The Spire / William Golding

   Here is where I admit that I have never read The Lord of the Flies and while I always have good intentions to read it, they never come to fruition and I always opt for something else. However, now that I have experienced William Golding's work, I might have to put some actual oomph into my reading plans and finally pick it up. The man is an excellent storyteller.

   As I said in my last post, I finished reading No Country For Old Men while I was out camping. The only other book I brought was a Dostoyevsky, and I was not feeling up to it. Apparently I'm learning to bring two books, but not to bring a second book that I'm going to want to read at that moment. Since we were driving into Banff anyways, I wheedled a library visit and pored over their for-sale shelves. As any frequent library book buyer will tell you, library sale shelves can be remarkably hit and miss. Maybe they will hold one thousand gems of literature, maybe you will have to force yourself to read obscure sci-fi (which might turn out to be good, you never know). This time the pickings were slim, but we came across this little number and even though it had no synopsis on the back and I didn't flip it open and read a couple pages, I bought it. It was a dollar. The name "William Golding" was enough of a book-value guarantee to go on.

   The Spire is about the building of a 400 ft tower/spire on top of a cathedral with no foundations to speak of that was originally built on very marshy ground. Dean Jocelin has been dreaming of this building project for years and years, and now it is finally coming to fruition. However, the book is also about religious hubris and, to a lesser extent, corruption in the medieval church (and I thought Dostoyevsky was going to be too heavy. HA). Jocelin continues to force the project even as his own health, relationships, congregation, and sanity crumble. Reading this feels like going crazy right along with Dean Jocelin. AND, as it turns out, its written about Salisbury Cathedral and the cathedral does indeed lack any significant foundations and the pillars inside do indeed bend. WHO KNEW?? (All the Salisbury parishioners, people who have visited, and those with more cathedral knowledge than I). The spire still stands today, but is only able to because of some extensive renovations and suppourt. Also, for some reason I thought that Ken Follet's The Pillars of the Earth was about the original building of the Salisbury Cathedral, but it's not. It's about a fictional cathedral. 

   I know that the second you read "religious hubris" you flipped out and ordered The Spire on the interwebz and are now eagerly awaiting its arrival, but I will still end this post with a recommendation. Well done, Mr Golding. Well done.