Word: turow
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Lawyer Scott Turow makes a smashing fiction debut with his gritty Presumed Innocent. -- What does it take to be culturally literate...
Writers want to be read; most of them will also confess to dreams of striking it rich. Every so often, reality conspires to reward both desires at once. The latest beneficiary of this bolt-from-the-blue largesse is a Chicagoan named Scott Turow, 38. Since 1978 he has been a lawyer in his hometown, working for eight years in the U.S. Attorney's office and then as a partner in a private firm. He has also, like thousands of others among the gainfully employed, written in his spare time. Eventually he completed his first novel. Unlike most such manuscripts...
...Turow's good fortune cannot be written off entirely to luck. Although a beginning novelist, he is a published writer; his One L, an account of his first year at Harvard Law School, received admiring attention when it appeared in 1977. In addition, Turow's legal training and experience as a prosecutor have honed some skills useful to lawyers and storytellers alike: an eye for significant details, an ear for how people talk and what they may actually mean when under pressure. Presumed Innocent has not stumbled into success. It is a clever, carefully prepared plea for popular attention...
...killed Carolyn Polhemus? There is a simple answer to that question, of course, and Presumed Innocent eventually provides it. But the novel has aspirations well beyond those of the run-of-the-mill whodunit. Turow uses Carolyn's grotesque death as a means of exposing the trail of municipal corruption that has spread through Kindle County. The issue is not merely ! whether a murderer will be brought to justice but whether public institutions and their guardians are any longer capable of finding the truth...
...extended trial forms the novel's centerpiece and shows off Turow's specialized knowledge to best advantage. The jousting between prosecution and defense, the psychological intricacies of jury selection, the subtle influence a judge can exercise on the outcome of a case, all are convincingly and grippingly portrayed. And the irony behind these elaborate proceedings is that they almost certainly have no bearing on the actuality of Carolyn's death...