eaholtsclaw 's review for:

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

4.0

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Funny enough, I decided to write a review for this book as I embark on "Winter of the World". Ken Follett has a gift of story telling but in an unusual way. His prose is more simple and his writing isn't anything spectacular. However, he manages to take these very complicated political and social times and make them understandable. Where on earth did the Bolshevik revolution come from and why would the Russian people support it? How did WWI get so out of hand? Later, in the 2nd book Follett does a beautiful job setting the stage for how the Nazi party came to power. These are not black and white issues, these things did not happen over night and I think he does a wonderful job allowing the reader to not just get what happened but WHY it happened. It's easy for us to, in retrospect, condemn communism, Russia, Germany and their people but Follett beautifully allows the readers to put aside our historical bias and think through where these roots were formed. I very much enjoyed this approach to historical fiction and it certainly has kept me thinking long after the last page was read.