Pillars of the Earth

Slowly but surely I'm reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Its almost 1,000 pages long). The time period is medieval England when the great churches were being built. So far a builder has been going from town to town looking for work. Along the way his pregnant wife died during childbirth and the child was left to a monastery to be raised. Tom the Builder still has not found work, but he continues to search. There's also some drama with the monks in the various monasteries - that story is just developing. A friend recommended this book, but I'm not sure what I think of it yet.