SALON

Tuesday, Oct 5, 1999 4:00 PM UTC

“Personal Injuries”

Writing at the top of his game in a thriller about the corruption of the courts, the author delves deeper into character than he ever has before.

By

Topics: Books,

Lawyer-turned-writer Scott Turow caught the elusive bubble of fame in 1987 with
the publication of “Presumed Innocent,” an intense, taut mystery narrated by a first-person, morally ambiguous attorney. Set in fictional Kindle County, clearly a stand-in for Cook County (where Turow still practices law), that novel practically invented the late 20th century genre of the legal thriller. (John Grisham gets some credit as well, but Grisham — an earnest, plodding moralist with an acute feel for the American hatred of large law firms and corporations — has inspired fewer imitators.) After two middling follow-ups, “The Burden of Proof” (1990) and “Pleading Guilty” (1993), Turow again fulfilled his potential with “The Laws of Our Fathers” (1996), a thriller that evoked the streets and straits of the urban ghetto with a darkness that few novelists from outside the ghetto would even attempt.

Now, with “Personal Injuries,” again set in his favorite county of the imagination, Turow turns to a new topic: the casual corruption that can infect a big city’s court system. The novel marks a watershed for Turow: All the legal twists and turns are still there, but this time the author focuses his fullest attention on character, scene and subplot. His Kindle County is an urban milange of venal court clerks, self-righteous prosecutors, corrupt cops and judges who sit on the bench only because they once knew the right politician. It’s an almost Dickensian fictional world — and indeed, on his Web site Turow calls Dickens a “profound influence” who “created robust characters without giving up his principal mission as a storyteller.” (His other major influence, he says, is fellow urban chronicler and Chicagoan Saul Bellow.)

Into this morally compromised environment Turow drops Robbie Feaver, a personal-injury lawyer who has been bribing judges for years. The name is pronounced as in “Do me a favor,” Feaver quickly tells us, and that phrase just about sums up his legal career. Cornered at last by prosecutors and the FBI, who persuade him that his only way of avoiding prison is to wear a wire, Feaver makes his tortuous way through a labyrinth of corruption as he and the feds try to trap the elusive leader of the bribery ring. An inveterate womanizer, a nonstop wisecracker and a man with plenty in his past to hide, Feaver still retains his unshakable sense of loyalty and his own style of fidelity to his wife, Lorraine, who is slowly dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The novel intertwines three tales: of Robbie’s adventures as an undercover agent in an extremely elaborate sting; of FBI agent Evon Miller’s transformation after she is assigned to keep an eye on him; and of Lorraine’s slow, sad deterioration. As the three strands come together toward the end, each character deepens and grows in humanity.

The book doesn’t pack much mystery, though. Once the main action is under way and Feaver, wired for sight and sound, has set out among the judges and the courtroom lackeys, there are few surprises. But “Personal Injuries” succeeds as a long look at a world where greed, sloth and lust hold sway despite the efforts of some good men and women.

Jonathan Groner is an editor at Legal Times in Washington. More Jonathan Groner.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations