Rating: 
Summary: Needed A Better Editor
Review: I think the author was trying to fit two books into one here, a view of the 60's race relations and a legal thriller. Becuase of that I think the thriller got a little crowed out. I have no issue with the story line and some of the detail, but I thought it took more away from the book then it added. He is known for writing tight, suspenseful legal thrillers, great fiction that you can sink your teeth into. The subtle preaching of societies wrongs also left a bad taste in my mouth, I am looking for fiction when I pick on of his books up. On the other hand he is a good author who writes in a somewhat complex way so that you have to pay attention. This is not the McBook of Grisham, but a deeper telling of a story. He has put out much better books in the past and I would suggest starting with them before taking on this beast of a book.
Rating: 
Summary: The Laws of Our Fathers
Review: Turow's work has the potential to be a great book, but it is too wordy. His other books are much more reader-friendly.
On the other hand, I read for recreation. Perhaps those who read for different reasons will disagree.
Rating:
Summary: Started out great...
Review: I liked the first half of this book but feel that it got waylayed in the second half. I am glad that I listened to it on tape rather then taking the time to read it. I lost intrest at the pivital point of the book (won't say and spoil it for the people who have not read it) and just never got drawn back in.
Rating: 
Summary: The masterpiece by the author of Personal
Review: Hisd best book ever. and I mean it! I did enjoy Personal Injuries. Laws is his masterpiece! The best fictional work by Turow. His plotting shines through out!
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: Subtle Exploration of the Subjectivity of Truth
Review: Before beginning, let me note that I am reviewing both the hard cover novel and the abridged audio cassette version. I rate the book as a five star item, and the audio cassette as a four star item.Scott Turow writes the best legal novels that I have ever read. I have been a fan of his since he wrote One L about the first year experience at Harvard Law School. In The Laws of Our Fathers, he uses courtroom drama as a plot device to explore the nature of morality, truth, and human relationships. In every sense though, this is a profoundly philosophical novel parallel to Crime and Punishment in many ways. By constantly surprising the characters and the reader with hidden currents in a multigenerational story, Turow helps us to understand the weaknesses of human-directed attempts to create justice and make peace. You are left realizing that God's laws may be far more useful for every situation than our own. The story opens with a violent crime going awry (different from planned). The plot then develops around the murder trial of a probation officer, Nile Eddgar, whose mother has been killed. Can anyone other than Turow imagine a plot that makes sense that would be so constructed? All of the parties in the case have ties to one another that go back into other times and other places, and these stories are told in flashback to provide perspective on the meaning of the events that have taken place. The description of the defense in this novel is masterful, and will be admired by anyone who has ever tried a criminal case. Even if you are not a lawyer, you will admire the grace of how the truth is subjectively exposed to put the best face on the defendant's situation. Very beautifully done! The writing is the great strength of this book. Unfortunately, by abridging the novel in the audio cassette some of the remarkable development is lost. On the other hand, Blair Brown is superb as the voice of Judge Sonny Klonsky and those who appear in her courtroom. Her performance adds a lot of depth to that character. After you have finished enjoying this novel, I suggest that you think about something that you thought you knew well when you were much younger. How have your views changed since then? Are both views true? What made them change? Is truth time dependent, experience dependent, or dependent on what? In particularly, think about some area where you once were at odds with your parents and are now in harmony with them. Which of their "laws" do you observe now? Which do you think you may come to observe in the future? What disbelief is holding you back from embracing their views? What views have you not considered yet? Enjoy and appreciate the fragile beauty of the slowly revealed truth around us!
Rating: 
Summary: A slow read but finally rewarding
Review: I had previously read "Personal Injuries" (also reviewed here), although I enjoyed this one more. It is a picture of people growing, and of the difficulties and setbacks, hopes and fears that surge around inside them, well into middle age. Indeed, by the end, the action figures and those who do not grow, fall by the wayside, leaving only those capable of growth on centre stage. It is a very existential novel. What I found interesting was the way Trurow uses a typical "action novel" scenario to explore many issues of modern society. Scott Trurow handles dialogue well. Narrative tends to be handled more stiffly. Perhaps it is Trurow's legal mind, a mind that tends to get bogged down in details, and likes to follow them. The story reads rather slowly. First, the courtroom antics and complications slow the story down from the initial adrenalin-running shock of the murder. But then, the past starts to complicate matters further, requiring more flashback descriptions. Using Judge Sonia Klonsky as one of the prime narrators slows things down even more, as the woman focuses on her feelings about the people involved, about the trial, about her career and her relationships. The story really took off for me when the flashback to the '60s starts to develop a plot: Seth's attempts to avoid the draft. The problem I had with this book is that it is packaged as an "airport" novel: a "thriller", a la Grisham or Crichton. However, it seems Trurow is trying to explore this genre to develop deeper themes, hence perhaps the disappointment expressed in so many reviews here. It has been said that the novel is the form best suited to describe and express a "modern hero" in that it can portray vividly the differences between outer actions and events, and inner feelings, thoughts and intentions. However, neither the action nor the dialogue achieve this wholly successfully, I felt. Trurow is still "stuck" in the "thriller" genre, the need to push the action ahead at the expense of character or human nature. Compare Trurow with Vonnegut, for example, for social comment; or with Henry James, for use of point of view.
Rating: 
Summary: A fine book, IF the subjects interest you
Review: Scott Turow is an outstanding author, and also an independent-thinking one. He writes, as anyone should, on the subjects which are of meaning to him. In this book, he spends considerable amounts of time on the disconnections in society; between white and black, father and son, Jew and Gentile, young and old, man and woman. If these are not subjects on which you wish to spend a considerable amount of reading time, don't get this book. I enjoyed it, although I think it could have been a bit shorter. It is not a typical Turow book; there is no such thing.
Rating:
Summary: In Serious Need of an Editor
Review: A long, and at times, slow read, this story could have used some fine-tuning before sending it off to the printer. Some characters ring true, while others seem like poor characterizations. Not Turow's best work.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: I bought this on a Hawaii vacation. I liked Presumed Innocent, and the book jacket showed promise. This guy is like many initially successful authors. They become full of themselves. This book is full of tangents and gratuitious nonsense. The story and plot line go straight downhill. He should have hired a consultant for the gangsta slang. It was unintelligible. I'm surprised I finished it.
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