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Loading... The Crime of Sheila McGoughby Janet Malcolm
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"[N]o other writer tells better stories about the perpetual, the unwinnable, battle between narrative and truth." --The New York Times Book Review The Crime of Sheila McGough is Janet Malcolm's brilliant exposé of miscarriage of justice in the case of Sheila McGough, a disbarred lawyer recently released from prison. McGough had served 2 1/2 years for collaborating with a client in his fraud, but insisted that she didn't commit any of the 14 felonies she was convicted. An astonishingly persuasive condemnation of the cupidity of American law and its preference for convincing narrative rather than the truth, this is also a story with an unconventional heroine. McGough is a zealous defense lawyer duped by a white-collar con man; a woman who lives, at the age of 54, with her parents; a journalistic subject who frustrates her interviewer with her maddening literal-mindedness. Spirited, illuminating, delightfully detailed, The Crime of Sheila McGough is both a dazzling work of journalism and a searching meditation on character and the law. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)345.73Social sciences Law Criminal Law North America United StatesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I absolutely hated this book. Normally I don’t say that, but I have to make an exception in this case. I spent the entire book being angry at Janet Malcolm; her point of view is so obviously biased that I couldn’t believe a single thing she said. She chose Sheila McGough as her “heroine” and then skewed her entire story to reflect that. The man who started legal proceedings against her became a Snidely Whiplash-esque villain, and all the lawyers were chastised as being either incompetent or downright malicious. I simply didn’t find the story credible, especially because I couldn’t even fathom what the case was supposed to be about – which leads me to believe that Malcolm doesn’t know either. Then there’s the overwritten, pretentious writing style, which was so precious and condescending that I wanted to throw the book across the room. Do not read this book. It really is that bad. ( )