A Civil Action
by Jonathan Harr
5/5
Vintage 512 pages August 27, 1996
The true story of the toxic waste case that pitted Massachusetts attorney Jan Schlichtmann against two of the country's largest corporations, W. R. Grace and Beatrice Foods. A National Book Critics Circle Award winner and the basis for the 1998 film starring John Travolta.
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Jim's Review
🐛
Harr spent eight years following Jan Schlichtmann's wrongful-death case against W. R. Grace, then turned every deposition, motion, and emotional breakdown into one of the great works of legal nonfiction. This is the book that made a generation of lawyers go to law school — and another generation realize that the courtroom is mostly paperwork and exhaustion, not Perry Mason. The cross-examinations are reconstructed with the care of an Oliver Stone movie, and the discovery battles feel like trench warfare, because they are. Five worms. Pair with The Buffalo Creek Disaster for the other classic in the genre. Best book about civil litigation ever written.
Jim's Weekly Worm Hole
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