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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A very minor Drury,
By
This review is from: Decision (Hardcover)
At his best, Allen Drury writes good political potboilers; his first novel, "Advise and Consent", won a Pulitzer in 1960. But "Decision" isn't Drury at his best.The novel has its good points. The characters are well-drawn and mostly convincing, and both the general topic (the Supreme Court) and two of the specific questions (the objectivity of the Court, and media coverage of executions) are interesting and extremely timely. The book was written in the early '80s; it says something that the issues are hot in the '00s. It's not fast-moving, but Drury is a thought guy, not an action guy, and he's not fast-moving even as his best. The book's weaknesses overwhelm the good points. The writing is ponderous and self-absorbed, with a tendency to drift off into endless paragraphs full of ellipses. Reality is sometimes warped distractingly by the author's antileft leanings. In Drury's world, the only people who contribute to an organization against the death penalty are Hollywood elitists and "such overseas sources as Libya, South Yemen, Angola". The common folks are unanimously in favor of the government throwing its weight around; vigilantes lynch only criminals, and vigilante justice is bad only because it violates theoretical principles of law. (In real life, of course, vigilantes are bad mostly because they lynch innocent people.) And (bizarrely) Drury doesn't seem to have done his legal homework. He gets the meaning and function of _Miranda_ pretty much entirely wrong, and I think he seriously overestimates how often the Supreme Court takes up murder cases. The legal case at the center of the plot, which supposedly pits the Law against "common sense", fails to convince me; it seems driven by plot requirements rather than legal or political reality. And surely any Supreme Court Justice would instantly and automatically remove himself from any case in which his own daughter was a victim? You might want to read this if you know you like Drury and you want to see him thinking about the Supreme Court. But if you haven't read any Drury yet, don't start with this one!
3 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Boring first one hundred pages,
By A Customer
This review is from: Decision (Hardcover)
Allen Drury's DECISION seems that it was Written to accomodate a certain number of pages required rather than have an attention holding story line. I came close to giving up on the book. The only thing that saved it was that I skipped one hundred pages at the beginning of the book before it held my attention. I will not read another Allen Drury book.
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