Customer Reviews

The Sons of Adam (LARGE PRINT)

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This is a novel about big dreams and the price paid for achieving them. It brings to life two men (Matt Damian and Ben Aflack should star in the movie), the search for oil in Iran and America, the WWI trenches on the Somme (I felt transported there), love, honesty and redemption.
It begins slowly with the mens childhood. This part, which is slightly boring, couldn't have been moved to the middle of the work as some kind of flashback because of other necessary divisions in the novel. Perhaps some further historical details would make it more interesting. From there the story picks up a real head of steam. I like stories which tell you something about the times, give insight into deep feelings and still tell an exciting adventure yarn.

Bingham's third novel does not disappoint and like his first The Money Makers is a sheer masterpiece of literature. This book is also two and a half to three times the size of your average novel so is also excellent value for money. Like his two previous novels this one is also a great motivator, inspiring you to go out there and make money or at least achieve your dreams.

This is the first Bingham novel to be a period piece. It starts off in 1893 with the journey set over the next fifty years or so spanning the two world wars, depression and everything else in between. The wealthy Adam Montague's wife is giving birth to his second son as is by pure coincidence the wife of his gardener. Unfortunately the gardener's son Tom is not an easy birth and with Tom's sister pleading for help at the Montague house she is told by Adam's oldest son Guy that the doctor will be by shortly. Of course Guy sees no reason why their family doctor should assist the help, tells no one and goes to bed leaving Tom's mother to die a painful death. Wracked with guilt the Montagues discipline Guy, adopt Tom and raise him alongside their new son Alan as if they were twins. The boys are inseparable but not Guy, he sees Tom as the enemy.

As the years go by it becomes apparent to Tom that he will not in fact get the same privileges when he is older that the biological boys will. His promise of a Persian oilfield is taken away from him by Adam and events in World War I highlight the divide so much that he decides to have nothing to do with the Montagues. Nothing however will stop him from achieving his dream of being an oil baron. This also becomes Alan's dream and nothing will stop him either. There can be only one oil king and sparks will fly.

Sensational novel. If you haven't read The Money Makers buy it now. Sweet Talking Money although not quite the masterpiece of this book and The Moneymakers is also brilliant. Get it too.