An Almost Life [Hardcover]

Kevin Mednick (Author), Judith Shepard (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2007

If you think the law is a serious business, you haven't met Mike Samuels. Here's a lawyer who wonders what possessed his clients to hire him in the first place, and starts every trial expecting to be tapped on the shoulder and told to hand in his briefcase and tie. It s a viewpoint with which his ex-wife concurs, his kids dissent, and his girlfriend could go either way. His best friend Dan understands him completely, which worries Mike no end.
But it's show time or crunch time or time to hit the panic button, depending on your point of view, as Mike prepares for the biggest case of his career. His client has, for reasons Mike cannot fathom, placed her future completely in his hands. Standing in their way is defense lawyer Harry LeCount, the crew cut Prince of Darkness. Has this Almost Life been a complete waste of time or has Mike actually learned a thing or two along the way?
Like it or not, Mike Samuels is about to find out.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A partner in an Albany, N.Y., law firm that specializes in personal injury and medical malpractice cases, debut novelist Mednick crafts a quippy, discursive tale of a goodhearted lawyer's wakeup call. The divorced father of two teens, Mike Samuels has been a personal injury lawyer in Sloan County, N.Y., for more than 20 years, but a midlife feeling of alienation from work has set in. He has two strong-willed women in his life: secretary Alice and girlfriend Ann-Marie, who wants him to commit. Getting by on his self-deprecating wit and sardonic facade, Mike rolls along, but when he accepts the case of Evelyn Walker, who is suing her former employer over a debilitating job-related injury, Mike is forced to shake off his ennui and get focused to defend his client. His neurotic wisecracking can be wearing, but once the story gets to the courtroom, Mike makes an appealing smalltown hero. (Dec.)
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Review

A New York trial lawyer who specializes in personal-injury litigation narrates attorney Mednick's fast-paced, entertaining debut novel. Several surprise twists provide a snazzy climax. No real threat to Turow or Grisham, but not bad, not bad at all. --Kirkus

...Despite Medrick s narrative skill in keeping readers curious about the outcome of Evelyn s case, which will be tried in a small town in upstate NY, the book s most compelling and incisively funny - sections have to do with Mike s commentary and asides on lawyers, judges, justice and contemporary culture, including the inanity of golf, the psychology of the working-class in rural America, the pathetic comedy of small-claims night court, and the fear of jurors who want to run home and barricade their doors and remove themselves from a world that s too complicated, too confusing and too dangerous. Mednick also has a sensitive feel for what s left of America after highways and malls. And he can put his own stamp on familiar schtick, such as a hilarious understated telephone exchange between Mike and his mother... --The Independent

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: The Permanent Press (December 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579621570
• ISBN-13: 978-1579621575
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,384,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "This woman really needs a lawyer.", December 16, 2007

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Almost Life (Hardcover)

Mike Samuels is in his forties and unhappily divorced from Andrea, his wife of sixteen years. She has since remarried; her new husband, Tom, is ambitious and prosperous, everything that Mike is not. Mike's self-esteem has hit rock bottom. "An Almost Life," by Kevin Mednick, refers to the protagonist's lack of engagement with the world; he feels like a walking shadow, a person without substance: "I'd been fading away for quite a while by then, disappearing to an unknown locale." He has a decent enough practice as a personal injury lawyer and a pretty, bright, and witty girlfriend, Ann-Marie, who, Mike insists is "not crazy about me," and "I'm not sure I like her either." In addition, he has two great kids, fifteen year old Adam and thirteen-year-old Esperanza, whom he adores and who love him as well. With all he has going for him, Mike still claims that he is merely going through the motions.

How to get Mike out of his funk? An unusual new case, brought to him by a woman in her mid-forties from upstate New York, captures his attention. Evelyn Walker suffered severe injuries when her hair was caught in a spinning roller at the paper goods plant where she worked. The roller ripped away four inches of scalp. She is suing the owners of Borum Industries, whom she claims allowed their employees to use equipment they knew to be unsafe. Evelyn tells Mike, "I want a tough lawyer from out of town." He replies, "Will you settle for one out of two?"

Mike initially has doubts about the viability of Evelyn's case. As the trial approaches, his qualms increase, since there are still some serious issues that have yet to be resolved. Is the weakness and pain in Evelyn's right arm a direct result of the accident? If so, who is responsible--the owner, for not making sure that effective safety procedures were in place, or Evelyn, for behaving carelessly? The outcome of this dispute is far from certain and Mike cannot handle much doubt in his fragile state. When his opponents resort to dirty tricks, Mike finds his inner pit bull and decides to fight back with a vengeance.

"An Almost Life" is a humorous and breezy story about a man who is a much better lawyer than he gives himself credit for, as well as an extremely loving and devoted father. Even his ex-wife doesn't hate him. Still he cannot relax and go with the flow. Fortunately, as Mike gets more deeply invested in the Walker case, he snaps out of his torpor long enough to learn about the virtues of patience, courage, and faith from his determined client.

This is a feel-good story about a nice, average guy who is having a rough time accepting the fact that his wife dumped him and that he will never be a superstar in his profession. Mednick's prose style is effortless and understated and his wry humor is delightfully engaging. The author makes personal injury law fascinating (no mean feat) and although the ending is a bit too pat and sentimental, "An Almost Life" is a diverting debut novel.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There are no Victor Laszlos anymore - or are there?, December 24, 2007

By 

Scaramouche Maruti "Scaramouche" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Almost Life (Hardcover)

This is a laugh-out-loud and ultimately redemptive first novel about a self-deprecating personal injury lawyer from upstate New York. Who would have thought? A self-deprecating lawyer? But the novel has shades of Woody Allen, James Taylor, and Saul Bellow that make it all work.

Mike Samuels is just another middle-aged, middle class, divorced guy who feels he is slowly disappearing from life itself when he takes the case of Evelyn Walker. The former small town beauty has been scalped by a glue machine and by everything else in her life. When Mike realizes only he can right the terrible injustice to her, the burden of responsibility makes him want to fade away completely, but his sense of duty keeps him in the game for one last inning.

His efficient, long-suffering secretary Alice keeps his practice afloat, even when, in the middle of a major trial, he forbids her to take messages, any messages, from anybody. His girlfriend Anne-Marie is supportive, calm, sexy, and witty. Mike dotes on his two teenagers, Adam and Esperanza, and it's requited. His best friend Dan, brilliant but blustery, gives him endless pep talks on women, life, and other stuff he may really know nothing about. And while it's apparent Mike has nothing to be ashamed of except his own lackluster connection to life itself, he spends his days idly longing for the nobility of "Casablanca," plagued by hypochondria and self-doubt, reliant on Xanax to get him through the 3 a.m. willies, bullied by the viciousness of opposing lawyers, almost hopeless in courtrooms filled by deficient judges, small-minded jurors, lying witnesses, and clients who get their idea of the law from tv.

Mednick gives us a great primer on the actual practice of personal injury law. In his hands it turns out to be, and I hate to admit this, intriguing. He has a wonderful sense of place, the deteriorating landscape of the rustbelt, the fade-to-grey North country, and yet he still finds promise in small town America. He loves his characters, not just the heroic judges and doctors and the hot stripper with a complaint about her breast implants ("Can I show you the scars?") but also his triumphant ex-wife, barbaric opposing attorneys, and venal clients.

The author makes some great wisecracking detours into hypochondria, the differences between how men and women prepare for a date, lawyer's tv ads ("Mad Dog Duggan"), anti-depressants ("How could one drug cause drowsiness and insomnia?") teenagers ("Kids are forgiving creatures. You don't even have to be good. You just have to try.") America ("Rural people identify with their bosses...If Karl Marx lived in upstate New York, the world would be a different place.") and country clubs (where folks join to "disapprove of all the things they can't disapprove of elsewhere.")

I found myself wishing for a real Hollywood ending, where the bad guys get beat up in a rousing courtroom trial and the hero rides off with the stunning stripper whose scars have healed, but it's a tribute to the book's honesty that it shows us how to weather the storms of life without a swelling sound-track or explosions in Act 3.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, but pointed, January 12, 2008

By 

Jeff Durstewitz (Saratoga Springs, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Almost Life (Hardcover)

Who knows what queasiness lurks in the hearts of tort lawyers? Kevin Mednick knows, and he tells all in this fast-paced, funny, knowing book about what lawyers do and how they do it. (Warning: As they say about politics and making sausage, some of it ain't pretty!) Mike Samuels may not want to be a lawyer, but by the end of "An Almost Life" most readers will want his phone number in case they slip and fall.