by Bob S.
I was reading Follett back when he wasn’t the powerhouse he is now with his Pillars of the Earth. That’s not to say that he wasn’t well-known or respected, but everything gets blown up nowadays and his latest book has caused quite a sensation and rightly so.
Let’s go back to the beginning. My first Follett book was The Key to Rebecca, a wonderful “anyone can read this novel” type book. The first sentence: “The last camel collapsed at noon.” Rebecca is a suspense thriller and probably his best novel. It truly is a page-turner in every sense.
Set during WWII, the book opens with Rommel winning his battles. The Nazis are about to invade Cairo and the Brits are getting prepared to be wiped out. Most of the novel circles around the Nazis and while you’d think that theme would get old, this is maybe the best treatment book-wise I’ve come across. What is so spellbinding about this book is that it incorporates Daphne Du Maurier’s novel Rebecca and is also filled with sex, lies, spies, and history. The book is like Da Vinci Code should have been.
Fast-forward to his latest works: Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. Both are equally fantastic, Pillars being complete different from his Key to Rebecca and other spy novels. The book is set in 12th –century England and centers around three men and the building of a cathedral. These three men are central to the story and how they interact is fascinating to watch over the decades. Follett hasn’t lost his ability to create tension, and while this may not be a spy novel, it’s every bit as “edge of your seat” good. Here’s what Library Journal had to say about it:
A radical departure from Follett's novels of international suspense and intrigue, this chronicles the vicissitudes of a prior, his master builder, and their community as they struggle to build a cathedral and protect themselves during the tumultuous 12th century, when the empress Maud and Stephen are fighting for the crown of England after the death of Henry I. The plot is less tightly controlled than those in Follett's contemporary works, and despite the wealth of historical detail, especially concerning architecture and construction, much of the language as well as the psychology of the characters and their relationships remains firmly rooted in the 20th century. This will appeal more to lovers of exciting adventure stories than true devotees of historical fiction.
Other reviews:
"A novel of majesty and power...Will hold you, fascinate you, surround you." --Chicago Sun-Times "
A towering tale...There's murder, arson, treachery, torture, love, and lust...A good time can be had by all." --New York Daily News
"Touches all human emotions...truly a novel to get lost in." --Cosmopolitan
World Without End is equally as good, though again, totally different.
Book description:
World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own.
This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroad of new ideas--about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race--the Black Death.
Three years in the writing, and nearly eighteen years since its predecessor, World Without End breathes new life into the epic historical novel and once again shows that Ken Follett is a masterful author writing at the top of his craft.
Here are a list of Follett’s works:
World Without End
Whiteout
Hornet Flight
Jackdaws
Code to Zero
The Hammer of Eden
The Third Twin
A Place Called Freedom
A Dangerous Fortune
Night Over Water
The Pillars of the Earth
Lie Down With Lions
On Wings of Eagles
The Man from St. Petersburg
Triple
The Eye of the Needle
Paper Money
The Modigliani Scandal
Bio:
Ken Follett was born in Cardiff, Wales, on the 5th of June, 1949. His father was a tax inspector, and "now that he has retired, he does my tax returns for me". Like many young couples bringing up a family in post-war Britain, Martin Follett and his wife Veenie were not able to provide their children with many luxuries. From a very early age, Ken was creating imaginary worlds for himself.
"My mother told me stories all the time. I don't know whether I inherited it from her or just acquired it under her influence, but by the time I was seven years old I was an imaginative child."
Ken was also reading from a very young age. His parents were devout born-again Christians and would not allow their children to watch television or go to the cinema, and Ken found his escape in books. "With no TV or radio, and no Saturday morning pictures which all the other kids used to go to, reading was my entertainment. I didn't have many books of my own and I've always been grateful for the public library. Without free books I would not have become a voracious reader, and if you are not a reader you are not a writer."
Ken's family moved from Cardiff to London when he was ten years old, and since then he has spent most of his life in London, he speaks with a North London, rather than a Cardiff accent; "I think of myself as a Welsh Londoner".
At school, Ken was bored and badly behaved until the age of 13, but he admits that, "when I got interested in girls, school suddenly became much more fun." Around the same time he began to study seriously, and by revising harder than any of his classmates, he started to come top of the class, and continued to do well into university.
Ken Follett is married to Barbara Follett, the Member of Parliament for Stevenage in Hertfordshire. They live in a rambling rectory in Stevenage, 30 miles north of London, with two Labrador retrievers called Custard and Bess. They also have an eighteenth-century town house in London and a holiday home in Antigua. Ken Follett is a lover of Shakespeare, and is often to be seen at performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. An enthusiastic amateur musician, he plays bass guitar in a band called Damn Right I Got the Blues.
He was Chair of the National Year of Reading 1998-99, a British government initiative to raise literacy levels. He is president of the The Dyslexia Institute, Chair of the advisory committee of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) UK, a council member of the National Literacy Trust, a member of The Welsh Academy, a board director of the National Academy of Writing, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is active in numerous Stevenage charities and is Chair of Governors of Roebuck Primary School.
He became a reporter, first with his home-town newspaper the South Wales Echo and later with the London Evening News. While working on the Evening News he wrote his first novel, which was published but did not become a bestseller. He then went to work for a small London publishing house, Everest Books, eventually becoming Deputy Managing Director. He continued to write novels in his spare time. Eye of the Needle was his eleventh book, and his first success. Around 100 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide.
No comments:
Post a Comment