Hehe, dumb title eh? I couldn’t think of anything else.
Well I am not an Archer fan and when I read one of his novels (my first), first among equals I was pissed, really pissed coz I couldn’t continue more than the first 10 pages, I was so confused and found myself lost into lala land.
Anyways, a long long time later, while searching in my grand father’s books (he has a lot of them on varied subjects) I found this book, Sons Of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer, an unbidden image of a boring long story popped up into my mind.
However, since I didn’t have anything else to do, I took the book and started reading it. It was wonderful. Kept me hooked, really hooked. I wouldn’t say that JA beats Sheldon (Sheldon is one of my favs) but Archer’s this novel doesn’t fall short of the standards I wud expect from a Sheldon novel.
The way two bros are separated at birth and then come again together later, is really good, (if you are thinking of the serial stories like Kahin To Hoga, by the soap queen Kekta Kapoor, you can forget it, that sounds like yuck, in front of this novel, they have little in common) The story spans two, actually three genrations of homo sapiens (again, dont think of those stupid serial jumps, where the serial forwards twenty years on a boring saturday and lo behold, we have an entire new cast of actors (and actresses) dragging the story forward) no, this story moves at a good pace, not too fast and not too slow either.
Starting with Michael Carwright, his love marriage, their children Peter and Nathniel (Nat), Peter is separated and sent off to another richie-rich family, The Davenports, with his mother Ruth Davenport and Robert Davenport, who was the vice president in the firm of Ruth’s father, Josia Preston, a pharmaceutical venture. she has just had her third (or maybe second) mis-carriage, after which the doctor, a Dr. Greenwood tells her that now (the third or fourth) baby (yeah she gets pregnant again, in america, it dusnt matter if u have a baby at 40, ppl celebrate all the same, no offence meant) is her last chance and after that she should consider adoption.
However at the time of considering the err adoption, she gets the news that she is pregnant again. (the author points out himself that he shouldn’t be considering this prospective....but who cares) So she goes down to the hospital (which is Preston’s, ofcourse) where the Dr. musters the best obstretics team and delivers a baby boy. However, during the night, sadly, it dies. The nanny, A Ms. Heather Nickol, exchanges the baby with one of the Cartwright twins (Peter, if u must know) and hence, Peter lands up with the Davenports.
Time passes on.......and both are sent to different schools, one to Hotkiss and other to Taft. and so they grow up with their best friends, Jimmy Gates (son of a very famous and popular Senator Harry Gates) and Tom Russel (son of Mr. Bill Russel, owner of the biggest bank in Hartford, Russel’s bank). By the way, Nat’s father is an insurance agent and his mother is a teacher at the local Hartford Elementary.
They both fall in love (yeah with the same girl), and don’t go anywhere, Nat ends up putting his hand into his love’s sister’s (Tricia) skirt (deliberately) and is cobbled by her older brother. Peter (or as he is called, Fletcher Andrew Davenport) ends up loving his best friend’s sister, (Annie, yeah they get married later). A short time later at UConn, Nat falls in love, but he has already been to a war operation, helping his nation, and winning the Medal Of Honour.
Nat falls in love with Su Ling, daughter of a laundry-woman, (her mother, Su Kai Peng, was a prostitute on the streets of Seoul, Korea) Su Ling means little flower. After several hurdles, these two get married to the love of their lives and hence ends the second generation too (they have their own babies, u c)
Well...now this is about the first generation, if you are piked about the rest of the story (how do the two meet, etc), go read the novel guys...its quite nice, or else JA will have a case against me for revealing and non-selling of his bestseller (sarcasm).:D