Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Reading all 973 pages of this book was quite a challenge. I was really interested in the time period, however, and am very happy I did not live back in the 12th century. The politics and religion of the Middle Ages were very interesting, but it was especially interesting to read about the construction of the fictitous cathedral and the mention of so many other, real cathedrals. (one character ends up going through Notre Dame shortly after it was built, although the author does not call it by name and only mentions St. Denis. You just have to know it is Notre Dame). The story covers over fifty years. . .it has to because it would have taken a life time to build a cathedral. In this case, it takes the life time of two generations of builders. I thought the author did a really good job drawing the characters, although some convenient plot twists were a bit implausible. (especially the part about a poor woman and a small baby taking off on foot from England to follow a man she thinks has gone to Spain. .c'mon!). I also appreciated that Follett had the main religious character retain his integrity throughout the book. Many other religious characters had grievous flaws, so I was glad that Father Philip did not succumb to the worldy temptations. I also liked how Follett wove his fictitious characters into the life of Thomas a Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury who was made a martyr by King Henry. I do think Follett could have trimmed about 250 pages and retained the integrity and plot of the story, plus made it a little less daunting to finish. If you like the Middle Ages, and you don't mind taking hours and hours and hours over days and days and days to finish the story, this is a terrific book.