Edge of Eternity: The Century Trilogy, Book 3

What a splendid way to read the history of my world and time. Ken Follet is a brilliant writer. Recommended.

Like: the variety of characters, the brilliant network of important events, the sweep of history and the ease of storytelling. Bravo.Dislike: too much intrusive sex - but if it sells, I’ll skip the page.Mainly however: what’s missing. You may say my concerns are a drop in the ocean but they bother the hell out of me.Volume 1: I finally learned the messy events and venal attitudes that brought about WW1. Millions died. But what about the Flu? A plague that also decimated Europe. Oh well, not political, I thought.But Volume 2: hardly a mention of Jews, and those couple were devoutly assimilated. One or two: a very realistic British Left-winger in the East End of London and a German girl who had been saved and adopted by non-Jews. Did such rescuing angels exist? Sure. But. No description of the camps. ‘A few hundred’ Jews killed, mentioned somewhere. Wasn’t the realization of the sheer horror of the racism and extermination of 6,000,000 Jews which created the counter-reaction we feel even today, and even before that movement, initially helped the UN agree to the State of Israel (mentioned once ironically : ‘blame the Israelis’.)I asked myself why? Churchill didn’t wage war for the sake of the Jews ( if he had he would have destroyed the railway tracks to the extermination camps) but the lacunae in the narrative are deeply troubling.Volume 3: America v. Communists. Vivid. But Woodstock? Chicago? What else did this author leave out?The novels are brilliant and I learned a lot. But it seems to have a left-wing agenda. That’s ok, many great writers do. But I’m left awful uneasy, folks.

Ken Follett is my favorite author. I’ve read mostly all of his works

The historical novel Edge of Eternity(EOE) by Ken Follett is the final book in a trilogy by Mr. Follett. These three novels, perhaps, Follett’s magnum opus, provide a broad overview of 20th century European and American history beginnings with the start of World War One and ending with the end of the “Cold War” and the collapse of the Soviet Union as signaled by the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. The previous novels of the trilogy were “Fall of the Giants” and “Winter of the World,” which were published respectively in 2010 and 2012. This 20th century history is told through the stories of six family clans originating in Russia, England, Scotland, Germany, Austria and the United States. We follow these families through five generations of personal struggles and triumphs while in the background the major political, economic, and social metamorphoses of that era unfold.EOE starts in 1961 East Germany with the Franck family: Walli and his sister Lili both aspiring musicians and Rebecca who was adopted by the Francks. Because of the family’s progressive views and Walli and Lili’s disposition for western music they are under suspicion of the Satsi, the East German secret police, whose main function is to spy on the general population. This is the same year of the construction of the Berlin Wall. The year 1961 was start of the Freedom rides, a major event in the American Civil Rights Movement. George Jakes an African American who is newly graduated from Harvard Law is a freedom rider. Jakes is the grandson of Lev Peshkov, a Russian gangster who immigrated to the United States early in the 20th century and made a fortune. George, a major character in the novel, is raised by his mother and has had minimal contact with his white father of Russian decent who was a major political force in the US. Throughout the novel George, with a taste for fine things both wine and women, has a career in both the private and public sectors , all the time with a firm dedication to attainment of human rights and social justice through the constitution and laws of the US.In the early 60’s in Russia , twins Dimka and Tanya Dvorkin, George Jake’s distant cousins, are rising stars in Soviet infrastructure. Dimka as a trusted assistant to the General Secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev and Tanya as a reporter for TASS, the Soviet News agency.George Jakes meets Maria Summers during the Freedom Rides of 1961. Maria like George is a recent graduate of a prestigious Law School, the University of Chicago. Maria is also dedicated to social justice and seeks a career in the federal government. George is attracted to Maria but the relationship does not immediately flourish into a romance. During a Freedom Ride in Alabama, George is seriously injured saving Maria from a white mob. Subsequently, George and Maria become very close professionally (but not romantically) as each move on in their respective careers, George initially as one of Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s few black lawyers and Maria in a junior position in President John K. Kennedy’s White House Press Office.The reader is privy to the behind the scenes tensions and negotiations of the Kennedy Administration with respect to its lukewarm support of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King and the push for a “Civil Rights” bill during the early 1960s. The readers also enjoy a candid backstage account of, perhaps, the most frightening world nuclear confrontation of the last 50 years, the “Cuban Missile Crisis.” During this crisis George is a trusted assistant to Bobby Kennedy and is a participate in some of the most strategic meeting of JFK’s administration. In these meeting George is exposed to the hyper connectivity of politics, i.e., the interplay between domestic policy and foreign policy. Follett tells the American story through George at the Department of Justice and Maria at the White House, who has become a paramour of the President.During the Missile Crisis, we are provided an insight into, perhaps, the USSR’s thinking through the eyes of the Dvorkin twins. Dimka is now a senior assistant to Nikita Khrushchev and has a major responsibility in the secret program to ship missiles to Cuba. Follett always develops characters as layered human beings and he communicates Dimka’s humanity through his uncertainties and slight awkwardness regarding his love life which is contra posed against his brilliance and decisiveness with respect to his job as a senior assistant/advisor to Khrushchev. Khrushchev, like Kennedy, has fractions within his Communist Party and there is a constant struggle within between the progressives, those who seek to resolve issues through diplomacy and strategic negotiations, and the conservatives, i.e., those who tend towards military confrontations as a strategy for problem resolution. Dimka as a major player in the drama has to manage the progressive- conservative dynamics.Tanya Dvorkin is on a TASS assignment in Cuba during the Missile Crisis. While there she provides useful information to Dimka as she starts an affair with on a Cuban Colonel in Castro’s revolutionary army. There is a major build up of international tension after JFK announces the Cuban Blockade and the American Military moves to a DEFCON level signaling a status of imminent war. Tanya is amazed by the courage and fearlessness of the Cuban people as they marshaled their resources for war against the United States of America. At the same time, she was appalled by their naivety as the men armed themselves; sometimes “.. lacking guns they carried kitchen knives, meat cleavers in their belts, as if they were going to fight the Americans hand-to-hand..” She recalled that just one US B-52, one of the many, which would come to bomb Cuba if war was declared, carried 70,000 pounds of bombs. What would the kitchen knives and meat cleavers do against that she wondered.George, as Bobby Kennedy’s assistant sits in on executive committee meetings of the National Security Council regarding the Crisis. The reader is given fascinating renditions of “fictionalized” discussions of strategies by such well known US Government Officials of that era such as General Maxwell Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, John McCone, head of the CIA, Dean Rusk, and Robert McNamara members of JKK’s Cabinet. Similarly, the reader is exposed to hypothetical discussions of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the ruling body of the USSR. In addition to Khrushchev, we hear from Soviet leaders of that time such as, foreign minister Andrei Gromyko and defense minister Rodion Malinovsky.During the early 60’s we find that in England the story focus is on the Williams family in particular Evie and Dave as they initiate careers in the arts, with Evie as an actress and Dave as a pop musician. Over the next 40 years both enjoy careers of enormous success. The roads to their successes are not linear, particularly for Dave, who, as a young man, must overcome some learning challenges. He moves to the US and there he has an opportunity to explore some African American culture through its music and a brief tryst with an African American soul singer. Jasper Murray, who the Williams family takes in, also winds up in America. Jasper is very ambitious and without conscious while he becomes a well-known journalist and controversial television star.Brother and sister Cam and Beep Dewar who are the grandchildren of Gus Dewar a major character in the earlier books represent the Dewars, the only family that in the Follett trilogy originates in America. These are children of American political aristocracy , they had both a grandfather and great grandfather who were US senators. The social and political paths of Cam and Beep will take diametrically different directions throughout the almost 40 years of the novel. Cam in college becomes a “Young Republican” Nixon loving conservative and spends his life working to defeat communism with a career in the CIA . His sister Beep goes to UC – Berkeley and adopts the political philosophy of the so-called hippie culture of the 60’s.Follett is consistent in drawing parallels to oppression regardless of which side of the “Iron Curtain” it may fall. For example, he notes police power abuses in East Europe in particular East Germany, as well as, British Northern Ireland, America’s deep South and the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Through Follett’s fictional characters, the reader is exposed to the details of several major factual seminal events of the last half of the century such as: The Freedom Rides; Berlin Wall; Cuban Missile Crisis; Birmingham Civil Rights Campaign; the assignations of the Kennedys, Dr. King and Malcolm X; Vietnam, Watergate, Russia’s desperate attempt to crush the Czech reform movement and stem the political decline of the USSR with 1968 Czechoslovakia invasion; to name just a few of the events covered in EOE.Throughout the novel the Dvorkin twins Dimka and Tanya are dedicated communist and lovers of their country. But they are also “progressives” and feel that the Russian people will never achieve full greatness and potential under the yoke of a heavy-handed centrally controlled communist infrastructure. Therefore, secretly and with great risk, Tanya works surreptitiously to support freedom of expression and openness. She has a life long relationship with a brilliant dissident writer and helps to secretly to have his literature published in the western press. Dimka works inside the government for progressive change and towards the end of the novel he is a trusted assistant to Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev and becomes a major player in the implementation of Gorbachev's policies of glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("restructuring"). These policies are major factors in USA /USSR rapprochement and the ending of the Cold War.Follett allows the reader to observe the unfolding of the major events of the 20th century through the lives of these complex and diverse families. In EOE we have the personal dramas of these characters as they go through the human journey of ambition, love, devotedness, sex, infidelity, marriage, divorce, birth, death, and renaissance. In addition to being a great storyteller, Follett is also a historical researcher and has been known to expend prodigious resources researching the topics of which he writes. The research needed for this book is quite formidable and it could serve as an addendum text for a formal 20th century history course. At the end of the book he cites the academics, politicians and others who were consulted during the research for the novel. I think that Follett provides enough background such that one could read EOE with first reading the prior two novels of the trilogy. But to do so would deprive the reader of an exciting journey through the mega transformational events of the last hundred years.

More like 3.5 stars, but oh well...I'll round down. For reasons you'll see.Early last year (2013), I found "Fall of Giants" at my used bookstore. I'd tried Follett before and could never really seem to get into his books or enjoy him much, but for some reason, I picked up the battered and used copy (spending like $3 on it) and instantly fell in love with the story, the characters and the historical setting. I think I read that entire book in something like 5 days. I immediately went out and bought "Winter of the World", and while it wasn't quite as good as the previous installment, it was still enjoyable and I couldn't really complain. Now, we have reached the conclusion of this sprawling epic with "Edge of Eternity" and even though this was the least impressive (albeit longest) of the bunch, one still has to hand it to Follett for being able to keep a nearly 3,000 page story going and at such a fairly brisk pace (one book every 2 years...George R. R. Martin, are you listening? It can be done).Like the preceding 2 novels before it, "Eternity" does very well in roping the reader in. I'm a huge fan of horror and thrillers, so I generally don't read a lot of historical fiction, yet, this entire trilogy was ridiculously entertaining (as a whole). I think thats because Follett's vision was achieved with tremendous success and the way he was able to interweave 5 or 6 different families over a century should definitely be applauded. The story lines continue to branch out further (like a family tree, pardon the pun), and still, there aren't any conflicting genealogical mistakes or problems. Obviously the author is either very good at remembering his past characters or he has a very good editor on his payroll. Whatever the reason, the continuity is flawless.I think one should also give a lot of credit to Follett for staying on track with a lot of the important events of the past. Oh sure, he misses a lot (and I'll get to that later, if you decide to keep reading this review), but over a hundred years of history, he hit on many: WWI, WWII, communism, the cuban missile crisis, politics, the Berlin Wall. They are all there, and many more I even forgot to mention.Now that was more of a praise of the overall series, but how does "Eternity", as a stand alone, really stack up in my book?Like I said previously, it's probably my least favorite of the 3. Now, I get that Follett covers a lot more ground in this one. 40+ years, rather than 10 or so, and I'll give him a little bit of lee-way in that matter. Regardless, he focused on too few things during that time frame. Vietnam was mentioned and touched on for about 10 pages, which works out to what? 1% of this book? (And wasn't 'Nam almost 20 years of fighting?). There's a rocket on the cover denoting the "space race" but I never saw even one mention of that. Yes, one of the characters goes and lives in San Fran during the late 60's and the hippies are hinted at, although there isn't much of a story there. What about the '72 Olympic massacre in Munich? Or the Afghan/Russian war (especially considering that Russia takes up at least a third of this story). Nope. None of those things are even slightly mentioned while all of those things swayed the course of history almost as much as Vietnam and the fall of communism.Instead, what I felt, was that Follett decided to focus on everything that made liberals look good and conservatives bad. I get that many authors do this in their work, and hey, it's a free country, so by all means do it, however when you're writing a novel, based on history, you need to get things down as fact and not try and sway readers to your own political views. I'm not the first person to notice this either. How many times did Follett make basically ALL white Republican Southerners look like racists? How often did he try and skip over the disastrous years of democratic presidents (most notably the Carter administration and making sure we were very aware of Ford's pardoning of Nixon) alternatively dwelling on Nixon's illegal activities, and Reagan's shortcomings with Iran-Contra. I could have tried to overlook that because, yes, it is true Nixon screwed up, and Reagan made a few mistakes (what president hasn't?) but when Follett used the word "racist and murderer" to Reagan's name (never really talking about the incredible economy the US had under his administration, or the fear he caused in our enemies, or being one of the most important people responsible for the fall of the Berlin wall), well, then, I had to face the fact that the author is really a fan of socialism and more concerned with letting that political spin come out in his writing. Or trying to fit in as much sex as possible. It's just too bad that it mares what could have been a very good book.Still, though, I have to give credit where credit is due; Follett can certainly write an engaging series. As a whole, this trilogy is worth reading as it's obvious there was a lot of time and research put into it and it does do a very good job of making history exciting and fun. Overall, I think missing out on these 3 books would be a missed opportunity, especially for history buffs. Just don't take everything he says seriously, and do a little bit of research on your own for this last one.

Un gran autor, me mantiene entretenido todo el libro.

Gostei da trama, dos personagens reais e fictícios. Fez-me relembrar de acontecimentos como o caso Watergate, os assassinatos de John Kenedy, de Bob Kenedy, de Martim Luther King. A Perestroika, a construção e a queda do muro de Berlim. Fez-me penetrar no contexto histórico desses acontecimentos, suas causas e consequências. Conhecimento das virtudes e defeitos dos personagens históricos envolvidos nos principais acontecimentos do século XX. Enfim, uma grande riqueza cultural, além de uma história envolvente.

I did not know that in a trilogy I could cover first world war, second war, cold war. The rise and fall of the iron curtain. The death of Martin Luther King and Kennedy. The substance and style of various presidents of the USA and the USSR. And all these not like a history book. But like living it. I didn't know history and fiction could be so idelibly intertwined. I owe to Mr Ken Follet for writing this Trilogy.

Excellent detail, characters and history brought to love. Loved thos book. What a shame we now have Trump or nearly again and bojo now Rishi we are out of the EU ( old I may be but always a remainer and Labour, how I wish we still had Jeremy Corbin.) The world is now so divided, unequal, greedy and cruel. I worry for my grandkids. TYE best we can do is as much as we can to make the world a decent place. Thank you for an excellent read.

Encore un chef d’œuvre de Ken Follett qui nous fait réviser notre histoire contemporaine de façon amène en dosant parfaitement la romance avec l’intrigue et la documentation historique.Hautement recommandable comme toujours.