Book Review: Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow
Henrietta K Thomas
by Scott Turow
Random House Large Print Publishing (2005)
ISBN: 0739325639
Genre: Historical Fiction
Against the backdrop of World War II and the hard-won Battle of the
Bulge, Scott Turow has created a fascinating epic-like tale of one man's
journey through the hell called war and his reaction to the ugliness he
encounters there.
The narrator of Ordinary Heroes is Stewart Dubinsky, an ex-newspaperman,
who discovers, quite accidentally, that his late father, David Dubin,
had been court-martialed during World War II. This is news to Stewart,
who had been led to believe that his father's service in the war had
been rather uneventful. He decides to investigate and find out if the
story is true.
The US Government confirms that David Dubin was indeed court-martialed,
but regrets that the relevant documents are not available because
they've been classified as "secret" by the CIA. Stewart is given some
other documents, though, and he uses these to continue his research
elsewhere.
By a stroke of luck, Stewart comes across the name of the attorney who
represented his father in the court-martial proceedings. He looks the
man up and finds he is still alive in an assisted living center in
Connecticut. He writes and asks permission to visit the old man. The
old man reluctantly agrees.
Once he is satisfied that Stewart is sincere, the attorney tells him
everything he thinks Stewart has a right to know about his father's
case. Most importantly, he allows Stewart to read a lengthy manuscript
his father had written about his experiences in the war and the events
leading up to his court-martial.
Stewart can hardly believe what he is reading, but he knows it must be
true because it was written by his own father.
David Dubin was a US Army lawyer assigned to investigate charges of
insubordination lodged by General Roland Teedle against an OSS officer,
Major Robert Martin, who apparently refuses to obey direct orders from
Teedle's office. He interviews Teedle first to get the basic facts,
then sets out to see what Martin has to say.
Dubin finds Martin in a French chateau with a band of partisans,
getting ready to embark on a mission to blow up a Nazi ammunition dump.
He explains the charges to him, and when Martin says he gets his orders
straight from the OSS, asks for some kind of proof that this is true.
Since OSS doesn't issue written orders, the best Martin can do is give
Dubin some OSS receipts he has on file.
Then he takes Dubin and his driver on the mission so Dubin can see first
hand the kind of work he does.
After completing the mission, the partisans treat themselves to an
elegant dinner party at the chateau. Later that evening, Gita Lodz, an
attractive Polish partisan, goes to the place where Dubin is sleeping
and seduces him. In the morning, Dubin finds that everyone is gone
except himself, his driver, and a Belgian partisan who was also left
behind.
This is the first of several disappearing acts Martin performs to remain
free and avoid the hassle of dealing with General Teedle's accusations.
But Teedle doesn't give up easily. Every time Martin disappears, he
finds a way to locate him, and Dubin doggedly follows the trail wherever
it leads, even at the risk of his own life. He is successful in the
end, but then inexplicably sets Martin free, thereby triggering his own
court-martial for failing to do his job.
The girl, Gita Lodz, is a key figure in the drama. She is fiercely
loyal to Martin for having saved her life and given her a reason to
live. "If you are angry, fight," he had told her. "And if you should
die, then wait until tomorrow. Today, you may do some good for someone
else." But Gita is also drawn to Dubin because he represents a
different way of life, a life beyond war, a life of stability and hope
for peace, the kind of life she wants for herself.
Meanwhile, there's a war on, and Ordinary Heroes is full of well-written
battle scenes. While waiting for instructions from Teedle, Dubin
volunteers for combat duty and is put in charge of a company of men
being sent to guard a stretch of road near Bastogne.
Despite the bitter cold, the mission goes well the first few days. Then
there is a change of plan and they are ordered to move to a new
location. They make the move successfully and are all dug in by
Christmas. Then, without warning, the Germans attack.
Dubin shouts for his men to move out and head toward the road. Most of
them never make it. They are cut down by the Germans the minute they
show themselves. Those who aren't cut down keep going; there is no way
they can go back to help their comrades escape.
Dubin and his survivors are pinned down near the road, unable to prevent
the German tanks from rolling through. The Germans start picking them
off. Dubin orders everyone to "play dead" until the Germans are gone.
As they lay there in silence, a dog comes along, sniffs at the
apparently lifeless bodies, and runs off howling as if in deep pain.
When Dubin thinks it's safe to move, he motions the men to make their
way toward the nearby woods. Some medics arrive to help them gather up
the wounded and prepare everyone to move out. Of the 92 men who started
the day, only 22 are left.
Dubin is praised for having saved his men by telling them to play dead,
but Dubin doesn't feel much like a hero. "I had given my men saving
advice," he writes, "mostly because it was what I had wanted to do, to
lie down like a child and hope that the assault -- the war -- would be
over soon. True, it was the wiser course. But I had taken it because at
the center of my soul, I was a coward. And for this I was now being
saluted."
Ordinary Heroes is a good book for people who like war stories and care
about the people who live and die in them. Dubin, Martin, and Gita are
strong central characters who develop strong emotional ties to each
other as the story unfolds. It is their dilemma that holds the book
together to the very end. They are the ordinary heroes nobody knows
much about, and they are the ones who know better than anyone that there
will be no peace until there is an end to war.
(c)Henrietta K. Thomas
Chicago, Illinois
hkt at xnet.com
www.vipbookreviews.us
Staats Fasoldt
sounds like an interesting read
Staats
In article <fct9m21ii4alr696i...@4ax.com>, Henrietta K
Don Phillipson
> In article <fct9m21ii4alr696i...@4ax.com>, Henrietta K
> Thomas <h...@xnet.com> wrote:
>
> > Ordinary Heroes
> > by Scott Turow
> > Random House Large Print Publishing (2005)
> > . . . US Government confirms that David Dubin was indeed
court-martialed,
> > but regrets that the relevant documents are not available because
> > they've been classified as "secret" by the CIA. . . .
Something is wrong here, concerning US government
paperwork. Court martial documents are army records
and may be classified/declassified through the army system.
Civilian agencies of the government founded years later
lack the capacity to classify earlier records of other
government departments. (There is a practical reason
for this: the CIA might wish in 1948 that an army record of
1945 had been classified in 1945 but is powerless to control
what happened to it in ordinary army hands 1945-48.)
Was this an error of author Turow or reviewer Thomas?
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)