KANE AND ABEL - Jeffrey Archer

-


This is one of my earliest reads. It was in my early teens when I’d considered myself ready for serious novels and this was the book recommended to me by a lot of people. And now I can actually understand why! Although it is not my personal Jeffrey Archer favourite, it definitely is among the top few. The best part of the book according to me is the fact that though it is comparatively voluminous, it does not for one moment feel repetitive. There is so much story crammed in those 550 odd pages that it easily maintains its pace throughout.

Even though, obviously, I couldn’t relate to the storyline, being born much after the book came out and in a totally different part of the world, there is a sense of realness in the story. The plot, the circumstances and the consequences appear to be completely plausible.

The diversity captured by the book is clear in the very first instance when Jeffrey Archer starts with the birth of two kids, one the son of a rich and powerful banker in Boston and another an orphan adopted by a poor Polish family after his mother is found dying by the road. However, Archer develops both these characters equally beautifully, along with the others who come into their lives. While Abel endures hardship, tragedy and oppression and finally manages to immigrate to America and build a successful hotel chain, Kane takes full advantage of his birthright and receives the finest education and becomes the leader of one of America's oldest and most powerful banks, albeit suffering a series of tragedies of his own. Although their lives run parallel as they establish their careers, there are moments when their lives intersect. Eventually, they confront each other in a business situation that ends up affecting both their lives forever and leaves them with just one goal in their lives: to destroy each other. As the conflict unfolds between them for the bulk of their adult lives, both are stunned to find that the biggest price ends up being paid by those they love the most.

However, sometimes it felt like too much importance was given to finance and banking, and business transactions between the two. That sort of deviated from the main plot of the story. Also at times some chapters become so long that you forget what was happening in the other character’s life. But there were other chapters which were so compelling that you didn’t want to leave that character’s story.

Partly responsible for the success of this book is the point that never has he favoured any of the two protagonists. Although I did tend to like one more than the other at different times in their lives, altogether, they are both shown in shades of grey. They are both not completely justified for all their actions, but totally understandable. My take: this is definitely one of those books you cannot afford to not read!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

JAYA - Devdutt Pattanaik

-
Image
JAYA An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata There's something about the biggest epic of the world that makes people come back to it time and again. Mahabharata is probably the most retold story in the world; and deservedly so. Of all the stories I've read of the characters of this legendary epic, this version by Devdutt Pattanaik has got to be one of the most detailed and thought-out ones. There's been neither the humanizing of the demigods of the tale, nor any attempt to make the story more realistic. He has presented the same story in all its beauty, keeping all its strengths and flaws alike. Almost everyone is familiar with the story of the Mahabharata. This book is written as a flashback; as Astika, king of the Nagas and Vaisampayana, guardian of Vyasa's great tale, tell Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit, the grandson of the Pandava, Arjun, the story of his forefathers just before he was about to perform the Sarpa Sattra, a sacrificial ritual...
Read more

THE SONGSEEKERS -Saswati Sengupta

-
Image
With its  subversive feminist thrust and persistent questioning of what constitutes religion, tradition and  culture, Saswati Sengupta's debut novel  The Song Seekers is sure to strike a chord. It is a poignant exploration of the lives of women in Indian society transcending time and space. Weaved around mystery and laced with beautiful poems throughout, this makes for a perfect unputdownable read.  Set in the turbulent 1960s in Bengal, the novel revolves around the life of newly wed Uma, an  English Literature graduate from Miranda House, as she steps into the threshold of her marital home  Kailash, the ancestral mansion of the highly reputed Chattopadhyay family of Calcutta. Even as she  tries to find her footing in a new, unfamiliar world, Uma is intrigued by the shadows that seem to  linger in the sprawling mansion; her husband’s silence about his mother’s death, the presence of the  enigmatic green-eyed Pishi, a few old letters ...
Read more

BORN A CRIME - Trevor Noah

-
Image
BORN A CRIME Stories from a South African Childhood Born A Crime is Trevor Noah narrating his own story- about his life in South Africa under apartheid to the country’s lurching entry into a post-apartheid era in the 1990s. In essence, the book is a lesson of the inequities of the past and a warning for what is still possible to happen again in our world. But it isn’t heavy-handed; it’s fun, insightful, and very compelling. Not contrary to his Daily Show monologues, the book is filled with humor and biting social commentary. The title of the book was the first thing that intrigued me. For those also curious, he explains early on in the book-  “On February 20, 1984, my mother checked into Hillbrow Hospital for a scheduled C-section delivery. Estranged from her family, pregnant by a man she could not be seen with in public, she was alone. The doctors took her up to the delivery room, cut open her belly, and reached in and pulled out a half-white, half-black child...
Read more