Summer Reading

In this fast-paced world where beepers, Blackberries, and mobile phones intrude on every waking moment, summer remains the one time of the year when it is still permissible to go on vacation and disconnect. And one of the best ways to unwind is by reading a good book. To encourage this low-tech pastime, the Lawyer asked faculty to recommend a title they had recently read, one that would be suitable for a beach bag or backpack. Here are their selections.

NOVELS

Crow Lake
by Mary Lawson
(Dell Publishing, 2002, 304 pp.)
This book seems to me a fabulously austere Anglo-Canadian's take on Proust's method; the shards of memory are (in a quite wonderful way) less lush and evocative, more spare and (aptly) rigidified. But the novel's far more than a meditation on memory: I thought Lawson had a tremendously interesting view of her narrator's misplaced and misunderstood guilt and her mixture of incredible self-knowledge and self-deception.

Mark Kelman, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law

The Dream of Scipio
by Iain Pears
(Riverhead Books, 2003, 416 pp.)
The Dream of Scipio weaves together three tales, each of which is set in one of the darkest moments of European history-the last days of the Roman Empire in the West, the descent of the Black Plague during the 14th century, and World War II in Vichy, France. The protagonist in each story strives to save something of the civilization he treasures from the gathering darkness. In the process, each is ultimately forced to make profound and vexing moral choices. Pears's erudition in richly conjuring and weaving together the three historical eras his characters inhabit, combined with the unsettling difficulty of the moral dilemmas his characters face, makes this a thoroughly thought-provoking novel. Yet the suspense, intrigue, and romance also make it extremely engaging. But be forewarned; as with many of the issues we examine in our Law School classes, The Dream of Scipio offers no easy or comfortable answers.

Allen Weiner '89, Associate Professor of Law (Teaching) and Warren Christopher Professor of the Practice of International Law and Diplomacy

Emma
by Jane Austen
(Modern Library Classics, 2001, 384 pp.)
Although not a popular book, Emma is soul-satisfying every time you read it (ditto Middlemarch by George Eliot and Moby-Dick by Herman Melville).

Janet Alexander (MA '73), Frederick I. Richman Professor of Law

The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde
(Penguin, 2003, 384 pp.)
This book combines literary allusions, detective fiction, and fantasy into intoxicating romps. The setting is England in the mid-1980s, but a different England—one in which the Crimean War is in its 130th year, air travel is common but only by zeppelin, cloned dodos are the favored pets, and the public loves literature and the arts. Riots break out in the streets between gangs of followers of different artistic schools; discovery of a long-lost play by Shakespeare threatens to sway the general election. When our plucky heroine finds herself inside the novel Jane Eyre, the fun really begins. The anger management therapy for the cast of Wuthering Heights is not to be missed; neither are the audience participation performances of Richard III. Don't think too hard about how this universe works; just enjoy the ride. (But don't let Miss Havisham drive.)

Hank Greely (BA '74), Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino
(Harvest Books, 1982, 276 pp.)
Calvino is one of the most talented writers of the late 20th century. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is probably the best postmodern novel I've read. It takes on the themes of literary postmodernism—the nature of authorship, of narrative, and of plot; the relationship between the novel and the material conditions of its production, e.g., the publishing industry—all in the context of a rich and compelling narrative. In this book Calvino is essayist, high theorist, and classical storyteller all at once. Here he reminds me most of Umberto Eco.

Richard Thompson Ford (BA '88), Professor of Law and Justin M. Roach, Jr. Faculty Scholar

The Intelligencer
by Leslie Silbert
(Atria Books, 2004, 338 pp.)
The author, a young woman with a Harvard degree and a postgraduate career as a private investigator, has written an entertaining mystery about the death of Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, intertwined with a present-day mystery involving a young Renaissance scholar turned P.I. As mysteries go, it's a great deal smarter than most and a great deal of fun.

Ronald Gilson, Charles J. Meyers Professor of Law and Business

So Long, See You Tomorrow
by William Maxwell
(Vintage, 1996, 144 pp.)
This short work of fiction could be regarded as a memoir, but from an interesting angle. The author looks back to a moment in time many years ago when, as a boy, he was oblivious to the plight of a casual friend—and then imaginatively reconstructs the life of the other boy, grounding both of their lives in the loneliness and confusion of youth, as well as the character of memory and regret. It is a quietly rendered, highly sensitive book that will stay with me for a long time.

Robert Rabin, A. Calder Mackay Professor of Law

POETRY

Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems
by Billy Collins
(Random House, 2002, 192 pp.)
Even those who are not normally poetry lovers may enjoy Billy Collins's deft irony and rich metaphor. After long days with tedious documents, his turn of the phrase may be just the thing. For those feeling vaguely deprived because their vacation includes no exotic travel, his poem "Consolation" offers exactly that:

There are no abbeys here, no crumbling
frescoes or famous
domes and there is no need to memorize a
succession
of kings or tour the dripping corners of a
dungeon. . . .
And after breakfast, I will not have to find
someone
willing to photograph me with my arm around
the owner.

Deborah Rhode, Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

The Bible
(Oxford Press, 1998, 1,806 pp.)
The book has an impressive sales record, authorship of the work is in dispute, and some marketing strategies used to promote or suppress the text are controversial. From Larry Lessig's perspective, it might be valuable to observe that the copyright on the book has long lapsed, and it is easy to find on the Internet as well as in a variety of soft- and hardcover editions. Yes, I'm talking about the Old Testament. If you haven't read it recently, it's a rather remarkable document that I've found evolves with the reader. Skipping the "begat" parts and the rules for building temples helps speed the plot nicely. What you get from the book depends greatly on what you are looking for. Thus, the reasons I found the work illuminating can (should) be quite different from the reasons anyone else might or might not find the work worth reading.

Joseph Grundfest '78, W. A. Franke Professor of Law and Business

Intellectuals by Paul Johnson
(Perennial, 1990, 400 pp.)
Johnson contrasts the claims staked out by leading Western intellectuals (from Rousseau to Lillian Hellman) with personal conduct often at odds with those claims. A chapter is devoted to each intellectual, so it is easy to read this book one chapter at a time. The chapters do not build on each other, so you can start anywhere you please. I found the book hard to put down.

Miguel Méndez, Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law

MEMOIRS

The Balkan Trilogy
by Olivia Manning
(Penguin Books, 1981, 924 pp.)
This is a remarkably detailed and textured portrait of Europe (in particular, Romania) on the eve, and then in the midst, of World War II. The historical detail of Manning's account, ranging from political figures and events to types of cuisine and clothing style, is truly breathtaking. At the same time, she brilliantly captures the painful uncertainty of men and women seeking to make sense of the unfathomable reality of death and destruction occurring just beyond view, while the mundane details of daily existence—the need to work, the stresses of marriage, the passion unfulfilled—continue to press.

Amalia Kessler (MA '96, PhD '01), Assistant Professor of Law

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain
(Ecco, 2000, 320 pp.)
This is a vivid, colorfully written, often profane autobiography about working one's way up from the first taste of an oyster as a boy in France to sweating on the lower ranks of Cape Cod kitchens to becoming head chef at several restaurants in New York. Who would have thought that a chef could have so much to say about organizational behavior? Bourdain's insights about working relationships and institutional culture are worth a mountain of management books, and unlike them, his book makes the reader laugh out loud. Don't worry—you will be able to eat in a restaurant again. You'll just know a lot more about the food on your table and what it took to put it there.

Kathleen M. Sullivan, Dean and Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Stanley Morrison Professor of Law

HISTORY

The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History
by Philip Bobbitt
(Knopf, 2002, 960 pp.)
Bobbitt is a wonderful writer. This huge book is about the relationship between war and constitutional orders. In particular, the author argues that what he calls The Long War—basically the period covering the two World Wars, the Russian Revolution, and the Cold War with its various conflicts—changed the nature of the "state," producing what he calls the market-state. The book then explains how the market-state is threatened today by, among other things, the rise of non-state terrorist actors.

Pamela Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law

They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace; Vietnam and America; October 1967
by David Maraniss
(Simon & Schuster, 2003, 572 pp.)
This terrific book, which won a Pulitzer Prize, is about the social turmoil in the United States in the fall of 1967, juxtaposing student protests at the University of Wisconsin against the Dow Chemical Co. for making napalm, and the shock of combat for a group of newly minted Marines, of the same age as the protesters, going into battle for the first time. Maraniss does a superlative job of researching the social background and developing the psychological profile of each important person in the book, in an attempt to explain why some ended up protesting and others ended up fighting.

A. Mitchell Polinsky, Josephine Scott Crocker Professor of Law and Economics

Landscape and Memory
by Simon Schama
(Vintage, 1995, 652 pp.)
Schama is one of my favorite historians. I met him in a bookstore in Amsterdam in 1995, where I purchased this book. It is, I think, his best. Schama writes so beautifully and imaginatively that his histories have the feel of poetry. This book, about the relationship between nature, human perception, and experience, attempts to explain history through our interaction with the landscape around us.

G. Marcus Cole, Professor of Law, Helen L. Crocker Faculty Scholar, and Academic Associate Dean for Curriculum

SOCIOLOGY AND SCIENCE

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
by V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee
(Quill, 1999, 352 pp.)
A fascinating account of cutting-edge neurological experiments, starting with the phenomenon of phantom pain experienced by amputees, and branching out to a wide range of new perspectives on the workings of the brain. Ramachandran himself is a vivid and likable character. The book portrays a nice interplay of objectively enthralling science with the subjectivity of the investigator.

Tom Grey (BA '63), Nelson Bowman Sweitzer and Marie B. Sweitzer Professor of Law

Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
(Scribner, 2003, 416 pp.)
This work of nonfiction, which reads like fiction, follows the lives of several young women in the South Bronx over a 10-year period, beginning in the late 1980s. It provides a fascinating and sobering picture of the factors that lead them into early motherhood and years of living in poverty. It also is a tour through the drug trade, prison life, and the welfare system. LeBlanc draws readers into the worlds of these young women with great compassion, but without sentimentality. You will not put it down.

Michael Wald, Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law

Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill
by Jessica Stern
(Ecco, 2003, 400 pp.)
This book is based on extensive interviews with terrorists and terrorist leaders, who provide their own perspectives on what they do. These interviews took place over a period of time that preceded the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (BA '85), and could not be done now. A theme of the book is the similarity of individual motives across religions.

Michael Klausner, Nancy and Charles Munger Professor of Business and Professor of Law