Tuesday, January 02, 2007

QB VII

My apologies to all those who click on to this page and occasionally see nothing new!
I've been in airplanes!
But now I am home.
Jack is meowing, my alarm is ringing. Work displaces hibernation!
I would love to recommend to you all, a great book.
Leon Uris's, [1970] QB VII.
A superb novel!

What will happen to the Plaintiff in this case at Queen's Bench Courtroom Number Seven?
What will the verdict be? Things can go either way right up until the jury foreman tells us, and that is part of what makes this novel so great. The Courtroom drama is excellent, and Uris does a fine job of showing us how expert legal cross-examination during the course of a trial can turn a Plaintiff into a Defendent.
It's superb stuff. He keeps us guessing and re-guessing.
The issue at stake here in QBVII cannot be over-estimated.
A doctor is being tried in order to establish whether he can be held accountable for atrocious operations he performed while he was himself a prisoner of Jadwiga Concentration Camp. Did Dr. Kelno purposely mutilate and torture the Jews that were brought to him? If so, was this intentional? What were his options? Is he, in fact, an Anti-Semite? Were his actions based on racial hatred/prejudice?
Wow, I was completely taken up with this book and fascinated with its sobering subject matter. I was page-flipping long into the night... the whole "Oh-just-one-more-chapter-just-one-more-chapter," thing.
At one point the narrator says "There is in us all that line that prevents us from fully understanding those who are different." This is so true, and this book makes each reader ask themself... "In a similar situation, what would I have done?"
Great characterization and suspense from a superb author.
I love this book, and highly recommend it.

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