The Final Case - David Guterson

 The Final Case - David Guterson

She and he read

Brief summary: A young girl adopted from Ethiopia by a fringe Fundamentalist Christian family has died and there is evidence that she has been abused.  An octogenarian attorney takes her case.   He is no longer able to drive, so he enlists the help of his writer son who has given up writing.  

Don’t approach this book expecting a riveting political thriller. Yes, there is a court case, but there are also observations of family, aging, perversion of religion, racism and the all too familiar attributes of our culture today that embrace permanent states of outrage or cling to conspiratorial thoughts.  The author had a lot to say; a lot of “grist for the mill”.  I’m not sure on a first reading that I got it all, for there is a veritable smorgasbord of food for thought in this novel.

He also read the book and liked it....until it started meandering away from the case at hand.

*****