A popular book amongst readers, the popular opinion is that this book brought Archer out of the short story typecast and catapulted him into the league of novelists. His earlier works had been critically acclaimed and ’’Kane and Abel’’ was a kind of final nail in the coffin. This one has everything: Drama, Politics, Family, Hatred, Betrayal, Distrust you name it. In fact evangelists might very well use this book to preach the Seven Deadly Sins - Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth!!
The story revolves around two people, William Lowell Kane & Wladek Koskiewicz (later renamed Baron Abel Rosnovski) born on the same date, with different lives yet running along a parallel. Their paths cross many times, until finally fate brings them face-to-face. A misunderstanding (which, incidentally, I didn’t think to be of the astronomic proportion he claims it is) makes them bitter and then we find the epic saga of The Bible revisited - twins(on account of the same date of birth!) - pitted against each other by a cruel twist of fate with enormous hatred for each other! The twain do meet. And when they do, boy, do sparks fly!! Archer scripts the hatred so well that you begin to actually feel like taking a stand, until something jolts you back to reality.
Quite a gripping novel, though not essentially a page turner, ’’Kane and Abel’’ searches many highs and lows, goes off track at times, comes back again to pack a killer punch at the end. The character exploration is pretty solid in spite of the fact that it tends to be a give away at time for minute readers. The novel loses momentum midway but regains it towards the end to some face-saving extent. Avid readers of Archer may find it easier to guess the end quite easily-the regular ’’Archer-shocker’’. All in all makes for an interesting read in train journeys.
Recommended - Borrow rather than Buy...