For the past couple of months I have been re-reading Jeffrey Archer’s books – I have been a fan ever since I read “Prodigal daughter” long long back. I stopped reading his books after “Thereby hangs a tale”. Somewhere between “Honour among thieves” and “Thereby hangs a tale” I feel he has either lost that ability to write a page-turner, one-sitting type of books or he has also got a team of ghost writers as the rumour mills suggest. In fact I read “Cat O’nine tales” just when it released and then took a break till Shakun gave me “Thereby hangs a tale”. Both these collections of short stories didn’t get me hooked. So I just stopped getting his books.
The books I have re-read so far are – Kane and Abel, The Prodigal Daughter, Honour among thieves and I am about to read Not a penny more, Not a penny less. According to me, Kane and Abel and the The Prodigal Daughter are close to modern classics. How an immigrant penniless Polish guy lives the American dream is brought out beautifully. Ofcourse, the US is still to elect a woman president so Florentyna’s in the US have to wait .. Maybe Hillary Clinton will break the jinx.
Am sure there are several real life stories of how immigrants have lived the American Dream and made it big, but Kane and Abel makes it into a gripping tale. The tipping of hats as they cross paths when Florentyna’s store opens is just so symbolic and old worldish. The only thing I never liked in The Prodigal Daughter was Richard Kane dying in the road accident – it almost seems as though that was done so Edward and Florentyna could marry… Completely unnecessary !
Honour Among Thieves is also fast paced and you need to track the many different characters. The plot unravels when you read how Saddam Hussein just nails the US Declaration of Independence to the wall because then you realise it could never be the original. Someone would have switched it enroute. Even after the plot is given away the book is still gripping.. A little unreal at times, but life can be unreal as well.
Enjoy reading these books, they are a part of my fiction library always.