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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Without diminishing his page-turning narrative momentum, Turow extends his literary range.
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Outstanding
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Library Journal Stacy Alesi
While some of the historical facts presented are not 100 percent accurate, the book's emotional wallop more than justifies the literary license and should secure its place in the canon of World War II literature. An extraordinary, unforgettable novel. [1 Oct 2005, p. 70]
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Outstanding
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Los Angeles Times John Sacret Young
In "Ordinary Heroes," as never before, Turow reaches beyond his belief in and love of the law and into history--one family's and our country's--to discover anew that there still lie in the marrow of human passions motivations and mysteries that can't be captured or categorized. [1 Nov 2005]
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
Turow makes the leap from courtroom to battlefield effortlessly.
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Favorable
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San Francisco Chronicle Stephen Lyons
More brilliantly than his previous works, Turow shows what happens when "ordinary" people are placed in extraordinary circumstances.
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Favorable
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Booklist Allison Block
While Turow's fans might prefer the lively verbal skirmishes that suffuse his legal fare, the author's action sequences (like that white-knuckle free fall onto the battlefront) do plenty to quicken the pulse. [1 Sep 2005, p. 8]
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Nan Goldberg
What Turow has constructed is an intricate combination of action and sentiment, with a dynamic, compelling plot.
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Favorable
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Chicago Sun-Times John Cruickshank
I didn't much like Ordinary Heroes on first reading... but when I went back to document my complaints, the novel won me over. I found it moving and exciting. The powerful inner core of the book defeated my criticisms
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Favorable
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Chicago Tribune Philip Caputo
Turow has given us a captivating tale about the things ordinary people are sometimes required to do in extraordinary circumstances. [30 Oct 2005]
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Joseph Kanon
This novel provides a showcase for Turow's storytelling skills: he juggles the narratives, shifting back and forth in time with assurance; he is alert as always to character; the plot moves. But not all of it is smooth, and some of the rough patches are the result of the World War II setting.
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Favorable
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Washington Post Stephen Amidon
In the end, Ordinary Heroes, like all of Turow's fiction, derives its considerable power from its depiction of a lawyer's disillusionment, his understanding of the dark ironies that await anyone with an absolute belief in the rule of justice.
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Favorable
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The Guardian Steven Poole
[A] first-rate war story.
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Favorable
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The Independent Barry Forshaw
The novel may strain to accommodate its themes but, by and large, it carries off a vivid period narrative in trenchant fashion.
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Mixed
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
Even Scott Turow... can't resist the romantic cliches as he moves his latest novel, Ordinary Heroes, from his usual grimy haunts in fictional Kindle County, U.S.A., to the Ardennes, circa 1944.
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Mixed
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
"Ordinary Heroes" illustrates something fundamental about Mr. Turow's work: storytelling drives his fiction even when stylistic clumsiness threatens to bog it down. This time, leaving his well-defined courtroom turf to take on wartime experiences that have been written about so exhaustively, he has less narrative verve at his disposal.
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