Bestselling author Jeffrey Archer returns with a powerful tale of twins separated by fate and reunited by desitiny. It is Hartford, Connecticut, in the late 1940's, and a set of twins is separated at birth by a desperate nurse. Nat Cartwright goes home with his parents, a schoolteacher and an insurance salesman. But his twin brother is to begin his days as Fletcher Andrew Davenport, son of a wealthy CEO and his society wife. During the years that follow, the two brothers grow up unaware of each other's existence. Nat leaves college at the University of Connecticut to serve in Vietnam. Returning a war hero, he finishes school and goes on to become a successful bank executive. Fletcher, meanwhile, has graduated from Yale University and distinguishes himself as a criminal defense lawyer before he is elected a senator. As their lives unfold, both men are confronted with tragedy and betrayal, loss and hardship, all the time overcoming life's obstacles to become the men they are destined to be. In the tradition of Jeffrey Archer's most popular books, SONS OF FORTUNE is as much a chronicle of a nation in transition as it is the story of the making of these two men - and how, eventually, they come to find each other...
From Publishers Weekly
Veteran novelist and British politician Archer (Kane and Abel) is currently serving a prison sentence for perjury, so readers can perhaps forgive him if this latest effort falls short of his usual standard. The implausibly plotted novel follows fraternal twin boys separated at birth by a bizarre set of circumstances. Nat Cartwright and Fletcher Davenport are born in Hartford, Conn., in the early 1950s. A meddlesome nurse sends them home with different families. Nat is raised in a lower-middle-class household, attends the University of Connecticut, serves heroically in Vietnam and goes into banking. Fletcher, the wealthy Yalie, becomes a lawyer and a politician. The men are repeatedly thrown into competition with each other, whether for admission to college or in their professional lives, their rivalry culminating when they both run for governor of their home state. The characters are too thin, and their respective worlds too littered with clich‚s, to offer a satisfying portrait of the baby boomer generation. Contrived plot twists offer little distraction, while the dialogue sometimes reads like a set of photo captions-information without emotion. "When you think about it, they are the obvious predator," says Nat about a takeover threat. "Fairchild's is the largest bank in the state; seventy-one branches with almost no serious rivals." Archer is usually a skillful storyteller, but he drops the ball here.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.In Hartford, Connecticut, during the early 1950s, twin boys are separated at birth. Fletcher and Nat attend competing colleges, fall for the same girl, and have best friends who are the sons of movers and shakers. In the 1960s, Nat is drafted and becomes a hero in Vietnam, while Fletcher goes into law. By the 1990s, Nat's an affluent banker, and Fletcher's a politico on the rise; then, inevitably, their paths come together. Archer's long-anticipated new novel is sure to garner loads of publicity, but much of it may have little to do with the quality of the book: the former Olympic athlete and fabulously wealthy novelist, once a member of the British House of Lords, is currently serving a four-year prison sentence for perjury. Is the novel good? It's actually pretty standard stuff from Archer, author of such best-sellers as
The Fourth Estate (1996): broad-stroke character portraits painted on a large canvas, a two-dimensional but somehow compelling saga of ambition and destiny. Fans will be quite pleased, while his critics will note all the usual deficiencies, among them a largely wooden supporting cast and dialogue that is often ludicrous. In a nutshell: a typically slick, well-written, but shallow novel that will benefit from the author's notoriety.
David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.Review
"one of the top ten storytellers in the world." --"Los Angeles Times"
"Archer is a master entertainer." --"Time"
"Archer plots with skill, and keeps you turning the pages." --"The Boston Globe"
"Cunning plots, silken style . . . Archer plays a cat-and-mouse game with the reader." --"The New York Times"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Jeffrey Archer, whose bestselling novels span from Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less to Kane and Abel and The Eleventh Commandment, has sold over 120 million books throughout the world. The author is married with two children.
