Transcript
A CIVIL ACTION BY HARR BOOK REVIEW
One of the things I enjoy the most about my career is that there is an infinite number of books I can read and learn from them, and A Civil Action book is not an exception, especially by being based on a real-life story. This book is honestly one of the most captivating books I have ever read. The fact that it is related to law and that it leaves the reader a good lesson regardless of their profession. The book has taught me that being interested in studying law and becoming a lawyer it is not only about your personal benefits, but society's as well. I would risk saying that a law-related career might be the most important and most beneficial to the world. The book intertwines the lives of members of a city who are profoundly affected due to some companies' fault. As a society, we sometimes think of lawyers as liars, as people who are in it for the money and extremely powerful in the wrong way. A Civil Action book teaches the reader to think otherwise; it shows how lawyers contribute to the society's well-being. Aside from the legal teachings the book provides, the book's primary lesson is that even though persistence is key to success, we need to learn where to stop to prevent collateral damages.
The main character of this book, Mr. Schlichtmann, is portrayed as a lawyer who is kind to people. He really cared about his community because he listened to them, was very hardworking, and was confident. Schlichtmann, from the beginning of the book, is exposed as a person who finds it challenging to administer himself financially. Even though he mentions that he did not care about the money, he is described as a very well-dressed man who wore tailored shirts, Hermès ties and drove a Porsche. I believe that the author gives all these details about the character to kind of play with the reader's thoughts as it did with me. At first, I thought of the main character as someone very show off, but he turned out to be very humanitarian and that even though he had a lot of knowledge, it didn't mean he was very wise in his personal life. On the other side of the story, a community in Woburn, Massachusetts, is experiencing lots of leukemia cases from the smallest members of each family: kids. These cases were happening without anyone noticing the frequency of them nor the cause until the Anderson family got involved. The Anderson family was able to recollect a bit of information and evidence about the community's leukemia records and decided to consult legal advice from a firm whose Schlichtmann was working for. In this section of the book, the author makes the reader feel empathy towards these families by being very detailed in describing how each one of them was grieving this unfortunate event. This is the part where the author made me understand how important it was that a lawyer had to help them out because only a lawyer would prevent future cases as well as punish those responsible for this.
The author also explains how, through exhaustive research, hiring of experts, and other beneficial elements to win the case, a lot of money was spent, and Schlichtmann's loans continued to increase. Indeed, Schlichtmann is set as an example of somebody who was very persistent and gave everything it was in him to prove himself and his clients. Schlichtmann's high confidence turned out to be one of his weaknesses rather than a strength. It is fair to say he would die for the love he had for his career. In my opinion, this book helped me understand what my desired career is about and what it entails. I would suggest that everyone interested in this career needs to read it because it enables you to analyze if you are willing to make some sacrifices and especially if you are willing to be humanitarian like Mr. Schlichtmann. Even though you are not interested in law-related careers, this book will leave you a precious lesson: take risks and be confident, but also be conscious that you can lose it all.
(Harr 1995)
Bibliography
Harr, Jonathan. 1995. A Civil Action. Penguin Random House LLC.
