The Short Reviewi:

This is going to be the “One L” for 2Ls, summer associates, and biglaw attorneys. Except it’s funny. Very funny actually. No clue why Amazon has it in the Legal Thriller category – this isn’t a book like “In the Shadow of the Law.” While there obviously is a plot (and the Amazon description sums it up nicely), I think that most people (or at least those with legal backgrounds) are going to read this primarily for the comedy and satire.

The Long Review:

Overall, I’d have to say the book was quite satisfying. I honestly didn’t know what to expect going in – the only thing I knew about the book, other than it being based on the AL blog ( http://anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com ), was that it was written in a very non-traditional format (the entire book is a series of many blog posts and emails without any sort of traditional narration present at all). However, those were my biggest reservations about the book, and based on a lot of the posts on here in the past few months it seems that a lot of people were concerned about that as well… so, I guess I should start by discussing those two points.

I’ll admit, I was very concerned about this when I first read that the book would be written in the form of a blog, and wasn’t sure how it would work in practice. I was nervous that telling the story this way was just some kind of gimmick that wouldn’t serve any real practical purpose. However that didn’t turn out to be the case at all. Although this format may take some getting used to at first, it definitely grows on you, and as you get past the halfway point you’ll begin to realize that telling a story like this through blog posts and email messages can be pretty effective as a literary device. I don’t want to give anything important away, but readers will probably end up appreciating the lack of any sort of unbiased or “neutral” narration in the entire book.

I also know there was a lot of speculation over how much of this book would involve original content, rather than recycled posts from the AL blog. Virtually the entire book is original content. Although a small number of posts from the real AL blog do appear in the novel, most (maybe all) have been revised or changed in some significant way. Furthermore, those posts are usually followed up with emails, which serve to connect the post to the novel’s storyline, and sometimes even improve on the posts themselves by providing additional information. So, the novel isn’t a regurgitation of the blog or anything like that.

Some other random thoughts:

* I really wonder what Michigan administrators, faculty, or students did to piss off Jeremy Blachman. Most of the T14 get bashed at some point, but there must’ve been almost a dozen digs at Michigan.

* Speaking of T14 bashing, AL weighs in on the infamous “Is Chicago better than Stanford?” debate.

* I don’t think the Amazon blurb is accurate when it says that Jeremy “rips away the bland façade of corporate law and offers a telling glimpse inside a frightening world.” I think it’s important to emphasize that this book isn’t some kind of whinefest a la the crap Opinionistas writes. Does AL portray law firm life in a negative light? Of course… however, the book isn’t preachy, and a law student or lawyer reading it won’t get the impression that their lifestyle or career choices are under attack.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to post. I might expand this review later on based on comments.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5814622)

"Meet Anonymous Lawyer—corner office, granite desk, and a billable rate of $675 an hour. The summer is about to start, and he’s got a new crop of law school interns who will soon sign away their lives for a six-figure salary at the firm. But he’s also got a few problems that require his attention. There’s The Jerk, his bitter rival at the firm, who is determined to do whatever it takes to beat him out for the chairman’s job. There’s Anonymous Wife, who is spending his money as fast as he can make it. And there’s that secret blog he’s writing, which is a perverse bit of fun until he gets an e-mail from someone inside the firm who knows he’s its author."

However the plot is told entirely through the blog posts and emails.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5814685)

http://img210.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1ast3vd.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5857562)

http://howappealing.law.com/051906.html#014673

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5815857)

I really can't say more without ruining the joke. However it should go without saying that AL's opinion of Minnesota is a lot more closely aligned w/ xo than, say, LSD.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5814768)

1) Your writing style is pretty weak (based solely on your revies in the OP).

2) Fix the username / registration problem

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5815223)

From what I've read, most of his "satire" is exceptionally heavy-handed--just a bunch of cliches about a rich, shallow, materalistic, cynical man exploiting a bunch of naive young people. That makes it wholly uninteresting and I think that it can be described as satire only in the very loosest and simplest sense (greedy people are bad, biglaw partners are greedy, etc.).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5818590)

"I'm not being sarcastic. It's delightful to know that my colleagues at "other big national firms" are wasting slots on students at schools ranked below number 3 in the U.S. News rankings. If only they start offering jobs to women, minorities, students with outside interests, older students with families, students who balanced law school with jobs and thus didn't have time to be on law review, students who screwed up in one of their classes despite being otherwise well-qualified, and students with glasses, I'll have our target demographic all to myself and be able to turn this firm into the powerhouse I know it should be."

This is embarrassingly heavy-handed and thus totally misses the boat as satire.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5818611)

However, believe it or not the book eventually acknowledges this very point, and handles it pretty well. One of the benefits of telling the story exclusively through blog posts and email messages is that you can't really tell whether something actually happened as it was described, or if AL really feels a certain way or if he's just acting out a shtick for his readers.

I probably shouldn't get into more detail because I don't want to ruin any plot points or jokes for anyone, but once you hit a certain point in the novel some of the heavy-handedness (both in the novel and in the real blog) makes a lot more sense.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5818658)

Second, I hope a lot of people buy this. 1L improved legal education for us all -- hopefully this can marginally improve firm life.

So glad to hear its not opinionista style whining.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5817166)

Like I said above, this isn't something like Opinionistas would write.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5818676)

In any case, I'll reserve further judgment until I read the book.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5818690)

I also don't think anyone would think this is supposed to be a real account of law firm life... I mean, the back of the book explicitly states that "Jeremy Blachman is not a hiring partner at a major law firm" and that he is "a recent graduate of Harvard Law School." I believe the Amazon page says the same thing.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5818696)

Although I haven't read the book, I think I can safely say that it will do nothing of the sort; I realize that you've said not much heed should be paid to the Amazon blurb here, but if this is how Blachman/his publisher have chosen to market the book, it's pretty silly.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5819270)

I'm not sure it's really relevant, though, especially since he almost certainly spent a summer or two at one. That's more exposure than most folks have, including most folks on here.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5822653)

Huh? He's not going to a firm. He, um, got an advance and published a novel.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5822787)

I'll feel stupid if this encourages people to post negative stuff merely to get me to send them a free book, so consider this a one-time thing, and I'll make up for it by sending out two free books to the first two people who send me a well-intentioned idea for how to get some early buzz going about the book. On this thread or e-mailing me directly is fine, just mention this post in the e-mail so I know.

If you can't find my e-mail address elsewhere, anonymouslawyer2004-at-yahoo will work fine.

Oh, and GTO can speak to this, but besides the free advance book, I haven't paid him anything. His positive review was nice, but I had no reason to expect it wouldn't have just as easily been a negative one.

I'm away this weekend and stealing time on a friend's computer, but I'll check back in Monday night and I'll be happy to answer questions about the book or anything like that.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5828087)

Thanks for the offer. I'm considering it, and I'll let you know.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5828819)

in fact, i think this is true of most or all of the stickies currently hanging enormous up at the top of the board like an enflamed goiter

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=419229&forum_id=2#5938490)