World Without End

With his immensely popular The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett introduced an enormous, overbearing, and at times seemingly dangerous main character, a Gothic cathedral, the building of which consumed, in one way or another, the life of most of his 12th-century characters. I first read Pillars back is 1989 (NOT last fall when Oprah (hssssss) decided it was worthy of a Book Club nod) and loved it. I was fascinated by the depiction of Medieval society and in particularl the struggle to build the cathedral.

Follet returns to that same building, in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, for World Without End, but in the 14th century. Family lines remain but the cathedral is the only remaining character from the first novel. There's much the same group of brutal, uncouth noblemen and their much-tried ladies, set against the rising, inventive merchant class of the town, built on the wool trade, and the scrappy peasantry that supplies them.

Because I had enjoyed Pillars so much I was happy to get World Without End for Christmas. It is a mammoth book, 1,104 pages in my edition, for a large historical frame - coverning the arrival of the Black Death and the beginning of the end of the feudal system.

For those who enjoy history as nonfiction as well as fiction-  this book is a learning experience about a distant time that gave birth to the first stirrings of what we call our modern world. On a good day, we inhabit a place of science, gender equality, and rule of law instead of superstition, enslavement, and free violence and degradation, well most of us do. That fact is due in large part to certain things that happened in the 1300s - especially the year 1348. If you are unfamiliar with the unpleasantness of that year, sorry, you are just going to have to read the book.

There are a couple of things I think might be the reason for some of the bad reviews I have seen elsewhere. One thing is that Follet is not primarily a historical fiction writer and a great many of his books have been thrillers. So his writing style tends to be pretty gritty - especially when he is writing about sex, violence or death. In Follet's view of the 1300's there was plenty of all three. Also, while there is a strong love story (and a couple of minor ones) running through this book it is not a romance novel. It's the story of a 14th century community in a cathedral market town and at times his vision of 14 century life makes me a little uncomfortable. Plausible, but still a little uncomfortable. Especially what passed for justice and fairness.

I caught myself being sympathetic to some of the less-savoury characers (as compared to the 'heroes') in the book simply because it seemed to me that the only way someone of the "lower classes" might improve their circumstances was with either brawn and hopefully a few brains thrown in. Luck played a huge part in this and I found I couldn't really blame some of the characters who seized any and every opportunity that came their way, fair means or foul (with the exception of Ralph!)

For some reading the book will feel as if they are stuck in a history lesson, but it's an interesting one. Follet is keen to bring out the inherent conservatism of the uppper class and church, and their overbearing maleness (yet in many respect the strongest characters are women who use the men in their lives to get what they want). He's also keen to emphasise the superstitions which govern local lives, and the climate of casual terror: murder and rape are commonplace, judgments are often rigged, and punishments brutal. The account of one miscreant being flayed alive is disturbingly precise (far too precise for me).

Follet also sketches the wider political world, most notably, if improbably, when the main female character, Caris witnesses the victory at Crécy – from the French lines! – and meets Edward III. Here too, he is determined to make a point: great battles are really tyrannous, booty-driven slaughter-fests. But not such virulent killers as the Black Death, which overshadows the central chapters, and which pits religious superstition against medical intelligence. The plague scenes are expertly handled. Happily for the townspeople, but again improbably for the readers, Caris, with no training whatsoever, invents modern medicine. Go Caris!

Where Follett excels is in telling a yarn. Yes it is a brutal one, the sex is graphic, and violence pronounced. There is also sufficient intrigue here, enough turns within double-twists, to hold readers through all the 91 chapters. Style takes second place to structure and plot. World Without End is exciting, full of sudden reverses of fortune – all the fun of the unfair. The comeuppances are surprising and satisfying. Assuming you can pick the novel up and plod your way through all of this, you won't be able to put it down.

Comments

[Gail Hecko]

Jerry, you are a very good book reviewer. This sounds very interesting to me, but I don't like the graphic violence....

[Jerry]

Gail. I actually raced through those parts - just like I did the graphic sex bits. Too detailed from my perspective. Evrn racing through those bits I had no trouble following the book or enjoying it for that matter.