Ordinary Heroes

In December, I read Scott Turow’s latest book Ordinary Heroes and wrote a review in the thought of publishing it in the school paper. It’s a little clunky, and I may revisit it before the newspaper comes due, but I thought I’d put it up, as I’m sitting in Torts and bored out of my mind. So here it is, my mediocrely written book review.

By eschewing his customary setting in contemporary Kindle County, a fictional Midwest city based on Chicago, Scott Turow creates a memorable trip through the dangerous battlefields of World War II Europe. Inspired loosely by experiences of his own father, and written in an attempt to come to an understanding of the experiences of the Greatest Generation, Ordinary Heroes relates the tale of a man’s search for his father’s past and the father’s search for self-realization.

David Dubinsky’s father never spoke of his time in Europe during World War II. He kept his adventures secret until the day he died. Only then did his son discover letters in the attic that referred to a passionate love affair and a clandestine imprisonment. Driven to discover his father’s history, and opposed by his tight-lipped mother, Dubinsky crosses the country to recreate a forgotten life. A breakthrough in detection comes when he meets his father’s wartime lawyer and receives a memoir written to explain the decisions which landed Stewart Dubin in jail.

A lawyer for the Judge Advocate General, Dubin is charged with the investigation of an OSS spy, a task which proves more difficult and slippery than he ever imagined. Faced with conflicting accounts, a charming spy, and his equally charming mistress Dubin struggles to reconcile the military’s word with the spy’s. His efforts take him on a daring OSS raid, to the front lines during the German’s last, gasping effort at the Battle of the Bulge, and into the heart of a sultry Gypsy who threatens to unravel everything in which Dubin believes.

Well crafted and easy to read, Turow masterfully recreates the environs and incidents that affected many soldiers during the Allies’ final push into Germany. Always the lawyer, he portrays these events from the point of view of another lawyer, a conflicted man who longs for battle and struggles to understand the mind of the common soldier. Although filled with detailed description of WWII France, Dubin’s journey is distinguished by his interior monologue, a primary feature of Turow’s narrative, and an effective method to promote reader identification with a likeable character.

By turning to the past, Turow unearths a rich and multi-faceted world for a new generation of readers. Thick with stunning revelations of character, Ordinary Heroes is foremost a novel of ordinary people who strive to accomplish extraordinary things. It leaves the reader with a feeling of hope, and a belief that even the little things in life make a difference.