As the crow flies- Jeffrey Archer

Dreams have no end and when you are willing to push the bar the entire universe conspires to fulfill your dream. Welcome to the world of “Charlie Trumper and Becky Trumper (a.k.a Rebecca Salmon)” and their Trumper Retail Empire. Jeffrey Archer’s 1991 epic tale of ambition, betrayal, deceit and passion, “As the crow flies” is a reader’s delight. This tale which travels sixty years in length takes us from one decade into other with what I would refer to as “the ultimate fiction format” and what takes this work into another level of Archer’s work is its narration and characterizations.

Apart from the entire span of the story and events, what really impressed me was that every chapter started with the first person point of view of a character post which it very smoothly moved into the third person narrative format. What this does is that it gives you an idea of the internal thinking and feelings of majority of characters from their own perspective. A great narrative!

Characters maketh a story and a story maketh a book. The range of characters would surely take us back into time.  With characters such as “Charlie, Becky, Daphne, Daniel Trumper and Cathy Ross” you are surely bound to fall into love within the pages of this book. But what would stand out would surely be the shrewd or shall I say the antagonists of this book. “Guy Trentham and Mrs. Trentham” are perhaps Archer’s most dark and shrewd characters. They will surely make you hate them like never before. Mrs Trentham’s Cruelty will surely make other book’s grey characters look too soft. The antagonist characters of most of the Archer’s books stand out. But my view is that, Mrs Trentham stands out when compared to all other Archer books because she strikes with secret acts and elaborate planning. (Except “The Clifton Chronicles” which I have not read but have come to know that “Sir Hugo Barrington” to be the writing world’s most venomous villains. Interesting)

What makes this book special is also the fact that Charlie and Becky’s relation has been woven very carefully. Everything is slow and steady which gives the reader time to enjoy the small affections and leg pulling in between them. Britain during those years surely was a different place altogether. Surely, Archer has given the socio economic and cultural background a change in the narrative, but still it comes out very well. You enjoy the settings, especially the fact that major part of the brand building of the Trumper takes place in “Chelsea”.

Archer never holds back from sending his protagonist to a War which would take place during the timeline of the story.  Even Charlie Trumper has to go the War. This aspect of a story often takes me back to many of his other books, whether it is “Kane and Abel, The Fourth Estate, First among Equals, Sons of Fortune, the Eleventh commandment etc.”

An astonishingly great read combined with ever memorable characters and events with which you would surely fall in love. Though “Kane and Abel” is considered as Archer’s best work, according to me “As the crow flies” is no less!