New Book Alert: Eli's Promise by Ronald H. Balson; Tense and Moving Novel About Death, War Crimes, and Revenge

New Book Alert: Eli's Promise by Ronald H Balson; Tense and Moving Novel About Death, War Crimes, and Revenge

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews





Spoilers: Surely many have it right from the French Revolutionaries to the Klingon Empire that revenge is really a dish best served cold. Though sometimes that cold dish is not served by choice. Sometimes the recipient of that revenge slips away leaving the accusor to spend many years, even decades, of hunting down the person that they hold responsible.


The cold dish of revenge and belated justice is the main theme behind Ronald H. Balson's Eli's Promise, a tense, gripping, andstrong novel. It takes the Reader from 1940's Poland to 1960's Chicago covering twenty-five years, a Polish town, a temporary displaced person's camp, various American businesses and high rises, and two wars before said justice and revenge are finally carried out.

Eli Rosen is a construction worker in Lublin, Poland when the Nazis come blasting their way in. Suddenly, the life he knows is turned around on its head. Jews are moved to a ghetto. Women like his wife are forced to work as seamstresses at a factory. Place names are changed to reflect the new order. Then many people disappear under mysterious circumstances and certain words like "resettlement", "special handling", and "labor camps" carry extremely ominous overtones.


Eli's family including his wife, Esther, father, Jacob, and son, Isaak are under the dubious protection of one Maximilian Poleski, an opportunist and war profiteer. He claims to protect the Rosen Family but only so they serve his purpose. Eli and his brother work under his now proprietorship. Max makes arrangements for favors such as Esther to work in the factory in exchange for money and obtainining young girls. If possible, Maximilian is less likeable than the Nazis. He is a character who is seemingly charming but is really nothing more than a snake looking out for number one.

Eli and his family reluctantly work and barely survive under Maximilian's so-called protection until Eli is temporarily separated from his family. He returns to find his father beaten and his wife and son missing. He is eventually reunited with Isaak but Esther remains missing. It doesn't take much for Eli to realize that Maximilian arranged Esther's departure and even though Eli and Isaak are put into a concentration camp until the end of the war and then placed in a temporary holding place for displaced persons afterwards, Eli never lets go of his desire to reunite with Esther and get retribution towards the man that he considers the author of his misery: Maximilian.


Eli is an extremely heroic character. The more unlikeable that Maximilian is, the more we are rooting for Eli to take him down. We are also rooting for Eli to find his own place and to get his life back together. In the DP camp, Eli shows leadership capabilities by helping the other refugees, ultimately becoming the leader of their community. He is also a devoted single father to Isaak. He soothes the boy's fears, nurses him through Illness, encourages his talents in music and athletics, and tries to heal his trauma. Even though Eli makes a female friend, Esther is not far from his mind. When by chance, he learns that Maximilian is not only still around but up to his old tricks by selling forged U.S. visas, Eli is determined to confront his old foe and find out the truth of Esther's whereabouts.


The plot takes a unique twist into the 1960's just as America's involvement in the Vietnam War begins to escalate. Mimi, an intrepid young journalist from Chicago becomes curious about her suave new boarder, guess who, Eli Rosen. Turns out Eli now works for the State Department and is investigating a corrupt Congressman who also happens to be the father of Mimi's best friend, Christine. Even though this case is half a world and twenty five years away, it puts Eli right in the path of his old arch enemy. The private war between two men that represented the opposite sides of the Holocaust becomes a very public war when it also involves others including Mimi, Christine, their friends and family, and eventually the United States government.

Eli's Promise is a nail biting suspenseful novel as Eli strives to capture Maximilian and or learn the truth only for him to slither away because of his contacts, influence, and charm. It becomes a victorious climax when the two are reunited once more and Maximilian is deprived of any means of escape and Eli finally is able to get justice rained down on the slime.


Eli's Promise is the kind of book that shows that revenge and justice can take awhile, but when they do, they are that much sweeter.

New Book Alert: Off Telegraph: A Novel of Berkeley in the Sixties by Joseph V. Rodricks; A Long Strange Trip Into Science, Politics, Religion, and Fanaticism

New Book Alert: Off Telegraph: A Novel of Berkeley in the Sixties by Joseph V. Rodricks; A Long Strange Trip Into Science, Politics, Religion, and Fanaticism

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Of course a novel about the late 1960's would be set at Berkeley. Where else but Hippie Central would you find so many students and professors experimenting, protesting, exploring, tuning in, turning on, and dropping out?

Joseph V Rodricks' novel Off Telegraph: A Novel of Berkeley in the Sixties explores that groovy time with a colorful cast of characters that pursue knowledge in science, religion, politics, and some get very lost in the pursuit of that knowledge.



Grad student, Will Getz is studying to make a pfaffidine synthesis for a reliable source of pffafadine. He has spent several months working on the project and has only achieved positive results once by accident. He can't replicate the feat and time is ticking with a fearsome deadline soon approaching. Rather than admit the stall, Will changes the data information. This deception haunts Will especially as his opportunistic colleagues get involved.

Meanwhile, Will's former girlfriend Gina Antinori, an anthropology student is become more involved in the sociopolitical structure of the 1960's. She considers switching her major to Law and makes a bevvy of eccentric friends including Chris, a former priest who is considering break a few of his vows with Gina, Kay, a journalist exploring lesbianism, and Schaefer, an anthropology professor whose outlook on the world heads dangerously towards fanaticism.


The book is rich with characters driven by their goals to help society in their own ways. But their goals become lost because of ego trips and narrow perspectives that cause them to commit fraud even violence to achieve those goals.

Will is particularly hit by this. As anyone who has spent time in academia knows, plagiarism and fradulent research are not looked on very favorably in that circle. (Or in any circle for that matter, nor should they be.) If caught the person is subjected to expulsion, lost funding, lost position, denial of a degree, and given a black mark towards any future hiring possibilities among other things. That's why most college courses begin with the professor lecturing their students about the penalties. It's no wonder why this deceit continues to trouble Will.

Will was fascinated by studying chemistry and biology and using pffafadine to create better treatments for cancer patients. He, as many researchers often are, is swept up in the glory of achieving an unattainable goal and the fame and prestige that goes with it. However, Will becomes consumed with guilt for changing the data. He alienates himself from close friends and is easily swayed to commit more fraud to cover up his initial fraud. He becomes depressed and agitated and starts experimenting with hallucinogens to cope with the inner stress.


Gina and her colleagues also strive to change things in different ways. They want to end the Vietnam War, achieve equal rights for all, and explore life beyond their comfort zones. Many of them experiment by exchanging lovers and discovering about themselves. Gina's relationship with Chris is one that is between two souls that want to explore the world in a larger context beyond their rigid Catholic beliefs.

Their relationship is almost a union of the body and Spirit. They seem to reject the orthodox Catholicism with their physical union. However, the relationship intensifies Gina's inner spirit and she is able to become more active within the world around her.


Violence is also explored in how people's ideals can metamorphosis into fanaticism. One intense subplot has Schaefer leading some grad students to Guatemala in the middle of a civil war. When they return things take a turn into the horrific as Schaefer takes his religious intolerance to violent disturbing levels.

In one graphic passage a former colleague of Schaefer's explains what the man's plans were when he returned to California. Schaefer is driven by his own charisma, fanatic views, and ability to lead others as a cult leader. He has the idea that only his way is the purest and that society is so flawed, that he must bring about its destruction.


Off Telegraph explores the highs and lows of the 1960's. It was a time when everything was new and just waiting to be explored, fought for, experimented upon, challenged, and questioned. It was a time of great ideals. However, under those ideals was a darkness that bred corruption, illness, violence, and death. For better and for worse we were marked by that time.