'm in for a pretty hackneyed novel -- it's the cheapest shortcut to "exotique." It only took a few pages for me to discover that I was right. On the good side, this saved me from reading hundreds of other stale, hackneyed, predictable pages.