True Justice

Rating:
Summary: Smart, Intelligent..but kinda boring.
Review: True Justice

I have no doubt that Robert K. Tanebaum is excellent, no...magnificent litigator. And if I was in trouble I would want him fighting for me. This is a man who has thought seriously about his professions. And his books are excellent manuals on the state of our criminal justice system. You pick up one his books and you have a pretty complete discussion on some of the hardest and least understood issues of our time. I would imagine he is an excellent teacher....

I have only read two of his books....listened actually to Chivers (now BBC) unabridged recordings...and my problem with his writing might be exacerbated by the reader, who is not a bad voice for Butch, but has certain problems with characterizations with Lucy and Marlene. (this being said, a lot of male and female narrators have these particular problems, and it would seem that the only one who has really conquered it is the overworked George Guidall.) True Justice, stands out because of the author's experience with the Amy Grossberg case, he represented the mother in a classic case of prosecutorial overkill in the charging of the two young people involved with the death and disposal of their son shortly after his birth. In this book he has an opportunity denied him when the defendants plead out, by stating his case for sanity when looking at these tragic cases of infanticide. This issue has been demagogued to death, a hot button topic which sets shallow social critics mouth a flapping on how rotten kids are today. Tanebaum takes several examples of various neonate deaths, and illustrates that each case has a heartbreaking tragedy behind it, and rather project monsterhood on mothers who kill their children, he paints a picture which is pathetic and without the heart pumping sensation which titilates addicts of talk shows. The result is not a bleeding heart diatribe but look at the politicization of the courts, prosecutions, and the exploitation of the most private of tragedies.

As an advocate, Tanebaum is dead on as his hits his various targets, however as a novelist he has a long way to go. Like most the attorney writers, he gives great speeches but his ear for how normal people talk is...flawed. Each of his characters do great monologues on their various points of view, but sound strangely stilted....witty, dry....but without humor, or awareness of how utterly pompous they sound when they step up to mike and speak their lines.

Tanebaum is a prolific writer with a good mind, and great range on a lot of issues. He is a social critic, an advocate for the law, and has created a very compelling series which through the mouths of his disparate characters is able to state several points of view in a persuasive and compelling manner. He could be a really great novelist if he could stop for moment and attempt to listen to and capture how people actually talk.