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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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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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 would ...
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"A Case Of Needing: Serious Revisions." Essayworld.com. April 12, 2005. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Case-Of-Needing-Serious-Revisions/25203.
"A Case Of Needing: Serious Revisions." Essayworld.com. April 12, 2005. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Case-Of-Needing-Serious-Revisions/25203.
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