Edge of Eternity (The Century Trilogy #3) by Ken Follett

The Century Trilogy
Fall of Giants (78 hats)
Winter of the World (62 hats)

Edge of Eternity is the third book in Ken Follett's brilliant Century Trilogy. Have I listened to almost a hundred hours of these books in (consults spreadsheet) the last month? Yes, yes, I have. 

In the final installment, we whizz through the Cold War, including political events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the building of the Berlin wall, through the counterculture of the 60s, race riots in the streets, the Vietnam War (what do people in Vietnam call it - the war of American aggression?), Reagan, the evolution of rock and roll, and so many other things. We're following descendant of our original families and I just love the glimpses of how things shake out for everyone. 

A note about the narrator of this series, John Lee. I think he does a great job, I really do. He had to do so many accents. But my quibble is the way he narrates American women - woof, it's bad. Apparently even women from New England have southern accents. Oh, well. In general, I thought his narration was fabulous.

Look, I learned more from these books about modern world history than any history class I have ever taken. And I did it gleefully. 5/5 stars

Lines of note:

(timestamp 6:48:12) "We don't have evidence either way," he admitted. "We have to argue from probabilities."
"Or we could delay arming Castro until the position becomes clearer." 

I remember so very little from my time at grad school, but I was thinking about Graham Allison's game theory analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis the entire time I was reading this book. I even remembered Allison's name, which is saying a lot about what an impact this article had on me twenty years ago. 

(timestamp 18:13:05) It had an antique desk and some leather chairs, a fire smoldered in the grate. On the wall was a picture of Lloyd at Cambridge in the 30s. The room was a shrine to everything that was out-of-date. It seemed to smell of obsolesce. 

This made me sad. It sounds like a lovely room to me. 

(timestamp 26:35:42) "Even if he wins, Congress won't let him do anything."

"They'll try to stop him and we'll have a political battle and one side and the other will lose. It's how we change things in the America. It's a lousy system, but all the others are worse."

I don't know about you, but hearing this right now, with two presidential candidates who couldn't be more terrible and a Supreme Court that has been corrupted by political influence made me question if it is the best system. 

(timestamp 29:10:06) Worse, as new revelations about Watergate scandalized the liberal intelligentsia, Nixon's popularity remained strong. Five months after the election, in April 1973, the president's approval rating stood at 60 to 33.

The parallels are just there for us to see.

(timestamp 29:30:40) You draw the friends of your youth large. Then later it's impossible to rescale them when other more important people need to be added. Anyone who has done you wrong is shown too big and so is anyone you love. 

This is an interesting way to look at why my friendships from second grade (HI TABETHA! - she doesn't read my blog) are so important. 

Hat mentions:

28 hats. Quite a huge comedown from the first two books in the trilogy. Caps replaced hats in this one. Lots of hats/scarves/coats and hats, a few top hats, a few pillbox hats (oh, Jackie Kennedy), a trilby, straw, black, and fur hat. But this was the funniest hat section - about someone being inducted into the House of Lords. 

(timestamp 5:32:23) They sat down, then immediately stood up again, they took off their hats and bowed. They sat down and put their hats back on again, then they went through the whole thing again, looking for all the world like three marionettes on strings: stand up, hats off, bow, sit down, hats on. 

*******************

And that's a wrap on Ken Follettpalooza 2024. Or maybe I should listen to the Kingsbridge books on audio next?  

Do you have a random piece of somewhat esoteric knowledge from school (like knowing who Graham Allison is) that you're proud you remember?