THE KENTS

Somehow this lacks the emotional power of A Mighty Fortress. One never grows to care profoundly about any of the characters, though one is sincerely interested, and perhaps a little resentful of the arbitrary termination put to one career. A two generation story in which the obsession to (1) make money and buy freedom, and (2) make good for the old firm -- succeed in wrecking two marriages. A number of false trails lead one to expect more than one gets. The most interesting part of the book -- to me, at least -- was the picture of the Wall Street of frenzied manipulations of Civil War days.