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Completed
December 2010
Title
Anatomy of a Murder
Author
Robert Traver
Published
1958
Quote
"At that moment I envied the man. For Parnell McCarthy possessed that rarest and most precious of human talents, a talent so elusive that it receded only the faster before those who wooed it with more gadgets and toys: the capacity for participation and joy, the enviable ability to draw vast pleasure and enjoyment from small occasions and simple things. For all the old man's show of cynicism, he possessed the sense of wonder and soaring innocence of a small boy flying a kite."
Review
I really liked this lawyerly story, with its old-fashioned 1950s language.

This book is set in the Upper Peninsula area of Michigan, a place I've never been to but have always wanted to go. I have visions of the Upper Peninsula being all woodsy and outdoorsy and small-townish and quiet. I imagine it would be like stepping back in time.

Someday soon, I will go to the UP, as the locals call it. I try to visit my mother's side of the family in Michigan every year, but as family visits tend to go, I stick close to home and people, and they are near the capital, Lansing. But one of these years, and apparently it must be during the summertime, I will venture north to the UP.

Meanwhile, this book was a fine read, but now what I really want to do is see the 1959 movie of the same name, starring James Stewart and Lee Remick.

Also meanwhile, for my lawyerly friends out there, I do think this is a must-read for you. In fact, I think that in law school there should be a required course, something along the lines of "Legal Fiction". Oh gosh, how I would love to take such a course, or teach it! A good courtroom drama has all the best ingredients.



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