6-14-09 The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett – Fiction

5 – See Dad, I finally read it!  Now I understand why everyone says this is Follett’s best work.  It is, hands down.  The amount of history is amazing, the details of cathedral construction of the time are incredible, and the characters have so much depth it is easy for the reader to become invested in their fates.  The story takes place over a span of years from 1123 – 1174 during the civil wars of England after the death of King Henry I.  The reader sees the main character, Philip, begin as the prior of a small monastery and follows him through his career through his eyes and the eyes of other very well written characters who each have their own stories.  This is simply a masterpiece of fiction.