The Laws Of Gravity by Liz Rosenberg

The Laws Of Gravity by Liz Rosenberg – 364 pages

Book Blurb:

An exquisite tour de force, The Laws of Gravity is a testament to what it means to be a family, what it takes to save a life, and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love. Two families, bound by blood, hear terrible news. One decision holds the key to survival–but at a devastating cost.

Nicole, auburn-haired, airy, and beautiful, discovers her body is betraying her. She turns to cousin and childhood best friend Ari for the cord blood he’s been banking for his own children. Ari stands firm, bringing them before the scales of justice. Solomon Richter, a state Supreme Court judge on the brink of retirement, is touched by this legal battle like no other. His blood case, he calls it. A case that calls into question the very things we live for: the enduring bonds of family, and the love that lasts a lifetime. It’s Nicole’s last chance, Ari’s last stand, and the judge’s last case.

A novel of heartbreaking honesty, humor, and depth–an unforgettable story of finding love and finding family — The Laws of Gravity heralds Liz Rosenberg as a storytelling sensation.

My Review: 3 stars

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There’s no doubt that this author can write and even less doubt that she is a poet as many of her scenes are quite lyrical and filled with symbolism. This book takes on a lot and by that I mean almost too much. Family ties, sickness, friendship, marriage, divorce, the law, the judicial system, judaism, adoption and more that I’m forgetting. I loved the judge and liked that we got to know him and his background so we learn that a judge is a sum of his or her experiences in their “objectivity”, however the striking resemblance between Nicole and the judge’s daughter seemed either unnecessary or unfinished in the storytelling.

The two parallel cousin relationships that are continually mirrored in this book seemed a little incestuous for me. I kept expecting to read that Nicole and Ari had a kiss in the woods or something scandalous in their past. I’m not sure where all of Ari’s hate and control issues came from but I would’ve liked that to have been explored. All in all, this book is about families and the truth that lies behind the walls of their homes and hearts. Satisfying read.

Quotes I liked:

She slept with her mouth wide open, as if she had swallowed a disc of darkness.”

– “Children know what’s essential: friendships, our families. Those are the things that matter. We love what we love.”

– “It’s never too late to be grateful for you life.”

– “Trying to get to the bottom of a family schism was like peeling an onion-by the time you got to the end of it, there might be nothing left.”

– “Worry for him was a form of prayer.”

– “As long as you’re learning, you still feel alive. Learning is the greatest defense against despair.”

– “Justice can punish a man for behaving illegally. It cannot force a man to do the right thing.”

– “…her greatest treasure was the leather-bound copy of the Koran she kept on a high shelf in her room. Her second-most-treasured book was Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends And Influence People.”

– “You never regret the things you don’t say,” he had once told her. “We Jews are people of the mouth. and that’s what gets us into ninety-nine percent of our trouble. Saying what’s on our minds.”

– “Family can form between people of no blood relation. Family, very simply, are the people to whom we feel most closely bound. Family is where we hold nothing back.”