What do readers think of Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson? Write your own review.

Wow! On a scale of 1 to 5, "Once We Were Brothers" is a 10 and I have been unable to put it down. Ronald Balson has created a deftly written story centered around an elderly Chicago man who is a concentration camp from Poland. He is determined to right a sixty year old wrong and unmask the man he believes is responsible for inflicting countless amounts of pain and suffering on Polish Jews. This is powerfully written with a beautifully moving plot line and well drawn characters. I won't soon be forgetting these characters and this emotional story!

This was a complete miss for me. First of all, the writing left a lot to be desired. The dialogue was excruciating, and the didactic nature of the 'testimony' was ham-handed. Secondly, there were too many things in the story that didn't seem plausible or understandable. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the characters were pretty well either all good or all bad which stuck me as over-simplistic and rather silly. Overall, the book reminded me of a bad propaganda film from the 1950s.

There have been hundreds of books written about the Holocaust....this one kept me spellbound. Historical fiction works best for me, as I like history interwoven with a story, a tale that draws me into the characters and makes me care about them...or despise them. I felt all of these things while gobbling up this book. The author excelled in his story-telling and I felt I knew Ben, the main character...and at the end, I loved him.

Despite being a voracious reader, this is truly one of the most fascinating and memorable books I have read in a long time. Set in both the Holocaust and modern day Chicago, the author masterfully intertwines suspense, romance, tragedy, and a 60-year old mystery that is not resolved until the end of the novel. We Were Brothers is a page-turner that I found almost impossible to put down. Although much of the story takes place in darkness of Nazi-controlled Poland, I was pleased with the positive and uplifting conclusion to the story.

I really hate to give bad reviews, but this book fails on a couple of levels. First, the writing is pedestrian. Secondly, the plot is difficult to accept. There are numerous inconsistencies and logical difficulties. Perhaps most troubling to me as a seasoned reader of this period (Poland during the Nazi period), the author gets the history wrong. I could almost go no further than page 44 when speaking of 1935 and Heydrich's secretary, Balson suggests she "knew about the plans for the Final Solution! It just gets worse after this. A well educated attorney that needs the basics, and I mean basics, of the Holocaust explained to her. The entire mechanism for the unfolding of the story is terribly "clunky"