I must say,reading this book has been long overdue for quite some time now.I daresay,I totally relished my being "Archer-struck" single-mindedly all over again for the last 2 days..And what a pleasure it had been to get acquainted with some of the memorable literary characters to have ever been crafted!!!William Kane,Abel Rosnovski,Florentyna,Kate,Richard...so many of them in a single book.What else could I ask for with such a literary feast on my platter!! Never enjoyed reading a book sooo much for quite some time now.It brought me back the memories of similar experience of Jeffrey's book I last read,the smart tale of con,Not a Penny More,Not a Penny Less...
'Kane and Abel' is arguably the best work of Jeffrey Archer till date and I find myself more than willing in complying with this assumption.It is a gripping tale spanning about 60 years in the life of two people born on the same day under strikingly contrasting circumstances..It traces the lives of William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski so very different from each other in every facet of life.Nevertheless,their paths were destined to cross and when they did,it was to be a curtain raiser to building a new enmity for life time only to be further complicated by political and family tensions. Abel Rasnovski's display of tremendous strength of character in times ranging from blindly optimistic to utterly hopeless is what appealed to me the most.This 'dumb Pole's' search for a new identity in the wake of WW1 destroying everything he ever seemed to possess including his rightful claim to his barony leads him on a trial of journeys which ultimately lead him to America where he starts off as a worker in a butcher shop to owning about 70 hotels before seeing one built on his own homeland.The Chicago Baron as he is called,never had anything easy at any point of his life ,his birth included while I found Kane's life a little more nice to lead all through what with all the opportunities falling right on his lap...I don't mean to imply that his life was sans any struggle or a simple cakewalk..Its just a matter of a sense of security he had as to what will become of his life be it the prep school he would join,the high school he would study at before securing a place at Harvard like everyone in his family ever did.He belonged to too important a family to lose out on any of these..He had had his share of bittersweet memories in life like losing father in Titanic crisis at an early age of 5 or having to put up with a swindling stepfather later or unexpected demise of a doting mother while he was still in teens or facing a major disappointment when he couldn't step into his late father's shoes as the chairman of Kane and Cabot etc...But all this can in no measure match an obscure and impoverished but intellectually well-gifted Abel's having to be a prisoner of war in his own estate seeing his brother murdered,father broken and dead and a sister molested by brutal soldiers right in front of his young eyes..It is the course of history that shaped Abel's life majorly as compared to Kane who always had a predictable,well-planned road to take at every juncture of life...Its through entirely different spectacle they've each seen the world as they grow up to become important flag-bearers of American rise to being a superpower.
Another lovely character that captivates your imagination is that of young and vivacious Florentyna, 'the prodigal daughter' of Abel Rosnovski and the centre of his world..Then there is Richard,another chip off the Kane block whose love for Florentyna and their eventual elopement to get married only widens the rift between Kane and Abel setting into motion an interesting set of events...
A mind-boggling political potboiler with occasional peeps into boardrooms..Truly,a memorable read it has been!!!
'Kane and Abel' is arguably the best work of Jeffrey Archer till date and I find myself more than willing in complying with this assumption.It is a gripping tale spanning about 60 years in the life of two people born on the same day under strikingly contrasting circumstances..It traces the lives of William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski so very different from each other in every facet of life.Nevertheless,their paths were destined to cross and when they did,it was to be a curtain raiser to building a new enmity for life time only to be further complicated by political and family tensions. Abel Rasnovski's display of tremendous strength of character in times ranging from blindly optimistic to utterly hopeless is what appealed to me the most.This 'dumb Pole's' search for a new identity in the wake of WW1 destroying everything he ever seemed to possess including his rightful claim to his barony leads him on a trial of journeys which ultimately lead him to America where he starts off as a worker in a butcher shop to owning about 70 hotels before seeing one built on his own homeland.The Chicago Baron as he is called,never had anything easy at any point of his life ,his birth included while I found Kane's life a little more nice to lead all through what with all the opportunities falling right on his lap...I don't mean to imply that his life was sans any struggle or a simple cakewalk..Its just a matter of a sense of security he had as to what will become of his life be it the prep school he would join,the high school he would study at before securing a place at Harvard like everyone in his family ever did.He belonged to too important a family to lose out on any of these..He had had his share of bittersweet memories in life like losing father in Titanic crisis at an early age of 5 or having to put up with a swindling stepfather later or unexpected demise of a doting mother while he was still in teens or facing a major disappointment when he couldn't step into his late father's shoes as the chairman of Kane and Cabot etc...But all this can in no measure match an obscure and impoverished but intellectually well-gifted Abel's having to be a prisoner of war in his own estate seeing his brother murdered,father broken and dead and a sister molested by brutal soldiers right in front of his young eyes..It is the course of history that shaped Abel's life majorly as compared to Kane who always had a predictable,well-planned road to take at every juncture of life...Its through entirely different spectacle they've each seen the world as they grow up to become important flag-bearers of American rise to being a superpower.
Another lovely character that captivates your imagination is that of young and vivacious Florentyna, 'the prodigal daughter' of Abel Rosnovski and the centre of his world..Then there is Richard,another chip off the Kane block whose love for Florentyna and their eventual elopement to get married only widens the rift between Kane and Abel setting into motion an interesting set of events...
A mind-boggling political potboiler with occasional peeps into boardrooms..Truly,a memorable read it has been!!!
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