Rating: 
Summary: Not Just a "Trial" Story
Review: After Presumed Innocent I found Burden of Proof and Pleading Guilty both burdensome to get through and guilty of verbosity. The Laws of our Fathers peaked my interest, though, and I gave Turow another try. I think I found his best one yet! A quick-paced easy reading thriller this is not. While the book is typically long, Turow has written much more than a "trial" story in "Laws..." He examines the causes people become involved in, both early and later in their lives, moving effectively between the present (1995) and the late '60's, early 70's. Starting with a murder of a white woman, June Eddgar, in a "drive-by" in a black neighborhood, the book traces the major characters back to what and who they were 25 years earlier. The dead woman's son, Nile, is accused of planning his mother's murder. If anything seems coincidental, it's that the people who play a part in the ensuing trial can all be traced back to the college campus where June's husband Lloyell was a revolutionary professor of theology and befriended college students Michael Frain, Seth Weismann, Sonny Klonsky, and Hobie, a black friend of Seth. Seth is now a journalist covering the trial; Sonny is the judge presiding over the case, and Hobie is Nile's defense lawyer. Flashing back and forth from the present to the late '60's, Turow develops his characters by showing us as much about who they were and what causes they worked for back then, as by showing us who they have become. One thing is clear: each person is a product of his/her life 25 years earlier. This fact holds true even for Nile, who was but a very young child during the years in which his parents worked to further radical causes, at times at the expense of their attention to Nile. We are, according to Turow, a product of the social issues and times in which we live. How do we tend to the larger issues in life while maintaining stability within our own family structures? Do we live our lives in order to carry out what we have been taught to be "the laws of our fathers"? Or do we live to overcome the damage done by the laws by which our fathers lived? Are the laws by which we live today true to those we lived by in our youth? This is a provocative novel, especially for those of us who lived through our own college years during the times of social and political unrest that were the late 60's. An excellent book!
Rating: 
Summary: Watch 'Thirty-something" reruns instead
Review: My wife warned me. She said not to waste my time but having loved all of Turow's previous novels I sallied forth anyway. Being a child of the 60's, I was intrigued by the book's premise.How do children of that time cope with adult life? All I got was a bunch of whining similar to the recent series Thirtysomething except not as interesting. This book is too long, there is not enough story, and has unsympathetic characters. Unless your literary forte is characterization only, don't waste your time with this book.How can someone who wrote something as fresh as Presumed Innocent produce this drivel? If you want to gove Turow a try, try any of his earlier works! This one will scare you away from him permanently!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Drivel about people who miss the 60's
Review: Attracted by Turow's other legal thrillers, I undertook this massive tome with optimism. His technique was to alternate chapters about a current, intriguing murder case, and flashbacks to the main characters' life in the 60's - they have miraculously all been reunited in the current courtroom drama. I found myself bored to tears about the flashbacks, awaiting the legal case to resume. If you miss the 60's and the campus unrest of the time, you may enjoy this. I found myself bored and irritated with almost all the characters; I kept waiting for something profound to be revealed, but it never happened. Skip it.
Rating:
Summary: Great first impression of Scott Turow
Review: "The laws of our fathers" is at times a very challenging book to read, as the point of view shifts both back and forth in time, but also from the perspective of the two main characters; Seth and Sonny. This completely unorthodox method of storytelling does indeed take the reader by surprise, however, once the the reader has gotten use to it, one can start to enjoy the books brilliance. The paths of former couple, Seth and Sonny, cross during the trial of the murder of a senators wife. The defendant: Nile Eddgar, the son of the senator and the murdered wife. Sonny is the presiding judge, while Seth is a journalist covering the trail. Turow somehow manages to tell us the story of Seth and Sonny as a couple back in the late sixtees and early seventees, their professional relationship twentyfive years later and the thrilling trail of who killed, and why, the wife of senator Loyell Eddgar. "The laws of our fathers" provide no good-looking superheros who save the day and ride into the sundown, thank God, but portrays ordinary people with believable thoughts and problems who struggle to make sense the world they live in - the same world we all sometimes find hard to understand. Highly recomended by yours truely.
Rating: 
Summary: Some parts gripping, some parts off-putting
Review: There is a great 600 page thriller hiding inside the 800 pages of The Laws of Our Fathers. Specifically, I'd suggest losing the last 100 pages and most of the first 100. The central account of the trial is powerful and gripping, and the flashbacks to the sixties are well done as well. The characters, as is usual with Turow, are deep and interesting. But there are LONG detours into what I found to be excessive tangential and background material. This happens on and off throughout, but most of this is concentrated into the last 100 pages of the book, by which time you've already had the climax wrap-up of not one but -both- main plot lines, and you're thinking "and now why do I have to go through ANOTHER 100 pages?" No good reason presents itself (from a thriller reader's point of view) just a lot of wallowing around in characters' minds. I have no argument with those who say Turow (or probably more accurately, this book) "isn't for everyone", or that the book has touches of "literature" as opposed to simply mystery/thriller (One of the editorial review clips called Turow the "thinking man's John Grisham" which gave me a chuckle). But first of all I'd take exception with the view that the "literary" elements were exceptionally well executed, because they do have a tendency to bring an otherwise gripping plot to a grinding halt. And secondly I think it's fair to warn readers looking for a mystery/thriller (even a deep complex one) that it will take 100 pages or so before you start getting what you paid for. I enjoyed this book, but you should go into it with eyes open.
Rating:
Summary: 1970's drama
Review: This book spends more time flashing back to the 60's and 70's than about the current subject of the book. It's apparent that Turow decided he needed to create more history for the characters in his books, and made up some time in this The Laws of our Fathers. I struggled with this one and I hope it's his worst. The character development was way too deep and I found myself skimming pages.
Rating:
Summary: Letter to the author
Review: It is unbelievable that I have just discovered you, a fateful trip to the
supermarket and a weekend of laundry stretching in front of me, I decided to
treat myself to a paperback instead of going to the library.
I just finished the Laws of Our Fathers, and I am moved to share. It is truly wonderful and I cannot wait to read the rest of your work. I
will drop it off to one of my old professors ( Bible as Litt) to get his
take on the story of Abraham and Issiac. I truly felt alone in class when I
said he was a madman and questioned Issiac's reaction and further wondered
about that long trip back down the mountain. I loved everything about this book, the history, the complete picture of
each character and the recognition of great literature of the past. I
identified with each character and with your insights into the fragility of
the human psyche. Amazing.. you are the writer I have been waiting to read my whole life. Thank you, Michelle Wendt
Rating:
Summary: Not up to his usual standard
Review: Turow is an excellent writer. His stories are much more detailed and better plotted than others like Grisham who rely on a set formula. You don't know what you will get with a Turow book other than quality writing. That said, this book is one of his poorer efforts. Obviously he is more interested in characters here with the plot used as a method to bring out their traits, good/bad points, and worldview. However, this book goes on too long in trying to build each character. The story revolves around a murder trial and characters that just happened to interact around the turbulent Vietnam era before they interact in their new roles related to the trial. The trial presents the opportunity to present detailed character studies of the key individuals. However, there are key problems here. First, the end of the trial seems to be the end of the book as well. That attitude is not helped by a long, drawn out pointless post burial reception for many of the characters. It may not be pointless to Turow who is continuing to establish his characters' traits but to this reader the characters are long past the need to embellish. Following the reception we finally learn more about the background of the trial - why/how the murder occurred and what it says about several other characters in this dual story. The post funeral reception appears to be a lengthy, still pointless set up to establishing this background. Again, there was no need for some of the character development present in the reception to get to this point. Finally, the end is a real let down. First, the text of a "love" letter from one character to another is presented. Neither the character who writes the letter nor the recepient seem to be deserving of this chance they are given by the author to bring them together. This is especially true in the case of the recepient who seems to deserve punishment for things he did rather than the reward of winning back a lost love. At the same time, neither seem right for the other. The contents of the letter avoid any real emotion and appear to be only another way of establishing a character except now in an unrealistic manner. Second, the texts of two eulogies from the funeral are presented in another attempt to establish character but fail miserably. What do they now tell us about each that a perceptive reader could not have determined by this point? They read like anything but a eulogy - each are more like an explanation for a life. Not the life of the deceased but the life of each speaker. A good book and "can't put it down" read until the last 150 pages or so. Turow should have stopped with a good story when he had the chance.
Rating:
Summary: A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT
Review: After reading such novels as PLEADING GUILTY and BURDEN OF PROOF, I was looking forward to reading the next installment. But, this novel was was of a lesser quality: flatter characters, not as much pacing and, just an overall lesser sense of emotional resonance. Note that this was after reading about 40 pages, but, my feeling is: if a book can't hold me after 40 pages, it isn't worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: An ambitious attempt
Review: I read this book after reading Robert B. Parker's recent BACK STORY, and this book definitely benefits from the comparison. It's Turow's take on the 1960s that gripped me. Where Parker's take on the late 1960s and early 1970s is smug, judgemental and wholly unsympathetic, Turow manages to be both romantic and honest. Loyell Eddgar is at the center of both major plots -- the murder in the 90s and the radicalism of the 60s -- and he personifies the worst of "The Revolution." A blowhard and a narcissist, he exploited issues like civil rights and the Viet Nam war to gain the power and attention he cannot live without. But in the characters of Sonny and especially young Seth, Turow captures the idealism, the pain, the compassion and the genuine desire to change the world for the better that was as much a part of that generation as its indulgence. And it's fascinating to revisit Sonny and Seth decades down the line, to see where the long, strange trip has taken them. This book tries to do a lot and isn't wholly successful on all points -- I'd have cut the romance during the trial to eliminate a little of the confusion. But on balance, it was a good, entertaining, thought provoking read.
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