(5) = Best; (4) = Better; (3) = Good; (2) = Fair; (1) = OK
These abstracts serve as reminders to myself; they serve to "jog" my memory on what a book was all about. That's all. This is not a literary critique, not a social commentary, and certainly nothing profound to warrant further discussion.
(5) = means that I really enjoyed this book; (1) = means I finished reading it but wonder if my time could have been better spent elsewhere.
This novel is wonderful. It is over one thousand pages!
Follett immerses you into the lives of the characters. You are there with them, and you just can’t put the book down leaving them in their distress or love making! I read “Pillars of the Earth” more than 20 years ago. “World Without End” is a sequel to Pillars of the Earth.
Two hundred years have passed and we find ourselves in the same community. Again, the cathedral and the priory are at the center of “a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge.” We follow the lives of three children whose lives are tied together as adults.
To paraphrase the book jacket, “One brother (Merthin) will travel the world but come home in the end; the other (Ralph) will be a powerful, corrupt nobleman. One girl (Caris) will defy the might of the medieval church; the other (Gwenda) will pursue an impossible love. And always they will live under the long shadow of the unexplained killing they witnessed on a fateful childhood day.” (Track Brother Thomas)
Caris is our beautiful, outspoken heroine. She manages her father’s woolen business successfully and she struggles mightily with the limited role of women (our first feminist). She does not want to be a “slave to babies,” does not want to be property to a man; she wants to be a medical doctor, but that role is limited to males. A perennial theological skeptic, she does not want to be a Nun, but eventually winds up as Mother Caris, the leader in charge of the Priory. She eventually marries her childhood love (Merthin) but only after years of uncertainty and a release from her vows when she became a nun. But, how did she achieve all that? You’d have to read the book!
The story also tracks Merthin. The oldest of two brothers. Merthin was apprenticed to Elfric to learn the carpentry trade, while Ralph, the younger brother, was made a Squire to the Earl of Shiring.
Elfric was an incompetent, but he had power over Merthin. Only six months remained in his six year apprenticeship and Merthin can hardly wait. His plans to “graduate” was foiled when Elfric’s daughter accuses Merthin of being the father of her soon to be born child. Elfric kicks Merthin out. Drops him as an Apprentice when he refuses to marry Griselda. So Merthin was faced with a real dilemma. Later research reveals that Merthin was innocent, but the damage had already been done. Elfric refuses to approve his Apprenticeship.
Merthin is a able to visualized completed projects and has the problem solving skills needed in the trade. He eventually winds up in Spain where he acquires additional architectural skills. Merthin has loved Caris ever since he met her when he was just ten years old. He and Caris were deeply in love but given her attitude towards marriage the relationship was at best tenuous, and when Caris entered the Priory and took on her vows of chastity, Merthin leaves and eventually marries Sylvia in Spain. But, we are jumping way ahead on the story.
Interesting towns: Kingsbridge to Wieleigh (20 miles).
Interesting characters: Godwyn, Prior of the Cathedral in Kingsbridge. Prior Philip was Prior of the Cathedral two hundred years ago (Pillars of the Earth). Brother Timothy wrote the history of the Cathedral. The architect of the Cathedral was Jack, the StepSon to Tom Builder. Jack married Lady Aliena and fathered a dynasty of earls of Shiring. Jack was the ancestor of Merthin Fitzgerald, who inherited the genes and skills as architect from Jack. Timothy’s book even mentioned Jack’s red hair which had been inherited by Sir Gerald and Merthin…not Ralph, however.
I started this book several years ago. Read up to the time Reacher was arrested for AWOL when he returned from Paris after seeing his dying mother. I recalled events leading up to that part of the book when I stopped. This time I continued reading to the last page! It was great.
I remember why I didn’t finish it the first time around. The plot was complicated. You’d have to stick to it in order to follow events. We don’t know why his boss, General Garber, is transferred to Korea suddenly, and why this “asshole” of a General took his place. We don’t know why Reacher and a number of MPs at his level is transferred out of Panama back to statewide military installations; we don’t know why soldiers are being killed and why one of the victims had accused Reacher of abusing civilians. Reacher contacts the network of Military Police Officers who are his friends and they help him.
It all has to do with a group of leaders of this special Armored Division who had a secret meeting, and the Two Star General who was head of this Division was found dead in a seedy motel where his murderers made his death look like a heart attack. The General’s briefcase was found, but the Agenda for their meeting was missing. We know it contains the clue for why he was killed. But everyone who was to be a participant at this meeting lies and says there was no Agenda. Reacher and his friends refuses to believe them. The army never holds a conference without an Agenda!
A Sargeant Carbone is mysteriously killed on base and made to look like he was gay. The General’s wife is mysteriously killed. Reacher had all he can do to trace the killings and figure out what the motive was. General Willard, the incompetent bureaucrat who replaced Garber, wants Reacher to gloss over the peculiar circumstance of the General’s death and simply say that he had a heart attack. Willard wants Reacher to avoid the scandal of having a gay soldier in the military and not describe how he was killed. We learn that Sgt. Carbone had officially written a complaint against Reacher for beating up some civilians in town. Willard implies that Reacher might have killed Carbone in retaliation. Reacher ignores Willard’s requests and orders. So, we know he is in trouble with the higher up chain of command.
The story comes to a close in a climatic chase on a tank practice firing range where Reacher is almost killed. He figures out who the killer is and who the co-conspirators are, and since they are superior officers, he needs “hard” evidence. When he approaches the superior officers and charges them for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice they agree without dissent. Hmm…Reacher says to himself. This is too easy. Why didn’t they put up a fight? He concludes they misunderstood him, and thought he was talking about some other crime they were guilty of. There is a cute Lieutenant Sommer throughout the investigation who helps Jack Reacher, of course, and she and Reacher eventually make love, but that’s a mere distraction from the main theme. They find the Agenda which provides all the hard evidence Reacher needs to vindicate himself. He asks Sommers to take the evidence to the Pentagon and to the JAC corp. s.. She is later promoted to the rank of Captain.
We’re near the end of the story now… You’d have to read to the end to figure out what happened!
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