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“One of my best nonfiction is A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr. This book presents a real life courtroom drama pitting one aspiring lawyer against a coterie of company lawyers. The case is about the accountability of two large companies who dumped toxic wastes that contaminated the water source of the nearby community. It led to the deaths of children who became sick with cancer after exposure to said pollution.
The ensuing protracted legal battle was very frustrating, nail-biting, dramatic, suspenseful, and engaging. It’s like a Grisham only with a better material, superior characterization, and moral grit. I cannot fully describe the book’s impact on me at the time I read it. I just remember that it made me both angry and hopeful. Angry about the extent to which powerful people will do everything to get around environmental laws, hopeful that there are decent people who will dedicate their lives to pursue environmental justice at all cost.
Perhaps you have seen the movie starring John Travolta? Avoid it.
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Rise wrote this review Thursday, November 19, 2009.
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