The Laws of Our Fathers

by Scott Turow

Book Overview

A drive-by shooting of an aging white woman at a gang-plagued Kindle County housing project sets in motion Scott Turow's intensely absorbing novel, The Laws of our Fathers.

With its riveting suspense and indelibly drawn characters, this novel shows why Turow is not only the master of the modern legal thriller but also one of America's most engaging and satisfying novelists.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374184232
• ISBN13: 9780374184230
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 817 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Not Just a "Trial" Story

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!

Subtle Exploration of the Subjectivity of Truth

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!

It's not Grisham, and that's a compliment

Turow is ambitious here in his blend of courtroom thriller with literary fiction. The reader takes away the best of both worlds. I was occasionally moved to tears, often dazzled, always engrossed.

Superb! A fascinating character study clothed as a mystery

Turow's sentences draw pictures for the reader to savor; his characters are richly and fully drawn; the story--really two stories melded into one--is compelling. While Turow uses the genre of a murder mystery to tell his story, Turow's story is more about strength and weakness, morality and immorality, perception and reality--and how those things change over time. Once again Turow has written a popular novel with big words. It is a story told in the present and the past and told from the perspective of two likeable (a new feature in a Turow novel) characters who share(d) those time periods. Told, where appropriate, in the vernacular of the mean streets of Kindle County, the criminal justice system of the '90's, and the anti-establishment radical fringe of the '60's, this book is not an easy read. It is, however, and unlike most of its genre, a worthwhile read. While I would not recommend a novel this interesting or this complex to a casual reader looking for simple-minded page turner, I strongly recommend this novel to any thoughtful reader willing to invest the intellectual capital to work through good literature