Culture Watch
Page Three
WORLD WITHOUT END
by Ken Follett, © 2007
Published by The Penguin Group, hardcover, 1014 pp
This long tale, listed as a sequel to 1989’s longtime best-selling Pillars of the Earth, should satisfy Follett’s fans nicely. The use of the word “sequel” may be a bit misleading, however. Readers eager to follow up on the characters from Pillars may be surprised to find that while World Without End takes place around the same town and cathedral, there is a 200-year interruption between Pillars and this story. Some of the characters in this book are descended from characters in the earlier tale, and the settings (monastery and town) will be familiar, but a next-generation sequel, it is not.
Follett is a master of the huge novel (see pp number). It would be tempting to dismiss him as merely wordy, except that there is little gratuitous filler in this book. He really does keep the story lively and complex, juggling a host of interesting characters within a tight narrative style.
That said, it should be noted that, like his earlier book, this is really the story of a couple of lovers, struggling to reach each other over a long (long) period, despite negative and chaotic circumstances. In Pillars, it was Jack and Aliena. In World Without End, it’s Caris and Merthin. Putting the tale into the framework of the Middle Ages does not disguise the fact that it is basically just a romance. The good guys are very good; the bad guys are incredibly wicked; and somewhere in between are the clueless, rigid defenders of the status quo.
Hollywood should love these novels, although movie makers have probably been daunted by their length. The production challenges for either book, including the building of a cathedral and subsequent collapse of portions of it, would be a small challenge for today’s computer graphics. But a movie that included all those characters and subplots would be mighty hard to fit into a couple of hours.
As in all upbeat romances, the good guys win out, and their ultimate triumph — along with Follett’s sure touch — makes for a very satisfying read. This isn’t great literature. It’s a high-class, feel-good tale, and if that’s your cup of tea, you will love World Without End.
— JS
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