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Title: Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver ISBN: 0-312-03356-7 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1983 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Combines great writing and suspense with a unique setting.
Comment: This book is based on a true murder case which happened in Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula about fifty years ago. The last half of the story is almost entirely courtroom drama and is second to none for suspense in this genre. Not only do we get excellent character development and an exciting story, but also a nice sense of place, as Traver lived in the U.P. much of his life. Additionally, this book contains the most eloquent use of the modern English language I've ever read, particularly the character Parnell's quotes. Highly recommended to fans of courtroom drama or classic literature.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Book That Sets The Standard For "Legal Thrillers"
Comment: Many contemporary readers seem to find this novel "dated" or "trite." With all due respect, I find this type of thinking analogous to those who say the same about Bronte's "Jane Eyre," never taking the time to realize that she -- like Travers in this instance -- was breaking new ground, setting the standard for successive (and in all too many instances lesser) writers to equal and exceed, if only they could.
In "Anatomy," there is never a question that army Lt. Manion is responsible for the death of tavern owner Barney Quill in a relatively remote "upper peninsula" Michigan locale. Witnesses to the shooting death are hardly in short supply; add to that the fact that Manion himself readily admits to the homicide. What is at issue -- and which, frankly, may remain at issue even after the last page is turned -- is the question of Manion's culpability; was his killing of Quill justified, in the strictest legal sense, or was it otherwise?
Travers leaves that question dangling in the minds of his reader, diverting our attention, rather, to the practice of criminal law and trial strategies; his protagonist, recently-deposed County Prosecutor Paul ('Polly') Biegler, faces an uphill battle against not only his successful rival, Mitch Lodwick, but a high-powered deputy from the state attorney-general's office (from 'downstate' in Flint, Michigan) who promptly emerges as his true antagonist. Relative issues of guilt vs. innocence quickly take a backseat to questions of "gamesmanship" in the trial as Biegler fights to introduce evidence that the prosecution fights equally hard to suppress. "Truth" quickly becomes a secondary issue -- if an issue at all.
Nor are Biegler's problems confined simply to the courtroom; he finds himself entertaining a hearty dislike for his client -- as would most people as well as, one suspects, the man's own wife --even as he finds himself compelled to 'coach' his client through a recounting of the events leading up to the death of Quill (while always remaining within the American Bar Association's canons of conduct) which may or may not provide an "affirmative defense."
Travers chooses to recount his narrative through the first-person, and wisely so. Biegler's account is delivered in a somewhat wry, and at times whimsical, voice that is nonetheless passionate in its love for -- and belief in -- the law and the way it is practiced in the courtroom.
"Anatomy Of A Murder" emerges -- and today, almost 50 years later, remains -- as a classic novel of the American legal process. Anyone who thinks to term this novel as "dated" or "trite" need only to look to the fact that the book is still in publication, and readily available, as opposed to far too many of its "successors" . . .
Rating: 2
Summary: A dated potboiler.
Comment: A bestseller in its day (the 1950s), this novel is of interest now mainly as a period piece and as the source for the celebrated Otto Preminger film. "Robert Traver" was the pen name of a former prosecutor and judge who wanted to write a novel that showed what *really* happens in a murder trial. He more or less succeeded in the accuracy department, but otherwise this novel is a fairly routine potboiler, with a touch of sex and violence, a wrongly slandered maiden whom only the hero appreciates, an alcoholic mentor who helps the hero behind the scenes, a scrappy secretary who never gets paid on time, etc.
Readers looking for a novel about a trial that is both accurate and well written would be better off buying *The Just and the Unjust,* by James Gould Cozzens. If you choose to read *Anatomy of a Murder* or to see the film, you would also benefit from reading the chapter on the film in *Reel Justice,* which points out some ways in which the story is less than accurate.
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Title:Anatomy of a Murder ASIN: B00004TJKI Publisher: Columbia/Tristar Studios Pub. Date: 11 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $21.71 |
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Title: Trout Magic by Robert Traver, Milton C. Weiler ISBN: 0671661949 Publisher: Fireside Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1989 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Laughing whitefish by Robert Traver ISBN: 0312474865 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 1983 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Traver on Fishing by Robert Traver, Nick Lyons ISBN: 1592281532 Publisher: The Lyons Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Ox-Bow Incident (Modern Library Paperback Classics) by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Wallace Stegner ISBN: 0375757023 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 13 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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