Rating: 
Summary: The best book I have ever read...and I've read a lot
Review: All of Archer's books are great but this is absolutely unique. As soon as you start reading it, you get this terrible urge to finish it. You can't eat, sleep or work before you're in the end. So you could say it's dangerous - rest of your life just stops. The worst thing about the book is that when you've done with it, you feel like you have lost one of your friends!!
Rating:
Summary: ambitiously ambitious
Review: Truly, one of my all-time favorites. I would buy a copy for all my friends if I could afford it. Could not put the book down
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books ever..you will not put it down!!
Review: Jeffrey Archer is one of the best writers.. just when you think it can't get any better, it does. Archer is a master story teller. Kane & Able is one of the best books I have ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, slow ending
Review: Kane & Abel is the story of two men born in the same day, thousands of miles apart. One is extremely rich, the other has a childhood of poverty, emprisionment and doubts. They meet in America under special circumstances, ans their lives will never be the same again. The beggining of the book is very good and well written, in a psychological way, to say the least. Archer is able to show the reader the early life of William and Wladek using a system that alternates chapters between his two main characters. However, after they meet, the story seems to get a little too futile, each character trying only to destroy the other's life. I thought this was very shallow. And the fact that their children get together is a punch-line so beaten that I can only understand that it was Archer's hook to write another novel, "The prodigal daughter". William and Abel got old too quickly, and the final quarter of the book, where they are older men, has too many events, poorly dealt with. Also, the ending was unsattisfatory, but again I must suppose that he was already thinking about the sequel when he wrote the final passages of "Kane & Abel". I rate this book four stars for the early chapters.
Rating:
Summary: Explore The Human Condition
Review: One of the things that I love about reading a novel is that it is a chance to visit another community, or life, without actually going there. "Kane & Able" is a story that captures the dramatic lives of 2 men who were born on the same day, in 1906, from 2 completely different socioeconomics. William Kane was born into wealth. He was stubborn, haughty and all the "attributes" associated with someone who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Baron Able Rosnovski, an immigrant from Poland, was determined, creative and willing to do whatever it takes to never live the impoverished life that he was born into. Both of these men eventually and repeatedly crossed paths, in business. And they desperately try to outwit one another, at a heavy expense to all around them. As I read this book, I kept wanting to say, "Look in your heart," because each man was so busy trying to outdo the other that they loss sight of what matters, until the end. Although this book has 477 pages, you will read it faster than a book that is one third its size, because Mr. Archer has developed the characters so well --- you will feel like you are looking at an IMAX movie.
Rating:
Summary: IT FELT REAL
Review: THIS BOOK WAS SO GRIPPING AND WELL WOVEN THAT I GOT LOST IN TERMS OF SPACE AND TIME AND COULDNT KEEP IT OFF MY EYES TILL THE TIME I FINISHED IT .KANE AND ABEL ,BOTH THE CHARACHTERS ARE SO BEAUTIFULLY DESCRIBED THAT I REALLY FELT AS IF THEY REALLY EXIST,THERE STRUGGLES, THERE LIFES,THERE LOVE, THE WAR ,THE RIVALERY ,THE DIFFERENT ERAS OF THERE LIVES FROM BIRTH TILL OLD AGE,THERE OFFSPRINGS AND THERE LIFES.ITS ALL SO EXQUISITLY WRITTEN THAT I RARELY FOUND A BOOK MATCHING THIS BOOK.ALL IN ALL A MUST READ MASTER PIECE BY ARCHER
Rating:
Summary: Good to the very Middle!
Review: After hearing such rave reviews, I had to go out and pick this up and I must say I was thoroughly entertained and anxious to see how Kane and Abel would make out in the end. But, the more I read, the more I realized that I enjoyed the account of young Kane and Abel more than I did their adult lives.
Rating:
Summary: A real page turner
Review: The story revolves around two men who are born on the same day in two different parts of the world . . . but destiny makes them each other's worst enemies. One born in poverty stricken Poland the other the son of a Bostonian millionaire. The epic story revolves around the struggle of both men to make it to the top on their own terms. The number of times these two men's paths cross, unbeknownst to them, are amazing. The characters are richly drawn. It is a real page turner and you will not want to put it down. The saving grace of finding this book "late"is that the sequel, `Prodigal Daughter', as almost as good as the first! Alas the re-tooling of `Shall We Tell the President?' as book three in the series did not fair as well. Like many of Archers books it is well worth reading again!
Rating:
Summary: strong start, weak finish
Review: the first three-quarters of the book were fantastic. the last quarter, the book seems to fall apart with predictable plot twists and never ending cliches. nevertheless, the book is a fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Initially interesting, but disappoints
Review: I had no initial expectations of the book. The great writing and plot in the first two-thirds of the book created high hopes that left me disappointed with the conclusion.
Kane and Abel's rise to success is emotional and interesting, with a series of shrewd business decisions that may please fans of The Apprentice. The characters are well-developed, and until this point they drive the plot.
However, as the book finishes, it appears as if the characters also realized they needed to wrap it up, and the pace changes quickly. A series of events, intenteded to be jarring but failing due to their predictable foreshadowing, left me unfulfilled. Another dissappointment was the portrayal of the rivalry, which was unnecessarily and impossibly fierce given the nature of the claimed offence. Without going into details, both characters overreacted to what was a standard business transaction, and clearly one without any intended malice. In fact, the characters sympathized with each other, but "deliberately" and frustratingly failed to find a common ground. I say deliberately because it seems the characters were forced into this rivalry in order to further the plot and satisfy the book's title.
This caused confusion for family members, and this reader. From this point on it seemed the characters changed their behavior to satisfy the plot, and certain cliched plot twists left me rolling my eyes.
I did enjoy the novel and it was a good companion on a long plane ride. I do not regret purchasing the book, hence the four stars, but the concluding chapters that are most fresh in my mind left me disappointed. On the bright side, it has shown a glimpse of how satisfying a good novel can be, inspiring me to seek out other gems of the past.
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