The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1) (Oprah's Book Club)

by Ken Follett

[empressbrooke]

I did not like this book. I finished all 870 pages because I wanted to be a good book club member. If I hadn't had that motivation, I would have dropped it pretty early on. I am going to be very specific with my complaints, so if you're really into the idea of reading this book without being spoiled first (but I really recommend you spend your time reading something else), stop reading now.

The writing is terrible. The prose is simplistic and filled with endless paragraphs of telling-not-showing. The characters are cardboard and mostly stupid. The main villain is sooo villain-y that it's painful. There are no complex antagonists whose humanity you feel all too keenly here à la [a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg]. No, here the main bad guy rapes and pillages and can only get aroused when he's abusing women. And in case you weren't quite sure about where he stands on the Holy Scale Of Goodness Or Badness, the author makes sure he rapes and rapes and rapes again.

Most of the other men in the book, even the "good guys," are particularly terrible. And not in ways that make them complex and interesting and relatable. They are just infuriatingly selfish and obtuse. Tom's wife dies in childbirth and his kids nearly starve to death because he refuses to settle down and work on something reliable but less exciting than his Gloriously Unrealistic Dream Job. Then within hours of his wife dying, he's banging the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Of The Forest who appeared out of nowhere and sat on his boner without preamble. Of course this was written by a man. Aliena's brother and father rope her into serving her brother's own Gloriously Unrealistic Dream Job and she spends the book being walked all over while her brother sits around huffing about how he can't be expected to wipe his own butt, because male reasons.

If it wasn't completely clear that it was a man writing this book, every sex or rape scene contains a rote description of the woman's breasts (almost unfailingly large), and her dark triangle patch of curls. And when I use those specific words, what I mean is that the author used those specific words every time. It feels like [a:Laurell K. Hamilton|9550|Laurell K. Hamilton|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1399387919p2/9550.jpg]'s copy-and-paste sex scenes where you start to wonder if the author has ever actually been around naked people before.

Aliena is actually even more infuriating than the male characters because her whole reason for existing is to get shit all over repeatedly by men, and I think we're supposed to feel vindicated and triumphant when she finally gets to be happy, but seriously, how cliché and tiresome is the whole, "Woman gets raped and then rises above it, isn't that sooo inspiring?" storyline? And then it gets hammered home when she does finally find happiness that while she had been a successful, wealthy, independent, respected businesswoman, she had actually been empty and emotionless and cold because what she really needed was A MAN TO LOVE HER.

How many ridiculous, overdone tropes are we up to now? I've lost track.

I'm sure that someone will defend this tripe and point out what era it takes place in and cite "Historical accuracy!!!" to excuse it. And that's just a cop-out, because historical accuracy doesn't require writing clichéd, wooden prose and characters. The aforementioned [a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg] writes epic, beautiful books that are everything Pillars Of The Earth wants to be. So if you had been planning on reading this and ignored my spoiler warning and are now cursing my name, just go pick up one of GGK's books instead. You'll thank me for helping you dodge a bullet.