David Berg (1)

This should be titled “Tales of the Brilliant Brother of a Dead Guy." Berg spends way more time talking about his successes as an attorney than he does about his older brother’s life and death. His coverage of the trial of Charles Harrelson, the man hired to kill Alan Berg, clearly depicts the corruption of Texas law enforcement and the ethics of criminal jurisprudence at the time. His account of the Berg family is a thought-povoking study of dysfunction. The descriptions of Houston and the surrounding area in the 1970s were fun because I’ve lived here for a long time. But there was too much left unexplored, like the fact that the murderer was the father of Woody Harrelson, the actor. What effect did that have on the actors family and life? But ultimately, the author is always at the center of the narrative. I guess his recognition as “Best Lawyers in America” has gone to his head.… (mais)

I had high hopes for Run, Brother, Run - it has all the elements that would make a great story - but I just didn't find it terribly satisfying. Mr. Berg tackles a difficult thing - the murder of his brother at the hands of a killer that went free in a miscarriage of justice. It is not an easy tale, but I believe it deserves a better telling than this one.

Run, Brother, Run is at its best when Mr. Berg focuses on his family, his brother, all the ways his family and the events of his brother's murder affected his own life. It's a great and tangled story of divorce, dreams never realized, and family entanglement. Alan Berg is a likeable guy from his brother's description - a bit feckless, more reckless, but likeable - taking after and attempting to defy his father in a struggle that ends in his death.

The failures of the book occur as the author smears everyone he has ever known or who touched the case. If you crossed his path he's got an axe to grind (unless you're "Racehorse" Haynes). Next, he retries the case against Charles Harrelson in minute detail with himself cast as the prosecutor. This chunk of the book must have been cathartic for Mr. Berg, but for this reader it was excruciating. The root of the missteps in this book appear to lie in the deep and undying rage that its author holds - rage against everything and everyone (including himself). At its most florid, his rage taints his writing making him supremely unsympathetic. When it is reigned in it provides color and form to the stories he tells. His rage is illustrative of the affects of murder and dysfunction on the people touched by it, but it just isn't all that interesting to watch its owner take it out for a drive.… (mais)

Memoirs that involve dysfunctional families, cold-blooded murders, blatant antisemitism, and miscarriages of justice are not usually described as "enthralling", but this one, surprisingly, is. David Berg, a noted lawyer and writer, tells the story of his family, with a focus on his brother Alan's murder approximately fifty years ago. Berg is a entertaining writer, even when dealing with serious and painful subjects, and he keeps the reader engaged even when recounting the ins and outs of the convoluted murder trial following his brother's death. Berg does get a little bogged down in the legal details and how he would have argued the prosecution's case had it been his to argue. But, on the whole, this absorbing memoir is definitely worth reading.… (mais)