Fantastic writing and nuanced character development drives this book which is nominally a mystery. Chance brings a group of seventies hippie-protestors back together, their revolution, drugs, and free love long past. One is a judge, one a defense attorney, and one the accused murderer, former precocious child.
So much beautiful prose! If there's one thing that holds me back from a five-star rating, it is the length. At around 250,000 words, it's gone on too long. We read mainly for payoff, the orgasmic moment where things resolve, become clear, change, and are understood. We need to do a certain amount of work to make the payoff worth it, but is not sufficient to merely make the journey gorgeous. We are not satisfied by a thoughtful, lyrical journey that never ends. Here, the value of the payoff is good, but the time spent to reach it is excessive, even if there are no unworthy scenes.

After reading 'Presumed Innocent' & being blown away, I immediately put Scott Turow on my list of favorite authors. I was excited to read another book from him, but could not be more disappointed. Like some of the other people who reviewed the book on here, I could not get into the story or the characters & was often forgetting who was who. The revolutionary issues of the 1960's & '70's didn't interest me much - not my generation, couldn't relate - nor did I find myself too interested in the ghetto lifestyle & jargon of Hardcore or Bug. I hung in there & completed the book, mostly because I kept waiting for something to turn my opinion around, but it never happened. It took me forever to complete. When I normally read between 1-3 books a month, this one alone took me over 3 months to complete. Definitely SKIP! (But I won't give up on Scott's work - Presumed Innocent was too amazing - I'm sure this was just a bad apple).

I love Scott Turow’s books but…

1. This book would have been much better if it had been 200 pages shorter. Very difficult to finish.
2. None of the main characters were particularly likable.
3. I’m sure it was by design to deviate from "standard legal thriller format" but delving into the minutiae of the backstories was excruciatingly boring.
Having said that, I can certainly appreciate the time and effort that went into the writing of this novel. It just wasn’t Mr. Turow’s best work in my opinion.

Yes, it is court room drama but more an investigation of a cast of characters who started in the novel as college students in the 1970 period, full of anticipation and excitement and ready to change the world. Fast forward 25 years and the cast of characters are some famous, some loyal, some backward. Always the review of who each of cast is and was and how it happened. Good from beginning to end.

The underlying concept of a group of sixties graduates who spend a few years in proximity in the late 60's, are 'reunited' 25 years later in a courtroom where one serves as judge, another as defense attorney, another as journalist and the last two as victim and defense witness. The story moves back and forth between the two decades, exploring relationships and beliefs, current and past. Gets a little muddled and at the end, I found myself wondering what just happened and what was the point!

Another fascinating story by Turow, blending the stories of characters entwined in the radical 1960s with a contemporary legal struggle. I love how Turow uses the voices and vernacular of his characters to drive the narrative rather than long descriptions. As with his other works, much is made of religion, race, politics, and the complicated relationships between men and women and parents and their children.

The more I read books by him, the more I appreciate Turow’s brilliance. It’s easy to peg him as just writing best selling legal thrillers, but his books go well beyond a face paced courtroom drama. This story has a legal battle centered in it but the story went way beyond it. The complexity of the characters and the beautiful themes ranging from oppression, revolution to our complex relationship with our parents was sheer enjoyment.

This book was also LONG. However the intricate details make the book and are needed to appreciate the weight of the story.

By the end, I felt I wasn’t even sure I grasped all the themes and the subtlety. But I sure did enjoy the ride

The Law of Our Fathers is an ambitious work, taking on several meaty, hot button issues from the last 40 years: war protesting, the Holocaust, political activism, recreational drug use, gang violence, poverty, grief and oh lets see, unhappy childhood/unresolved parental conflict/middle age divorce. [return][return]Scott Turow writes such total insight and witt, its hard to believe that a writer can create characters with that total depth and rich history. This is a lengthy novel that takes time to journey through given its sheer size. The story itself unfolds as two parallel universes; flipping between the past and the present, with the breaks coming at times of suspense, so there is motivation to read on. However, the story can be boggy. And the characters themselves? I can't say I really connected with them. But I do appreciate a well written story with a complex plot. [return][return]This is a work typical of Turow, just not my favorite.

I was in the mood for a legal thriller. I thought I remembered Turow being the go-to guy for that from ages ago.

Maybe this just wasn't the book to start with. It's so slow.

SO. SLOW. As I approach the end, it's like I'm trapped in a black hole and time has slowed to a crawl. I can't follow the legal scenes, partly because I don't care about the wonky 70's flashbacks and I don't care about the outcome. Nile maybe planned to have his mom killed. Or his dad. They're all horrible people. I DON'T CARE. I guess the reveal is going to be what lame person had what other lame person killed. I'd rather never find out than finish the last glacial 100 pages.

Add some... vividly described, but scathing, utterly contemptuous, virulent in its hatred, description of Black urban characters (spoiler: they're all gangsters)... well, at least the narrative comes alive then, but wow. I don't know if I would go so far as to call the book racist but those parts are at least verging on it.

The sentence level is actually not bad. I'll give him another chance hoping this was maybe just not the right book for me.

This is the 4th book in the Kindle County Legal Thrillers by author Scott Turow. I really enjoy the writing of this author and although it is well written, good characters and a decent synopsis it is difficult not ot mention the length of the novel, 800+ pages. As interesting and well written as it was I didn’t feel there was enough to the plot to justify such an epic novel.

June Eddgar is seemingly shot dead in a random drive by shooting In Kindle County. The dead woman is the ex-wife of a prominent state senator and an old acquaintance of Judge Sonia Klonsky, on whose desk the case lands.

I do enjoy a good legal thriller and this book is certainly well written but I felt it became more of a challenge to get through it rather than enjoying the read. I fully intend to continue reading this series because there are plenty of plus points to this series.

Read in 1996. A probation officer is charged in the murder of his mother. Turow's longest book at 800 plus pages is a rich, complex and ultimately profoundly moving tale. Great legal thrillers that I've only recently stopped reading. This was one of my favorites that year.

"WALLOWING IN MELANCHOLY"

‘The Laws of Our Fathers’ is no run-of-the-mill legal mystery. Mr. Turow delves into the primary characters’ pasts to address such things as the Vietnam War, race, class, the conflict between immigrant parents and their American-born offspring, anti-war demonstrations, Holocaust survivors, city poverty, and drugs. The bulk of the novel takes place outside the courtroom. There are moments of true heartbreak and fears of abandonment. The novel also depicts the challenges of maneuvering through our legal system from the perspectives of the judge, the attorneys, law enforcement, as well as the defendant and plaintiff. Many decisions and tactics are influenced by guessing if the court of appeals will come back to bite them. Mr. Turow’s career as a practicing lawyer adds credence to his explanations about courtroom rules, tactics, and common histrionics.

Another interesting dynamic in ‘The Laws of Our Fathers’ are the convergence of friends who hung around together during their college years and are now involved in the murder trial as judge, the defense lawyer, and a reporter. Most of the story is seen through the eyes of the judge, Sonia “Sonny” Klonsky, and a reporter, Seth Weissman. The story jumps back and forth between the 1995 case and events that transpired between the key people when they were college students in 1969 and 1970. Because the high-profile murder case involves a powerful enigmatic state senator and his accused son, political manipulation gets thrown into the legal mix. There are plenty of twist and turns in the story to keep you absorbed in the book. Mr. Turow does an excellent job in conveying how political zealousness, mass manipulation, and youthful certainty can lead to violence. The author also vividly reflects the heartbreak involved when a couple’s relationship collapses and how it makes a person question themselves. Mr. Turow’s work talks about everyday struggles and how nostalgia skews reality. All the characters have distinct personalities and the plot seems very believable. I found the conclusion engrossing and satisfying.

‘The Laws of Our Fathers’ is a melancholy novel with a few attempts at humor that I thought fell flat. There's oodles of rumination in the thing that some readers will likely find boring if they were expecting a more action-packed legal mystery. There sure are a lot of people burdened with loneliness in the story. I finished reading Mr. Turow’s novel at one in the morning while in bed and its thought-provoking themes kept this bald ole troll awake a few hours after closing its cover. It was worth my futile attempts at beauty sleep taking a hit.