Pillars is truly an EPIC of historical fiction. This book covers lifetimes and generations of medieval English people and major historical events of 12th century England: the sinking of the White Ship, the anarchy that followed, the Battle of Lincoln (1141), and the assassination of Thomas Becket, among other events. But the focus of the books is not the historical events, it's the lives of the people who were on the periphery of history. We follow Tom Builder and his family at first, and then move onto other characters, all of whom are forced to deal with the evil William Hamleigh, who is just fucking horrible. The book is long. But even though it's about 1,000 pages, I read it in like a week because it was just so damn interesting and readable. I could not put it down.
Maybe the best thing about Pillars is how Follett includes small details about medieval life. These include the fact that bishops had mistresses, although monks were more chaste, or that people kept stones in their fires to pull out and use to rapidly heat small amounts of water or soup. One interesting aside is that sermons were becoming more common in churches in the 12th century, and we see that change happen in the books. Follett also teaches us about how stained glass is cut, using a red-hot rod to trace a line and cause a crack. There are a million more examples of this in the book. The uniting theme of the book is the mission to build a church in Kingsbridge, so the reader learns a ton about architecture and its evolution in the High Middle Ages. People don't realize it, but lots of invention and innovation happened throughout the Middle Ages, and it wasn't just stagnation until the Renaissance.
All in all, this is a highly recommended book.
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