Paul Roberts

Disclosure: Pillars of the Earth is my favorite book of all time. I really wanted to love The Evening and the Morning as I hoped it would rise to the greatness that I thought Pillars delivered. Although I did find the book interesting, it felt like a lesser version of the same plot as Pillars. Even the characters are surprisingly similar, Jack Builder = Edgar Builder. Aliena = Ragna. Waleran = Wynstan, William = Wigelm, Phillip = Aldred. In Pillars, Follett spends much effort describing the challenges and construction details of building the great catherdral in King’s Bridge but there isn’t much of that in Evening and Morning. Instead he focuses more on the dramatic exploits of the characters and I thought it lost the balance he struck between technical and drama in Pillars. Although I thought Follett did a good job of character development, he stretched things with the extent that Wigelm and Wynstan got away with bullying the other characters. By the end, I found it their deeds going unpunished less believable. I found the storyline quite predictable in places. Bottom line: if you’re interested in middle age life and culture and you haven’t read Pillars, you’ll probably enjoy Evening and Morning. There is a good chance you’ll be disappointed if you’ve already read Pillars. Just one guy’s opinion.