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Title: The Pillars of the Earth
Author: Ken Follett
Publication Info: NAL Trade October 2, 2007
ISBN: 045122213X
Genre: Top 100 Banned Books
Submitted by Heidi
Well, after all the fanfare, I set about reading the book with great enthusiasm and was not disappointed. At the time I was in my late 20’s, a die-hard mystery, detective, espionage reader, having sort of drifted out of romances through college. I mean, wouldn’t night after night being pawed by drunken college fraternity boys in dank, beer-smelling bars put you off romance too?
But this book, with it’s tales of ribaldry and romance…errrr, early English architecture and the feudal system with knights and the monarchy and the CHURCH with all it’s pomp and circumstance, was captivating. It really was. Follett was a master of drawing you into the rich characters and the satisfying storyline. I really enjoyed it. It was so different from what he normally wrote, but it was GREAT!
Okay, the only ooookey part that I hold against it now, since I have nursed 3 children, is that when they deliver the baby at the beginning of the book and then nurse the baby at the mother’s breast—-there would NOT be breast milk there, sorry Ken. Look it up. Milk does not come in until the 3rd day or so. Ask my hungry bruiser babies who chewed my nipples off.
What any person could have against this book PILLARS OF THE EARTH is beyond me. My 84-year old AUNT and 86-year old UNCLE liked it and found nothing insulting about it. My aunt was buying copies for all of her old friends, for crying out loud. Will they ban the bible next because it discusses nudity? I can remember being a child and asking my mother how someone impregnated someone else when I was reading my “children’s bible” and she said the sperm got into the lady and I asked “How, did they crawl across the sheet?” and my mom, paragon of help that she was, just made a vague wave and left the room clutching her side and then I heard her thru the bathroom vent that night guffawing her head off about it with my dad. I never asked her anything again. Thank goodness someone drew that anatomically correct drawing on the back of the stadium bathrooms in 5th grade or I’d never have found out. ~sigh~
You know that there has just been a sequel to this book released! I have been meaning to read Pillars of the Earth for years! This might be just the hurry up that I needed!
Actually, mothers do have a form of milk right after childbirth. It’s called colostrum and sometimes the mammary glands begin to produce it as early as toward the end of the third trimester. In cows and goats, this “first milk” is called beestings (or beastings). Granted, colostrum isn’t regular breast milk but, given that the story takes place in the 12th century, well, the people back then wouldn’t have known the difference. It would still be mother’s milk to them regardless of its color or texture.
Omigod -you made me nearly pee myself laughing with that last paragraph! I read this book about 10 – 12 years ago and really enjoyed it – so much so to go on and read some of Follett’s other books.
I need to get that book. And I’m glad that someone drew you a picture otherwise you wouldn’t understand half of the romance books you read today.
This is one of my favorite books of all time.
I loved this book. Time to dig it out and read it again.
And, yes, it would have been colostrum. I suspect that if he had called it by its proper name, most of the world would have said “Huh?” or quite possibly “Ew”.
Sounds like a good book. I don’t usually even glance at the backs of Follett’s stuff, but maybe I’ll give this a try.
Anyone know on what grounds it was challenged? Mentioning breasts?
This book was one of the first I read that had actual sex(!) in it. I think I was ten, maybe eleven, and I was reading it for the cathedrals…
I just heard he’s written a sequel, though! I’m actually really looking forward to reading it. He went through a bizarre cyber-thriller phase and I’m very glad he’s gone back to historicals.
I have to say thank you for reviewing this book, because I’d never heard of it before, nor read anything by this author. I got it yesterday from the library and am completely absorbed. I can see myself putting this on my “I must have a copy and reread every couple of years” list. Thank you again!
There was sex in Pillars of the Earth? I must have missed that in all the complex descriptions of engineering and architecture.
Seriously, I LOVED this book. When my sister-in-law loaned it to me and said it was about a cathedral that gets built over several generations I was like “Ooooookay, I’ll get around to reading that someday,” and thinking “Like when I’m done reading every cereal box in the cupboard, the fine print on my mortgage, and the instruction manual for the VCR,” but honestly, it was so good I could not put it down. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to ban it. Maybe the depictions of some of the not-so-pious religious authorities?
Yes, there was quite a bit of sex in the book – including some rape, of the heroine. There was also descriptions of the main antagonist raping various women, and how he could only stay erect if the woman was in pain or protesting or resisting. Still, not enough to ban it, I would have thought. Proportionally it didn’t take up much room at all. The scenes were pretty brief though explicit. I really liked the one in which the heroine overcomes the trauma left by her aforementioned rape to enjoy sex for the first time.
I finished it on the weekend, and am so pleased that the sequel has just come out! Thanks again, Heidi.