My first Archer book and I’m already a great admirer of his! But then again, if Archer write books like this, then who wouldn’t be his fan ?? I don’t think this book lacked anything. From suspense to mystery to vengeance, thriller, romance, guilt, greed - it had everything!!
Written in 1971, it is the story of two characters, William Kane and Abel Rosnovski (known as Wladek in the earlier part of the book) and their struggle for power and success in life. The story spans over about sixty years and how both these men, with their own ambitions and dreams and successes, slowly end up destroying each other.
The Story
William Kane and Abel Rosnovski have nothing in common, except that they are born on the same day and on totally opposite sides of the world.
William Lowell Kane is born in prosperity, in the rich and powerful Kane family. His father is the chairman of the Kane and Cabot Bank. William proves to be very intelligent in his school and later, at Harvard. His father dies at the Titanic incident and William becomes the heir of Kane and Cabot Bank. His mother marries Henry Osborne, whom William hates very much. For this reason, William spends most of his time at Matthew Lester’s (his best friend) house. He dreams of becoming the Chairman of Matthew’s father’s bank one day. Henry turns out to be interested only in gambling, women and spending Anne’s (William’s mother) money. He finishes all her money while Anne dies giving birth to her child. William throws Henry out of his house.
Abel Rosnovski is born in a forest and is brought up by a family living there. The family names him Wladek. When he grows up, some guy named Baron Rosnovski asks him to join his son Leon in his castle because of his intelligence. Abel ( Wladek ) sets out for the castle with his sister, Florentyna. When World War 1 breaks out, the Germans attack Poland and imprison the Baron and all the people of the castle, inside the castle. The Germans torture the prisoners and soon Leon dies at their hands. Before dying, the Baron gives Wladek a silver band and Wladek realizes that he is the Baron’s son when he discovers that the Baron also has a missing nipple, similar to him. Soon after, even Florentyna is killed by the soldiers and Wladek is left with no family.
Wladek is then moved to Siberia. After spending some time there, he escapes to Turkey with the advice of a doctor, among the prisoners. He then migrates to America, where he starts a new life as a waiter in some hotel. It is during this period that he acquires the name Abel Rosnovski.
Meanwhile, William, after finishing his education, fails to become the chairman of his father’s bank. He gets married to Kate, a woman he had met and fallen in love with. Soon after, his friend Matthew Lester dies and following hid death, Charles Lester also dies. To the surprise of everyone (including the people who worked in the Lester bank), Charles Lester mentions in his will that he wants William Kane to be the next chairman of Lester’s bank. And thus, William fulfills his dream of becoming the chairman of Lester’s bank.
Series of events lead to Abel becoming the manager of the flagship hotels of the Richmond Group of Hotels, owned by David Leroy. Abel proves to be a very capable manager and becomes very close to Davis Leroy. During the Great Depression, Davis Leroy commits suicide when he fails to find a backer for his hotels. When Abel finds out that it was Kane and Cabot Bank which did not back the hotels, he immediately tries to seek revenge. The bank then gets him an anonymous backer.
Thus begins Kane and Abel’s rivalry, a fight for defeating the other, a fight in which the other’s loss mattered more than the self’s gain. Both of them try to destroy the other in this race to gain success and supreme power. Sadly, this whole feud starts with a misunderstanding which is revealed in the last few pages of the book.
William begets two daughters, Virginia and Lucy and one son named Richard who happens to meet Florentyna ( Abel’s daughter ) and they fall in love. Going against their parents (well, basically their fathers), they run off and get married. It must be noted here that they both had tried to talk their fathers into the marriage, but had failed due to their intense hatred for each other.
Richard and Florentyna give birth to a son named William Abel Kane and in the end, though William agrees to meet his son and grandson, he dies before seeing them. Soon after, Abel also dies but not before knowing that the anonymous backer who had helped him earlier, was no one other than William Kane.
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Overall, this book is magnificent. I had the feeling of ’wow’ when I turned the last page of the book. Every single thing about this book was perfect - the story, the characters, the whole situation. I mean, everything in this book had the simplicity of real life and still I found this book to be one of the most extraordinary books I’ve ever read.
The characters are so influential and you immediately develop the feeling of hatred or love for them. They start to haunt and obsess you and their every move fascinates you. It was difficult to even put down this book while eating meals.
The story was brilliant and though it didn’t have much twists and turns like a mystery book, it was enough to keep me attached to the book at all times. I’ve already spoken about the characters so I won’t write about them anymore. Another wonderful thing about the book was that, Archer manages to display the human emotions in such a wonderful way. Greed, jealousy, vengeance, hatred, pain, loss, gain and love. It was as if you could feel the same emotions along with the concerned characters.
All in all, I couldn’t find any fault in this book. It is a long read ( 550 pages ) but each and every page is worth reading. So, to anyone who reads this review, I highly recommend this book and I’m sure that Kane and Abel’s story won’t fail to fascinate you.