Customer Reviews

Ordinary Heroes: A Novel

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Scott Turow has produced a masterful collection of books-- everything from "One L" about his first year at Harvard Law, to an extremely perceptive volume on the death penalty, to six very well received novels. Some credit him with the invention of the so-called "legal thriller," an art form in any regard that he has developed to a fine level. So, this novel -- which is fundamentally a novel about World War II combat -- is somewhat of a departure. While I did not find it to be vintage Turow, it is still quite a solid yarn.

This book is not a "page turner," and in fact at points it seems to drag a bit. Things do pick up toward the end, however. The story jumps back and forth between World War II and the present--but this is handled well. Turow adopts the device of the central character's father speaking through a long memorandum he had written at the end of the war to educate the lawyer defending him during a court martial. But I am not sure this approach works as well as it might. Turow's impeccable feel for the dialogue of lawyers and judges does not wholly transfer to this war story--at times, one can hardly imagine that GI's under fire or some of the foreign characters would speak with such vocabulary ("raddled") and sentence structure. Turow has done his research on the "Battle of the Bulge" and historically the novel is about as accurate as a work of fiction can be. The central Rod Serling like surprise plot device is pretty transparent midway in the book, but still brings things to a fascinating conclusion.

Be assured, I do not criticize Turow for striking out in new directions as a novelist. John Grisham has done this with success, and Turow was always a better novelist than Grisham to begin with. So what we have is a good, solid novel that is a tad below his legal fiction, but still represents a fine piece of fiction writing by one of its acknowledged masters.

This is not the classic page-turner of nonstop action, cliffhangers, and suspense. But it is classic Scott Turow: intelligent, intricately plotted, and superbly crafted, adding up to an extraordinary mystery that also can't be put down.

Turow, a practicing lawyer best known for his legal drama, wraps the plot only loosely around the law as he treads new ground with this original novel of World War II. Stewart Dubinsky, a middle-aged reporter, knew is father served in Europe during WWII, but the War was a subject off-limits in the Dubinski household. Upon is father's death, Dubinski discovers that his father had been court-martialed and imprisoned, and sets out to find the decades-old answers. What follows is a tale that is anything but ordinary; a deeply emotional and painfully realistic drama of the horrors of war in the European theater.

It is early 1944, and Dubinsky's father, David Dubin, is a young lawyer assigned to the US Army's JAG Corps headquartered in Nancy, France, recently re-occupied by the Allies. He is assigned to investigate the alleged insubordination of Robert Martin, a Major in the CIA-forerunner OSS. Martin is a shadowy figure; a living legend of unparalleled heroism and bravery behind Nazi lines, but perhaps also a spy the loosely allied Soviets. Turow, ever the perfectionist, can be counted on for a richly developed cast of characters. And rarely has there been a character more interesting than the enigmatic Gita Lodz, a Polish immigrant turned French resistance commando, a gritty and war-hardened warrior with as much similarity to Laura Croft as LeCarre's George Smiley has to James Bond. She is also the inseparable companion of Martin, setting up the first two legs of the triangle that Dubin not surprisingly completes. In pursuing Martin - and Gita - through northern Europe, the lawyer Dubin finds himself pressed into service as a front-line infantry officer to replenish Allied troops decimated by the Nazis during the Battle of the Bulge. Told from foxhole-level perspective, Turow paints a horrific picture of the War as brutally vivid and gory as "Saving Private Ryan", while capturing the passion and emotion of Leon Uris' best works. As much a character study as it is a mystery, Turow takes us on his own campaign culminating in a morbidly riveting portrayal of a Nazi concentration camp and ending in an unexpected twist to Major Robert Martin's story.

It is typically three years between Scott Turow's novels, presumably due to the painstaking research he conducts. Delivered with the historical authority and authenticity usually associated with Alan Furst, Turow applies his trademarked plots, clever twists, and human struggles, adding up to a moving and educational drama that you'll likely be recommending to your friends. Well done, Mr. Turow!

I'm always a little amazed when people lump together Turow and Grisham as writers of "legal thrillers." Grisham turns out superficial, heavily cinematic potboilers. Turow constructs careful, literate, precisely plotted novels of substance. But having said that, I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. It is, indeed, a "thriller," and the plotline deals with the law, but the setting is the European Theater in World War II, not the present in Kindle County (which always has felt, to me, a lot like Cook County). Captain David Dubin is a young Jewish lawyer who goes through infantry officer training in early 1944 but is then assigned to JAG in France a few months after D-Day. He and a handful of others like him spend alternating days either prosecuting or defending GIs accused of ordinary crimes, from theft to rape and murder. It's hard, rather boring work and David yearns to take a more direct part in the war. Then his commander sends him out to locate and arrest Maj. Robert Martin, a swashbuskling OSS officer who has been ignoring orders he didn't agree with. And with Martin is Gita Lodz, a strong-willed Polish gamine who takes over David's heart and soul. Martin, of course, has no intention of giving himself up to the military authorities and David's quest to carry out his orders takes him on a harrowing, appalling journey into the depths of war. He's forced by circumstances to take command of a rifle company, to send men to their deaths. His principles are challenged again and again, until he is no longer the earnest young officer who left a girl behind to fight for the American Way.

And throughout the book, Turow dares you not to care about Dubin, the tormented Sgt. Bidwell, Gen. Teedle, and especially Gita, who does what she has to do. And you'll certainly care about Robert Martin. I was born during the period when Dubin is trying to keep his company together during the Siege of Bastogne, and I've read a good deal about it over the years, but Dubin's first-person narrative is the most gripping, horrifying, affecting account of the Bulge I have ever read, fiction or nonfiction. I will be very, very surprised if this book, which is Turow's best yet, doesn't earn him a Pulitzer or a National Book Award, or both.

Mr. Turow is the lawyer turned author of the American legal thrillers (see "Burden of Proof" and "Presumed Innocent"). His novels are set in a morally dubious world of wrong choices going really bad and how one finds redemption. His newest effort trades the courtroom dramas for the horrors of World War II but still remains, at heart, a search for redemption among the good and bad choices one makes in life.

"Ordinary Heroes" is a stretch for Mr. Turow as he tries out a new narrative in a different historical period. He utilizes several voices (the son is the narrator piecing together his father's life thru letters and defense documents) to tell the events behind the court-martial of Captain David Dubin in the last year of World War II. He seamlessly mixes in the begining of the Cold War, the Battle of the Bulge, a love story, the Holocaust and a partisan commando raid against the backdrop of the chaos of war. "Ordinary Heroes" is a wonderful read.

An historical novel from Scott Turow, a master of the legal thriller? Yes, and "Ordinary Heroes" is remarkable reading.

It is a thoughtful look at JAG and the military justice system.

The story-within-a-story structure shows the intersection of three people and provides the foundation for the excellent novel.

Stewart Dubinsky is arranging the funeral for his father (David Dubin) when he uncovers a pack of letters dating from World War II. He learns of a former fiancée, a court-martial, a brief imprisonment. Stewart wonders who his father really was and why he never spoke of his war service.

His quest leads him to his father's former defense lawyer and keeper of a novel-length series of accounts David wrote of the events leading to his court-martial. That document sends Stewart on his mission to unearth his father's true past.

During World War II around the time of The Battle of the Bulge, Dubin is assigned to locate and arrest the charming, daring, rouge OSS officer Robert Martin. Martin is accompanied by Gita Lodz, an extraordinarily gallant Polish resistance fighter.

The story of those three shows the agonizing moral conflicts and dilemmas inherent in war...the relentless casual horror...the disappearance of decency.

The further he is from JAG headquarters and the more of war David participates in and observes (especially the actions of Martin), the more he questions the veracity of his orders.

In combat David learns more about who he is and it leads him in paths he never thought he could choose.

To give away more plots would spoil your read.

As an emotional accomplice, you almost feel guilty when, in the end, you put down this amazing story and resume your life.

Scott Turow has transcended the world of the thriller. Consistently since his first novel, he has given us books with character development every bit as good as the plot. Authors of `serious' novels might want to take lessons from him on illuminating the human condition while also delivering a gripping plot and memorable characters.

Turow moves this novel's venue away from his usual present-day Kindle County courtrooms, to the fight across France in World War II. U.S. Army lawyer David Dubin, suddenly thrust into combat, transforms from paper-pusher into war-weary but battle-hardened vet, his son learns after discovering some secrets after his father's death.

Dubin crosses paths with Robert Martin, an OSS agent gifted at sabotage but now seen as a rogue agent or worse. Martin's girlfriend Gita Lodz, an escapee from Nazi-occupied Poland, proves older than her years, invaluable as Martin's sidekick and quite unlike Dubin's innocent American fiancee. Roland Teedle, the overbearing general who wants Martin's head, orders the ambivalent Dubin to prosecute him for insubordination.

When Martin is spotted in Belgium after giving Dubin the slip, Dubin finds himself ordered by Teedle onto a night parachute drop - right into a harrowing battle. Dubin finds his own world turned upside down, and then must make difficult choices against the backdrop of the war's final days and the looming Cold War.

Turow avoids formulas in making these characters surprisingly three-dimensional as they grapple with war, their roles in it and what's left of their lives. Teedle particularly might easily have been reduced to a twisted martinet from Central Casting, but Turow to his credit finds more to him than that.

The only thing that doesn't ring true about this book is the repeated perfection of Martin's commando missions. History suggests some should have been marred by unforeseeable complications or betrayed to the Germans by informants.

Still, the best character is Dubin himself. And this novel belongs right up there with the best World War II combat novels such as "The Thin Red Line". Don't miss it.

Scott Turow is one of our finest writers, and this excursion outside of the courtroom shows his ability to weave a rewarding tale in a new light. The story is fiction, but some of the events described during the Battle of the Bulge are based on his father's World War II service. That real touchstone gives the book an immediacy that many novels lack.

Ordinary Heroes has so many different threads that I find it impossible to put the book into a genre. Yes, it's a story about serving in World War II. Yes, it's a love story. Yes, it's a story about a family. Yes, it's a story about espionage. Yes, there are scenes that are like a thriller. Yes, there are legal proceedings and issues involved. Yes, there are historical figures described. Yes, it's a story about the Jewish experience. Yes, it's a story about the secrets that parents keep from their children. Yes, it's a story about ethics.

Having spoken with many World War II veterans, I have been struck by how many of them tell they have kept secrets about the war from their families. Yet novels about World War II seldom capture that aspect of the experience. Ordinary Heroes rang very true for me as it explored the often hidden side of those military experiences.

The story is told through Stewart Dubinsky's search for the facts behind his father's hitherto secret court martial during World War II. David Dubin had been a JAG officer which made the event even more unlikely. After World War II, Dubin had served before the bar with distinction. How could that have followed a court martial? Dubinsky (a reversion to the European spelling of the family name) finds his father's account of many of the events . . . and fills in the rest for himself. With this new knowledge, he faces new ethical challenges about what to say and do.

Do children ever know their parents as people? Perhaps not. This book shows the potential rewards and hazards of doing so.

The writing about battlefield conditions matches nicely with personal accounts of soldiers published in other books. For those who don't know much about the western front in World War II, this book will be a revelation.

I was also charmed by the use of French sentences (always translated) to capture the nuances of communications between Dubin and the mercurial Gita Lodz.

Ultimately, the book is a magnificent example of character development. You will come to feel like you know all of the major characters very well. It's a difficult and wonderful accomplishment.

Bravo, Mr. Turow!

I read this book because it was so widely touted - and I'm not sure I understood why until I reached the last chapters. I read it over a two week period, picking it up and putting it down. It'll allow you to do that because this isn't "grab you by the throat" suspense. You live with the main character, David Dubin, through a half-hearted quest for an unlikely spy (he has to follow orders, but every time he encounters this guy, he likes him too much). You begin to wonder if the sacrifices being made to make the arrest are worth all the risk. All the while, you are getting a first person account of the hell of the second world war through the eyes of a soldier never really trained for combat. By the time I got to those last chapters, I was carrying the book around turning pages as fast as I could go. This was a very interesting story with a very satisfying ending - which is exactly what we all hope a book will deliver. Because we were allowed to get to know David Dubin well - his hopes, fears, emotions...I'll remember him for some time to come. That's what we want our characters to be - memorable. When I think I might want to re-read a book in my older age, I keep it. I'm going to keep this one.

When retired newspaperman Stewart Dubinsky discovers letters his deceased father wrote during his tour of duty in WWII, family secrets come to light.

In Scott Turow's latest page-turner, a curiosity compels the divorced Dubinsky, last seen in the novel Presumed Innocent, to study his father's papers. They include love letters written to a fiancée the family never knew and a manuscript written while his father was in prison, which included the disclosure of his father's court-martial for assisting in the escape of OSS suspected spy.

The story is fascinating. Yet it is rendered more interesting by Scott Turow's use of Faulkner-like techniques. Like the Nobel Prize winner, he shifts the story's narration from one character to another and employs somewhat disorienting disruptions of a chronology.

There is a genius behind the technique. As the reader reads on, he or she unravels another piece of this complex story. Each witness or character to the story has his or her version. The more the reader digs, the more likely he or she will emerge with a story that resembles the true event.

Like Faulkner, Turow's narration and characters may appear complex. Yet, his themes are simple. He writes about life's great issues - life and death, good and evil, love and hate, wealth and poverty, individual and family, sanity and insanity, success and failure, heroism and the ordinary.

Turow's characters speak to their ability to transcend their settings and endure their sufferings. They are ordinary people who realize they aspire to a normal life. They bear the blows existence often delivers. They bear them bravely. They emerge pained, yet ennobled.

While I hesitate to rank Scott Turow on a par with William Faulkner, I have no such reticence recommending Ordinary People. In my opinion, it is Turow's best novel to date.

No doubt, the reader will race through it to discover how it ends. Yet, the story's power promises to linger as the reader contemplates the inner drama of war's corrosive effects on even the most civilized people.

Turow, Scott, Ordinary Heroes. New York, FSG, 2005.
Scott Turow was a writer before he became a lawyer, which partly explains the excellence of the writing in this novel. It's clean grammatically and written with terseness and tension that lasts through to the end, which isn't easy in a narrative that is broken by letters home from the front, and by interviews in present time. Some of the war scenes, especially describing the Battle of the Bulge, hit right at the reader's heart. The author is skilled as well in holding back details we crave to know. He has successfully created a character one cares about out of a taciturn young army lawyer thrust into an impossible dilemma by a superior officer, and what's more, a lawyer who never talks about his experiences once the war ends. If more than five stars were available, I would award them.