A Case Of Needing: Serious Revisions
Michael Crichton has penned some of the most engaging, timely, and
thoroughly accessible tales to be published in the last twenty-five years.
What his novels lack in literary merit and distinctive style they make up
for in crisp plotting and edge-of-your-seat suspense. From alien viruses to
regenerated dinosaurs, from evil Japanese monoliths to the insidious
maneuverings of the modern corporation, Crichton latches onto the
scientific and political controversies of the day, and squeezes out of them
every last ounce of shock value. At least, that's usually what he does.
A Case Of Need could have used quite a bit more shock value. The
problem is largely a matter of timing; when the book ...
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prose employed to
relate a thoroughly dull story. Karen Randall, the daughter of an eminent
physician, dies as the result of a botched abortion. Art Lee, a Chinese
obstetrician, is accused of performing the D & C that has resulted in her
death. Though Lee is known to be an abortionist, he vehemently denies any
involvement in the case. Lee calls upon his friend, forensic pathologist
John Berry, to clear his name.
John Berry careens back and forth from one Boston hospital to
another, trying to figure out who actually performed Randall's abortion,
and why it killed her. The investigation is complicated by the fact that
Randall was not even pregnant. Slowly, a picture emerges of Randall as a
freewheeling, loose woman with several abortions in her past, and
connections to some shadowy underworld characters. Berry ultimately
discovers that a drug-dealing musician was actually at fault for Randall's
death.
Why did Michael Crichton write this book? The answer seems fairly
obvious. Still ...
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and moral issues
in the medical community is mentioned, but not expounded upon in any great
detail.
Various statistics are quoted suggesting that abortion is a fairly
safe procedure, and a doctor friend of Berry's makes a fairly eloquent
speech regarding the positive aspects of getting rid of unwanted
pregnancies, but there is no strong case ever made for either side.
What would have been most engaging, in course, would have been
strong arguments made for both sides. There is perhaps no issue as divisive
as abortion, no modern medical procedure that elicits such strong passion
from advocate both for and against. Granted, Crichton was writing a
potboiler, and excessive philosophizing ...
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"A Case Of Needing: Serious Revisions." Essayworld.com. February 13, 2005. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Case-Of-Needing-Serious-Revisions/22179.
"A Case Of Needing: Serious Revisions." Essayworld.com. February 13, 2005. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Case-Of-Needing-Serious-Revisions/22179.
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