Sign in with Facebook
Alan's Reviews > One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School
One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School
by
by
Must disagree with the jacket/ GoodReads blurb, "entirely true." NOT according to one of his undergrad professors, Theodore Baird, who wondered how Turow could present himself as such a blank slate upon arriving at Harvard Law, when he had endured the undergrad assault of Baird's Amherst College. But of course, it makes a better story about only the Law School if the naive youth arrives so unprepared for the Big Leagues.
But he'd been in the Big Leagues for four years prior: the League that produced Robert Fagles, Richard Wilbur, James Merrill, William Pritchard, the League started by Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson.
Perhaps the Bildungsroman like this requires mental rags to riches. It does read well, as if "entirely true." But isn't that the role of Fiction? I always told my classes that if a film claimed to be based on a True Story, it was far from it, because if it really was such, it would claim the Opposite: "None of the characters are based on real people�" in order to avoid lawsuits.
But he'd been in the Big Leagues for four years prior: the League that produced Robert Fagles, Richard Wilbur, James Merrill, William Pritchard, the League started by Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson.
Perhaps the Bildungsroman like this requires mental rags to riches. It does read well, as if "entirely true." But isn't that the role of Fiction? I always told my classes that if a film claimed to be based on a True Story, it was far from it, because if it really was such, it would claim the Opposite: "None of the characters are based on real people�" in order to avoid lawsuits.
Sign into Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see if any of your friends have read
One L.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 1, 1979
–
Finished Reading
June 9, 2016
– Shelved
June 30, 2018
– Shelved as:
american-lit
Comments Showing 1-1 of 1 (1 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Alan
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
Jan 26, 2023 01:39PM
Candi from CA, Thanks for liking my review. By the way, Prof Baird built the first Frank Lloyd Wright house in New England, in 1940 for $5-7K. Wright's son-in-law built it. Baird also invented a daily writing course, Englaih 1-2, with assignments about language: 1) Have you ever told a lie? 2) What were you doing with words, which represent truth, when you lied? 3) Tell of your witnessing a lie. How did you know it was one? 4) etc... At AmColl, the Chair of English taught freshman English...my year, G Armour Craig, my freshman teacher. Baird would enter the classroom (where the windows were close to the ground, Appleton House) through a window, point at it and say, "What's THAT?" Hesitant student, "A window." Baird, "It's a DOOR, can't you see I just entered through it?" Then he'd through his hat in a wastebasket next to his desk, "What's THAT?" Student, "A wastebasket." Barid, "No, it's a hatrack. Can't you see I keep my hat there?" After Baird retired, the English Dept stopped teaching such a time-consuming and brilliant course. Why? They had become student-oriented...just not so oriented as to read daily student papers. By the way, I taught a similar, daily composition course at my two community colleges, one on Being Polite.
reply
|
flag
