Customer Reviews

Prior Convictions

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This is the best of the early Willa Jansson stories. (I haven't yet read the recent volumes that came out after a 5-year hiatus.) Focussing as usual on Willa's personal and professional crises, Matera puts Willa in yet another new job as a clerk for a federal judge, where a casual meeting with a high-powered lawyer leads to complications. Willa has clearly been set up, but by who and why? Willa searches for these and other answers with her ever-present supplies of wit and marijuana.

Willa Jansson is back from a year spent in exile, working for a large corporate firm in Los Angeles for the sake of her resume and bank account. Now she is back in San Francisco clerking for a judge. Before she knows it, she is in the middle of another confusing situation as a result of doing the favor for an old friend. This book was particlarly satisfying as it explored the motivations and conflicts of the anti-war activists. Willa's conflicts are many and the motives and motivations of the characters keeps us on the edge of our chair till the end.

the pot-smoking flower child daughter of beatnik idealists agonizes over lawyering in the materialistic culture of the early nineties. insightful look at politics in the judiciary. the protagonist's angst is infectious.