“Kane and Abel” by Jeffrey Archer – A very bad version of an ancient Greek tragedy
A depressing, repulsive and disgusting novel. Once I shake off these feelings, I’ll try to write a review. I will discuss the two main characters, mostly due to the fact that everyone else died as soon as they appeared.
Abel Roznowski. The poor boy who works his way through life with a lot of hard work. Right there Abel had lost me, but he didn’t even try to win me over after that. His suffering in Poland, Russia and Turkey in no way evoked emotion, only nausea. The mature version of the protagonist unsurprisingly turned out to be completely superficial and unlikable. He had a desperate need to prove himself both professionally and personally. While his path of social advancement was completely uninteresting, his love life was rather disgusting. He married an ordinary girl and then complained about her being… ordinary. He diversified the ridiculousness of his marriage with a bunch of meaningless affairs.
When he wasn’t busy showing his complexes, Abel was busy getting revenge on William. Getting revenge for what – I totally understand, in case you forgot. According to Abel, William was to blame for Davis Leroy’s death because his bank wouldn’t lend him money. In other words, Abel blamed William for doing his job. William actually did much more – he had done his job properly as a director of the bank and then invested in the hotels out of his own money (which Abel didn’t know about). But even if he hadn’t, Abel still had no right to blame him. Banks have no obligation to financially cover any businessman who went bankrupt in 1929 just because he might commit suicide.
In his fight against William, Abel had one unbeatable weapon – the pitifulness of the other characters in the book. Without people like Henry Osborne and Jake Thomas, he would never have been able to win. Once he found a worthless person, Abel would either take them as an ally or take them to his bed (depending on gender).
William Lowell Kane. In such a book, William unquestionably wins the title of best character. Yes, he was plain and boring. But at no point was he pathetic.
His relationship with Kate exceeded all expectations. After all, such a relationship filled with devotion, respect and support is unattainable for 99% of people. His friendship with Matthew was also genuine. He only decided he had to be a jerk with his son, but that’s just the way he is.
William decided to play dirty one single time. And it can’t even be counted since he was just defending himself. When a rat insistently tries to bite you, you have to squash it to survive.
The author had followed the old rule: If you have a worthy character, let the nobodies humiliate him. I hope there’s no doubt that Lesters was William’s bank. The fact that he had to be kicked out of there like a stray dog just because a worm had hovered over the board shows exactly where the members of that board stand in the food chain.
Since William was much more decent than Abel, his end had to be much more humiliating. He was the first to decide to get even with his son and so he did not get the chance. He should have been sick and feeble. And also to come off as the ” loser”.
About Richard and Florentina’s marriage, I’ll just say: seriously? I thought I was reading a thriller, not watching a soap opera.
The book has been described as a novel about an irreconcilable feud between two great men. I saw a lack of feuding for 30-40 years. First, they had no real reason to have an enmity. Abel’s motive for hating William was imaginary. And William’s was that Abel hated him. The two saw each other a total of two times and talked about four times. When the time for action drew near, Abel would say “It’s too soon yet,” and William would decide it was right to wait for the other’s move.
In Ancient Greek Tragedy, just like here, all the characters make mistakes just because they do not know the truth throughout the book. But there, at least, they figure it out in the end and commit suicide. Here Abel only found out about the investment after William was dead and it did not make a difference. He did not understand anything else. Neither of them knew that Abel had saved William’s life. Meaningless drama is just as superficial and unnecessary as meaningless happiness.
P.S.: This is a plot that was done better even in the Bible.
