Archer hits the target with 'Only Time Will Tell'

Only Time Will Tell
Jeffrey Archer
Pan Macmillan
388 pages
Rs325

After his success with Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer’s always fallen a bit short when trying to outdo himself. He managed to deliver an Archer-ish thriller or short stories collection every now and then, but nothing as extraordinary as Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less or Kane And Abel. His newest venture — a series of five books about the life of one man over 100 years — is his attempt to put the past to rest.

Only Time Will Tell chronicles the first 20-odd years of Harry Clifton's life starting in 1920. Harry grew up at the docks, where his father worked before disappearing mysteriously. But what Harry doesn’t know is that the docker wasn’t really his father.

In a Great Expectations-like twist, Harry’s benefactors conspire to help him get into a boarding school so he can rise above his lot.
In school, Harry makes friends with the more privileged.

His best friend, Giles Barrington, is the son of the man who owns the docks where Harry’s father worked. He sails through school, even as his mother struggles to pay for it. And just as he earns a place at Oxford, war breaks out and Harry has to make a choice.

What’s more interesting than the plot is the way the story is told. Divided in seven sections, each part starts with a first-person account documenting the points of view of various characters — first Harry’s, and then his mum’s, followed by his real father’s, and so on. The narrative then shifts to the third person.

Each perspective tells the same story differently and then takes the plot forward. 
 

Only Time Will Tell makes for an interesting read in terms of story and storytelling. If Archer can keep up this style of storytelling, the next book will be worth the one-year wait, especially since it starts with a new chapter in Harry’s life — after World War II.