Trials and Tribulations

By CINDY ADAMS

BLOOD BROTHERS
By Sol Wachtler and David Gould
352 pages. New Millennium Press. $24.95.

We first meet the protagonist of Blood Brothers, a gripping new novel by Sol Wachtler and David Gould, in rural Georgia in the late 1940s. His name is Lukash “Luke” Lipton and because he is Jewish in a world alien to Jews, he is somewhat of an outcast. The circumstance of his isolation puts him together with a schoolyard loner, the loutish bucolic T.C. Simmons. Luke eventually leaves the South when his fami­ly moves to Brooklyn, while T.C. remains behind and eventually gravitates to mem­bership in the Ku Klux Klan.

Like many a secular Jew before and after him, Luke is chasing acceptance more than material success—acceptance by what he perceives to be “the real Americans.” Being made a member of the white shoe law firm of Morton and Phillips represents to him more than the pinnacle of a successful legal career; it represents his becoming the quin­tessential American. Luke Lipton captures his dream and becomes a mover and shak­er within the very bosom of the Establish­ment. Entering his early sixties his life seems settled—that is, until he discovers that his estranged friend T.C. Simmons has been indicted for the brutal and racially motivated murder of a black man some forty years earlier. Luke recalls the oath of fealty he took with T.C. back when, as adoles­cents, they became blood brothers; he determines to return to Georgia to repre­sent his old friend in a trial which has become the subject of national interest.

There is something for almost every type of reader in this remarkable first novel for the authors, the former Chief Judge of New York and a former Assistant United States Attorney.

For those who feel that novel reading is a time to allow their brain to rest, Blood Brothers contains a plot line that gathers steam as the book rolls along until by the second half, it is literally flying down the track. The trial scenes contain enough twists and turns to glue the reader to the pages. Every time the reader thinks he has the direction of the action perfectly cali­brated, he gets hit with another round­house.

Some of the characters are particularly well drawn, for example, the family patriarch, Abe Lapinsky, whose all-controlling embrace of the widespread Lapinsky/Lipton clan is so tight that he virtually suffocates all who receive his “love.” Abe Lapinsky’s connections and affection put the life into Lukash’s career and squeeze the life out of his father. The epiphany scene where Luke finally realizes the price of Abe’s free support is fascinating and wrenching.

For those who do not want to leave all the work to the authors, there is plenty to think about in this book. The struggle between truth and myth which leaves Luke in emotional turmoil after the trial is pow­erful, poignant and thought provoking.

Lastly, for those interested in the over­arching reach of Judaism, this novel lays out a subtle and nuanced path from pure secular rationalism to a desperate need for a long discarded faith. As a boy, Judaism for Luke Lipton was only an impediment to his acceptance in a world that was both sec­ular and Christian. Judaism—religion in general—provided nothing positive for him; yet, unconsciously, it had a great influ­ence on his life. Indeed, the wrenching dilemma in which he found himself after the sizzling trial of his friend T.C. Simmons emerged largely from the Jewish trait of feeling it to be important to “play by the Marquis De Queensbury rules” even in a world filled with nothing but brass knuck­les. That cultural aspect of Judaism has been the hidden hand that has guided Luke throughout his life, even though he I conscious awareness of it.

Inch by inch, Luke is drawn towards a faith he had long ago abandoned. He discovers that his life, spent tethered to rational thought and reasoning discourse, has not provided him with the tools to confront the practical and ethical dilemma arising from his success at the trial. Luke does not become an Orthodox Jew. His transformation becomes more of an embrace of a faith in faith. Almost seamlessly, Luke, a quintessential secular Jew, is driven to his knees by forces too great to be handled by rational thought. It is not surprising that the book ends with a prayer.

This review originally appeared in Jewish Book World, published by the Jewish Book Council.