Follett’s characters are extremely one-dimensional.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that once they get identified with a particular cause or philosophy, they remain totally rigid and unable to be at all flexible in their perspectives.\u00c2\u00a0 They seem to be stick figures in a gigantic soap opera and they very quickly become tiresome.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the main characters is an English earl, Lord Fitzherbert, who is mired in his conservative view of the world.\u00c2\u00a0 His German counterpart is Otto von Ulrich who is even more of a conservative dinosaur in his views.\u00c2\u00a0 Lord Fitzherbert reminded me very much of the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey, except for the fact that the Earl of Grantham, while clinging to his old ways, really cares about other individuals and can sometimes be persuaded to alter his views.\u00c2\u00a0 In so doing, he becomes someone that is at least interesting.\u00c2\u00a0 Lord Fitzherbert in Fall of Giants<\/em> has no such endearing qualities, however.\u00c2\u00a0 As I progressed through the book, I found that I was losing interest in the other characters as well because of the same reason.<\/p>\n Follett uses very short sentences in his books in order to make it fairly easy to read.\u00c2\u00a0 This helps to keep it going, but after a while it becomes a bit tedious as there is no variety.<\/p>\n The historical backdrop of the novel, the start of World War I and it’s subsequent impact on the characters, had a lot of potential but it somehow wasn’t connected as well as it could have been.\u00c2\u00a0 An example is the depiction of the war’s ending.\u00c2\u00a0 The scene was a battle at a bridge in France and the Germans’ defeat in that battle.\u00c2\u00a0 In the next few pages the Germans were suing for peace.\u00c2\u00a0 The reasons for the war ending were left very vague.<\/p>\n Also, Winston Churchill was depicted throughout the novel as a warmongering Conservative who was fighting the franchisement of women and all labor reforms.\u00c2\u00a0 No mention was given of Churchill sponsoring the bills to provide national health insurance and a minimum wage for the workers when he was a member of the Liberal Party.<\/p>\n Finally, Follett, in an attempt, I suppose, to pander to the reading public these days, includes many awkward sex scenes throughout the novel.\u00c2\u00a0 These scenes altogether seem to detract from the novel versus adding any real value.<\/p>\n The book was okay to read, but long, long, long.\u00c2\u00a0 I would suggest that Herman Wouk’s Winds of War<\/em> and War and Remembrance<\/em> are some excellent examples of this type of novel where ordinary individuals are swept up by the events associated with war.\u00c2\u00a0 The unsurpassed novel in this genre, however, has to be Boris Pasternak’s masterpiece, Doctor Zhivago.<\/em><\/p>\n Ken Follett has apparently stepped\u00c2\u00a0beyond his capabilities when he bit off this novel.\u00c2\u00a0 I would suggest that he return to writing suspense novels where his talents can readily be applied.<\/p>\n by Ken Follett, 2010, Dutton, published by the Penguin Group, New York This book was a disappointment.\u00c2\u00a0 Follett has attempted to create a great historical trilogy and this is the first book in this effort.\u00c2\u00a0 The book is written in …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15,19],"class_list":["post-1632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-fiction","tag-historical-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1633,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"2](\"https:\/\/www.wilsonld.com\/weblog\/wp-includes\/images\/stars-2-5.gif\" "\\"2")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"