Audio Books In Review

by Ken Follett
read by John Lee

I had seen this book on Audible’s 100 Recommended Titles list awhile back and considered getting it then. I saw the movie adaptation of Follett’s Eye of the Needle back in the Eighties and enjoyed it, and his name had stuck with me since then. Also, I had immensely enjoyed the movie adaptation of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose back in the Eighties, which was sort of a Sherlock Holmes mystery set in a monastery…and since this story was in a similar setting, I thought it might be a good read. But the final straw for me was when I visited my friend Diane’s blog (WhatDianesReading.com) and saw that she had it at the top of her Best Books Ever list. So, even though the unabridged version clocked in at about 40 hours, I decided to go for it.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Right from the beginning, I was transported back to the 12th century, where I began to be introduced to a cast of characters who I would get to know very well over the next 40 hours. Tom Builder…a simple,sensitive giant of a man whose one desire in life was to build a magnificent cathedral…Prior Philip, a devout and determined man of principle who ran the community at Kingsbridge…Ellen, a woman who was raised in a family of boys, but who grew up to become a fierce, independent mother, lover and friend…the beautiful Aliena, raped at 16, and who struggled to shake off the horror of that experience for most of her life…William Hamleigh, the evil son-of-an-Earl with seriously sadistic tendencies. All these and those who they loved and with whom they interacted. It’s an epic story.

This book was actually written nearly 20 years ago, but it’s still very popular…selling roughly 100K copies per year in paperback. It’s no surprise to me. This is the kind of book that you want to recommend to your friends. It’s a classic good-vs-evil struggle, but it’s so multi-layered (without becoming complex or convoluted) that it’s unfair to leave it at that.

There’s a heavy dose of religious themes (although Follett himself is an atheist, he handles the topics respectfully and even-handedly), mingled with politics, poverty, and the beauty of architecture. But none of those define the book. It’s still more a love story than anything else. Married love, unmarried love, love of family, love of God, love of art. Really special stuff.

If I had to say one thing that I didn’t care for in the book, it was the explicitness of the sexuality. It might possibly be that the language and terminology was appropriate for the time, but I found it a bit too much…too much detail and too crude. It didn’t ruin the book for me by any means…but if I’d had the ability, I would have dialed it down from an 8 to a 4 in that particular area.

Now, as to the reader: This is the first thing I’ve heard by John Lee. Holy Cow, this guy is good! He’s got such range and such excellent character definition that I was just blown away. I want to hear more of this guy in the future.