1998

One of my best nonfiction is A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr. This book presents a real life courtroom drama pitting one aspiring lawyer against a coterie of company lawyers. The case is about the accountability of two large companies who dumped toxic wastes that contaminated the water source of the nearby community. It led to the deaths of children who became sick with cancer after exposure to said pollution.

The ensuing protracted legal battle was very frustrating, nail-biting, dramatic, suspenseful, and engaging. It’s like a Grisham only with a better material, superior characterization, and moral grit. I cannot fully describe the book’s impact on me at the time I read it. I just remember that it made me both angry and hopeful. Angry about the extent to which powerful people will do everything to get around environmental laws, hopeful that there are decent people who will dedicate their lives to pursue environmental justice at all cost.

Perhaps you have seen the movie starring John Travolta? Avoid it. ( )

This is an involving story that is as gripping as a novel but it is more real, and insidious in that the tale of the inhabitants of this unfortunate town fell victim to corporate greed and irresponsibility. A civil action is an uncivil attempt by a corporation to hide and downplay the negative effects of polluting an average town in New England. The lesson to be drawn from this unfortunate episode is to grasp that it could happen to anyone, anywhere, if citizens are not vigilant about their rights and protect themselves.

Distributor/Publisher Synopsis: Based on a real story, “[t]he lawyer had not wanted the case at first -- it was too big, too complicated, too risky. It concerned a cluster of childhood leukemia victims in a small town north of Boston where the city wells had been poisoned by industrial chemicals. Two of the nation's largest corporations, stood accused... In this book, you'll meet the Harvard Law professor who told the lawyer that this case was worth a billion dollars, that it was the sort of lawsuit that would ring the alarm in corporate boardrooms across America. And you'll meet his adversaries, foremost among them a crafty old trial lawyer, chairman of the litigation department at one of the biggest and most feared law firms in Boston. The case turned into an epic struggle that took nine years of the lawyer's life. At the heart of the legal system, he was confronted by powerful and well-connected interests who would do anything to win. In the end, the struggle nearly cost the lawyer his sanity. He sacrificed everything -- home, friends, and reputation -- not for money, but for what he believed to be the truth.”

“A page-turner. Rich and vivid. . . eventful and gripping." --The New York Times

Well written, and extremely well researched. I couldn't put this book down! ( )