Bookcase Antics

Kane & Abel is one of my very favorite books. I love this story of two men who were born on the same day, at opposite ends of the world. Their only similarity is their birth date. Abel Rosnovski (born Wladek Koskiewicz) is born in Slonim Poland. His mother dies during in child birth and he is found by the trapper’s son who takes him home. The Koskiewicz family takes him in even though they are extremely poor.

At the opposite side of the world, Boston Massachusetts, William Lowell Kane, is born on the same day. William is born into one of Boston’s oldest, richest families. His father, and his grandfather before him, were bankers. There are no concerns in the Kane family about how they will afford to feed another person in their household.

The story follows each of their lives in alternate chapters.

Wladek leaves the family cottage at a young age to live with Baron Rosnovski and his son, as a play mate and fellow student for the son. While he is living there war breaks out and Wladek and the others that live at the castle are detained in the dungeon for years. Eventually when there are only a few of them left they are taken to a prison camp where the conditions are even worse than living in the dungeon. Eventually he escapes and makes his way to America.

Throughout this time William is gaining an excellent education and becoming somewhat of an entrepreneur in his quest to obtain as much money as possible. William’s father dies when he is young and this spurs him on to want to achieve everything his father did and then more. It is when he is working at the family owned bank that he first officially meets Abel Rosnovski (as he changed his name to when he arrived in America). Their first contact with each other does not go well. Abel is attempting to convince William to have his bank back the hotels that Abel owns but William will not agree. Abel becomes convinced that it is William’s fault that his best friend and co-owner of the hotels had committed suicide. This misunderstanding is one that will affect the rest of their lives, and in fact their children’s lives.

The book goes on to follow their lives, and their interactions. Abel makes it is life’s work to try to destroy William.

I highly recommend this book. I head read and re-read it.

The only negative are a couple of inconsistencies. I wouldn’t normally point these out but it sets the tone for the review I am going to be doing of the book “Shall we tell the president” which purports to be the third book in this series, which is full of inconsistencies and errors.

On page 44 it says “It was a terrible blow for Richard and Anne, who themselves had both been only children, largely as a result of their respective father’s premature deaths”. But on the same page it also says “Richard, who had taken over as the president of Kane and Cabot Bank and Trust Company when his father died in 1904…”. Surely if Richard was only enough to take over the bank he had to have at least been in his 20’s or 30’s. If his parents were to have children then they would have had them within years of each other. Thus the fact that Richard’s father died when he was on his 20’s or 30’s would make little difference as to whether his parents had more children.

On page 85 in relation to Wladek’s injured leg (at the prison camp) it says “There was little Doctor Dubien could do in the absence of any real medical supplies…”. This seems to be a contradiction to the sentence on page 86 when the doctor at the prison camp tells Wladek “I have already arranged with the senior cook that in exchange for some drugs…”

Even with these small inconsistencies the book is fantastic. I have probably only noticed them because I love this book so much and have ready it so many times.