Word: turow
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That connection, however, might just be too stunning. Turow never creates enough suspense for you to particularly care about the technical brilliance of it. He has you convinced for perhaps too long that you clearly understand what is going...
...Turow also devotes far too much time to certain situations that simply are not compelling. Once you know Clara once cheated on her husband, for example, it's not worth waiting 400 more pages to know who it was. Turow fails to make the Dixon investigation suspenseful for most of the book because there is no indication how it relates to the issue of Clara's death. Securities fraud arouses curiosity for a few minutes on the evening news, but it's not really the stuff that 500 page novels should be made...
Despite the strength of the mysteries, much of the attention in Burden of Proof is on Stern's own personal development as a result of his wife's suicide. For the most part, this process makes a strong story. Turow makes a convincing case for the profound impact Clara's death has on him, and as a result keeps Stern's several-page-long thoughts about her from becoming tiresome...
While the book's plot is not always able to sustain suspense, Turow's style is perhaps the book's most consistent and sturdy feature. Turow writes simply and directly, with sentences that rarely extend for more than two lines. But though they are short, he packs a lot of description into them. Occasionally, Turow carries an extended metaphor that is pithily expressive; he once ties together in one paragraph Clara's preoccupation with music and death...
...Turow's adeptness at writing in such a direct style is perhaps essential to his characterization of Stern as calm and unemotional, as Stern speaks with curt and deliberate phrases himself. Turow is less successful, however, in his attempts at scripting other characters' dialogues. In his efforts to create distinct and eccentric characters, he occasionally makes different characters appear to have the same, hyper personality...