Innocent

Actually wanted to read Presumed Innocent by Scott Turrow but got Innocnet.Not anything graeat...just readable...

"Innocent" by Scott Turow is the sequel to his 1987 blockbuster "Presumed Innocent." Rusty Sabich, now chief judge of a state appellate court, is accused of the murder of a woman just as he was more than twenty years before, and his old nemesis, Prosecuting Attorney Tommy Molto, has him in court again, but this time for the murder of his wife. The courtroom narrative section is told mainly from the point of view of Rusty's son, Nat, in many ways the least prescient character. The prosecutor's long sections are told in the third person. Sections are narrated in the first person by Rusty and by his mistress Anna. Turow is a very felicitous writer, a good stylist who is skilled at characterization and plotting. Rusty's wife is so heavy into so many drugs for her manic-depression that it is mind-boggling. She is a computer whiz who lives in her own world apart from her husband's. When he's having his affair with Anna, and when the narration is switching back and forth between the two, we, as readers, are given more insights, but as the book goes on, Rusty becomes more difficult to fathom. He turns out to be too much of a cold fish, and we wish we got deeper into his psyche. Rusty at the end of the book is more of an enigma than he was at the beginning. Characters turn up from the previous book like his defense attorney Sandy Stern. Molto is afraid that he'll be hung out to dry as he was the first time, but he's continually egged on by his young hot-to-trot assistant, Jim Brand. Rusty says, "this case is old wine in a new bottles. It's just a lot of rancid crap from a compulsive guy who never figured out how to give up." Frustrated by his father's mood, his son Nat says, "up close and personal, my dad has actually got the cork in pretty tight." It's a terrific story, I think, spoiled by too much computer gobbledygook for the average reader like me. The author's use of computer terminology and geeky stuff in the court section is a detriment, and one wishes for the old days when human actions and simpler devices were the norm for crime novels. The book provides an insider's, a pro's knowledge of the way courts, judges, and the law operates. The trial scenes are well-managed and fascinating. It's a suspenseful roller coaster ride and well worth the trip.

Presumed Innocentの続編。改めて内容を紹介する必要はないけど、本自体はきれいなもので満足しています。

I'd forgotten how well Scott Turow writes (I read Presumed Innocent and The Burden of Proof a long time ago and loved both). Suspense until the end. I liked that it was told through the eyes of several different people. So good.

I am a big fan of "Presumed Innocent" and most of Turow's work in general. Compared to the wasteland of mediocre writing that's so plentiful out there, his writing is full of lively imagery and smooth, original prose. Some other reviewers think this book is a disappointment, but I am guilty of loving it. It took courage for Turow to even attempt a sequel to a nearly perfect story, but he's up to the challenge. It's clear from the start that like most of Turow's other books, this isn't just a legal thriller -- although there's plenty of that -- it's an exploration of human nature and what people do when faced with impossible choices. At first, I wasn't sure that I liked how the narration shifted around among the main characters, but after a while, I began to really appreciate what it brought to the story. For example, in the first book we don't know much about Tommy Molto who is one of the prosecutors working on Rusty's case. We get the impression that Molto is not one of the good guys, maybe even a little shady in his overenthusiastic pursuit of Rusty's demise. Eventually he's accused of tampering with evidence although it's clear he was mainly in the wrong place at the wrong time rather than actually guilty. In "Innocent" we see some of the story from Molto's point of view and it turns out that he's really a pretty good guy who's been locked in a competitive, one-upmanship thing with Rusty for more than twenty years. The way he describes his wife and baby son make him more than just a cardboard villain. It turns out Molto has values and in the end he proves to be an honest man. The other point of view that was very enlightening was Nat, Rusty's son. He grew up in a home with an emotionally unstable mom and an emotionally closed dad. The toll this has taken on him is painful but overall, Nat's a good kid struggling to find his own way. He says "...when you lose your mother or father, life is fundamentally different. One of the poles, north or south, has been wiped off the globe and will never rematerialize." The book was full of moments when I wanted to scream at the main characters "Don't do it!" because it was so clear to me the path they were choosing was not a good one. Still, like real humans, they made the mistakes anyway. I wouldn't say that I didn't anticipate most of the twists and turns in the plot, but there was one I just didn't see coming at all and that - plus some great writing -- made this book worth my time.