Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

When I learned that my law school classmate, Ronald Balson, had written a legal novel entitled, Once We Were Brothers, I knew that I just had to read it. If I expected to read something along the lines of a Turrow, Grisham or Martini, legal thriller, I was pleasantly surprised - it wasn't. The story begins when Ben Solomon, an 83 year old retired city worker, appears at the opening night gala of Chicago's Lyric Opera and puts a gun to the head of Elliot Rosenzweig, an insurance magnate and one of Chicago's most prominent citizens and philanthropists. We learn that the gun was unloaded and Ben says that his motive was that he wanted to exposed Elliot as being an impostor - that Elliot really was Otto Piatek, a former SS officer known in Poland as the "Butcher of Zamosc". It was at this time that Elliot Rosenzweig declared for the first time that he was himself a Holocaust survivor and definitely not an SS officer. He then revealed his arm which bore a concentration camp tattoo. Who would represent Ben? This crime was committed in front of hundreds of people and Rosenzweig had been declared by the Mayor Chicago to be "Chicago's treasure." Attorney Catherine Lockhart, who was working for one of Chicago's major white collar firms, made the "mistake" that many attorneys do, by answering her telephone. She was asked if she could do a favor for a friend - words an attorney hates to hear. What was supposed to be only an hour or two of listening to the tale of this "delusional" old man, turned into many hours of interviews with Ben, who tells his tale with astounding and poignant clarity and no matter how hard Catherine pushes him to "get to the point", he has a tale to tell, and he will tell it in his own way and in his own time. Even after the original charges were dropped, because Elliot refused to prosecute a delusional old man, Ben insisted that he be allowed to persist in HIS charges, and Catherine agrees. The story shifts, back and forth from Chicago, 2004, to Poland from 1936- 1944, with vivid (and in the case of Chicago - geographically accurate) images from both eras. As we hear Ben's story - how his family took in a young German boy and raised him as their own, only for him to leave their house when grown and return as an SS Officer, known as the "Butcher of Zamosc", we see how the Jewish community in Poland dealt with the ever growing Nazi threat. Ben tells the story of his family and his love for Hannah, his wife. It is a story of hope and despair; of heroism and cowardice; of loyalty and treachery. All of these traits were found in Poland AND in Chicago. Unlike many Holocaust stories, this story does not take place in the Camps - it deals with Ben's family and community and how they dealt (or in some cases - didn't) with the threat to their very being. Meanwhile, in the scenes taking place in Chicago, we find Catherine becoming more and more involved with Ben. She does so at the threat of losing her job with her firm and, at times, in danger of losing more. No matter how clear Ben is in his description of the atrocities caused at the hands of Otto (Elliot), there is one continuous problem - he has no proof. Elliot is now represented by one of the larger law firms in Chicago and they are attempting to drown Catherine in paper. The Judge appears to have a certain "sympathy" for Elliot. Elliot is the darling of the media. This is definitely a David v. Goliath venture. However, a theme developed between Ben and Catherine and which was the motto of the Polish Freedom Fighters (and the motto of most criminal defense attorneys) - "Nigdy sie nie Poddamy" Never Surrender." The novel ends with an exciting and somewhat unexpected finish and don't be surprised if you find a tear or two running down your cheeks. If a lawyer spends a great number of years representing indigent clients, often fighting the system, he or she often becomes more than a little jaded and their "legal battery" becomes more than a little in need of a recharge. Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" opens with the immortal line, "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." In "Once We We Brothers", Balson writes of the best in humanity and the worst in humanity; the best in the law and the worst in the law; and the best in lawyers and the worst in lawyers. If you find your "legal battery" is in need of a recharge, or your moral compass needs a reset, this novel is just what you need.