Protect and Defend

Rating:
Summary: Patterson triumph: Protect and Defend
Review: I had never heard of Richard North Patterson until I read this book. I am a 65 year old Gynecologist who does not read a lot of fiction, but since reading Protect and Defend (P&D), I have read two other works by Patterson: the newly retitled Caroline Masters and No Safe Place. While these are not so fine as Protect and Defend, which I consider on a plane with The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevski, they are also compelling books of their genre. Back to P&D - As a close observer of the political scene for the past 50 years and one with an extensive and hardwon knowledge of the abortion issue and its advocates on both sides, this book is a like a college course in current American political life and mores as well as the highly complex and agonizing partial birth abortion controversy. I was surprised and pleased that someone who was neither a physician nor a politician could "get it right" on so many levels: current day partisan political infighting over a supreme court nominee, campaign finance and the serious consequences of its current practice, the highjacking of the once responsible Repubilcan Party by special interests and the Religious Right, the extreme difficulty of adhering to principle by politicians dependent on the hugh sums of money poured into the politican system by one issue interest groups on both the left and the right, and last but not least, the complexity of the compelling legitimate arguments on both sides of the abortion issue. While North might seem to favor the Pro-choice forces, he demonstrates admirably the compelling arguments and the sincerity of many in the rank and file on the Pro-life side in his portrayal of the Tiernay parents and Senator Chad Palmer, while portraying accurately the crassness and insensitivity of radical partisans on both sides in his picture of the Christian Committment's attorney's (Pro-life) and the Anthony's Legions' leader's (Pro-choice) willingness to destroy anyone unwilling to march the last mile with them. I have recommended this book to every friend and aquaintance and patient I have seen in the last month, since I bought and read it, and will continue to do so.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Novel: Patterson's Best Yet
Review: PROTECT AND DEFEND is one of the most intelligent and exciting novels I have ever read. I couldn't put this book down. This book is what good writing is all about. It has drama, suspense and believability. The character development of all of the main players is superb. I think that this may be Patterson's best book to date.

Kerry Kilcannon is the new President of the United States of America. Caroline Masters is the President's nominee as the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The nomination is not well received by a conservative Senate led by Majority Leader and presidential aspirant Macdonald Gage; and Gage sets about to defeat the nomination by any means necessary. Set against this backdrop is an ongoing trial (nationally televised) involving the pregnant teenage daughter of Christian fundamentalist parents challenge to the constitutionality of a law passed by Congress called the Protection of Life Act: favored by anti-abortionists groups and disfavored by pro-choice groups. Richard North Patterson has created a well-researched novel about the current political issues of our times. PROTECT AND DEFEND challenges our notions about campaign reform, abortion and whether or not those who aspire to public office have any right to or expectation of any modicum of privacy in their private lives. Reading this book will lead you out of the grip of any unconsidered opinion you may have had about these issues. A thoughtful reader will find here a certain level of skepticism that lifts the mind out of all certainties but doesn't then corrupt it with cynicism.

Be sure to read Patterson's acknowledgements at the end of the book. It will give you insight into why this novel was so well crafted.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping story, but very biased!!
Review: I think it's safe to say that Richard North Patterson is a great storyteller!! "Protect and Defend" was the first of his books that I had ever read. It tells the story of a newly elected president and his first major decision...the appointment of a new chief justice to the Supreme Court. Politics, of course, makes this decision a difficult one for the president. When he finds his prime candidate, her past, as well as that of the rest of the characters, threatens to be divulged. In the most extreme cases, some pasts are thrown on the front pages of the news causing the most devasting of circumstances!!! Some recover, while others are left picking up what's left of their lives.
The book is without a doubt a page-turner. However, it is biased very much in favor of the left. While one gets a glimpse into just how much politics can affect the running of the country, this book goes out of its way to show the right as unredeemably bad and the left as undoubtedly good. I believe the author could have at least tried to be somewhat fair in his portrayal of both sides.
Finally, be prepared to face the toughest questions concerning abortion, specifically partial-birth abortion!!! The story is set up with the most difficult of situations. Here again, though, the right are painted as completely uncompromising to the point of being inhumane. The left, though, is either on the fence or shown to be compassionate. Politics aside, however, the questions are legit. What if such situations were to happen in real life?? They probably have occurred already to some degree. What is the morally right thing to do?? Is there a morally right answer?? This book will confront you with such questions!! What will your answers be??

Rating:
Summary: Protect and Defend: An Intellectual Read to be Enjoyed
Review: Protect and Defend by Richard North Patterson is a book that intertwines politics and ethics, career goals and the instinct to do what's right. It begins with Democrat Kerry Kilcannon narrowly winnning the office of Commander in Chief. When Kilcannon first assumes position in the Oval Office, he faces choosing a replacement for the Chief Justice for the United States Supreme Court. The president selects Caroline Masters, not only a liberal, but a woman. Republican opposistion includes Senator MacDonald Gage who searches to find the well hidden secret on this Californian judge to stop her from assuming office. Meanwhile, a recent law passed has sparked a historical case regarding abortion. Young lawyer Sarah Dash fights for 15-year-old Mary Ann Tierney not only against the church and pro-life supporters, but against the pregnant girl's parents. As the case battles forward, secrets and deceit are revealed on others besides Caroline Masters and Mary Ann Tierny. The fight for truth against ambition can be encountered by many characters in Patterson's masterpiece. Protect and Defend leads up to a riviting decision that will forever effect the United States.

I am a teenager, yet I found Protect and Defend very interesting and revealing of politics. The plot and characters are easily grasped, and the reading is relatively easy with the short chapters. However, the actually length of the book left a little to be desired, after awhile it felt like the numerous pages were bogging me down and halting me from enjoying the book's true potential. I have no other complaints, I know I will have to read the book again to search for details missed, but I can honestly say I will not mind doing so.

Rating:
Summary: strong work, excellent research but needed editing
Review: Richard North Patterson is a compelling storywriter, and up to this point, I have found his books to be wonderfully executed and gripping. However, Patterson should return to the "thriller/murder cases" and get out of this pontification on abortion and seedy politicians. Caroline Masters and Kerry Killcannon, who I sincerely enjoyed in their previous appearances, are now given halos and are so saintly and self-righteous, they are nauseating.
First off, Kerry, being a Catholic insinuates that he is pro-life, but defends the rights of those who aren't. As a Catholic, he's forgetting that abortion is not condoned, and if he wants to walk the walk, he needs to stand behind that; otherwise, he becomes a hypocrite, as indeed he does in this book. He is not the vital force evidenced in "No Safe Place," and he merely appears smug, determined to do whatever he wants in the name of doing what is right. He even sends the FBI after information from a newspaper doing a story on the trial. It's okay, Kerry says, to break the law, if you're noble in doing it.
All of the political backstabbing gets extremely tiresome, and so overdrawn, it's cartoonish.
However, it is the Mary Ann Tierney story that proves Patterson's pro-choice stance, and in this book, everyone who is prochoice is either mentally ill, outright cruel, insensitive and wrong. Meanwhile the prochoice people behave so magnaimously, and they are portrayed as the victims. Heading this farce of a philosophy is young, FEMALE Sarah Dash, who takes in Mary Ann when her parents continue to force her into having her baby, even though it will probably be born dead, and Mary Ann may never have any more children. Stacked deck indeed.
First off, Mary is only 15; she had sex with her boyfriend in the back of his car; he didn't use a condom because it wasn't as much fun. She says her parents never told her anything about sex. Now, she's pregnant, and all of a sudden this fifteen year old girl is something like Joan of Arc; where did all this maturity come from? And why did she neglect to tell her lawyer that her mother DID talk to her about sex, but obviously mary Ann didn't listen? Seems that her mother became sterile after having Mary Ann. Stacked deck again. Also, is it really realistic that so many people have had abortions, as evidenced by Chad Palmer and Lara soon to be Mrs. Killcannon? The death of one of the other young people just to prove how heinous the press and abortion are, is totally manipulative and ultimately a cruel plot mechanism to advance Patterson's love of Masters and Killcannon. Also, when Mary Ann finally has the abortion, wouldn't it have been interesting if the baby (not the fetus, as Patterson keeps calling it!!) would have been normal? No, Patterson is not content to pull that kind of twist.
What a sad world where abortion is so prominent; granted, this was a tough choice for Mary Ann to make, but her total disregard of her parents (who were also portrayed as evil villains) left her to make that choice alone.
I really disliked this book; and I will not read any more of Mr. Patterson's treatises on abortion or gun control. If he sticks to his earlier works, I'll certainly continue to enjoy them, but I don't want to be exposed to such one-sided partisan views in my entertainment.
NOT RECOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty exhaustive, if biased coverage to two big issues
Review: I will first compliment the author on doing a pretty good job of trying to present MOST of the issues covering the topics of this book; namely abortion and political maneuvering. I say pretty good, not outstanding for a few reasons. First, the author, clearly liberal, does try to humanize most of his conservative opponents, which I doubt a conservative writer taking on something this big would do if the situation were reversed. Yet ALL the liberal characters portrayed are compassionate human beings, and ALL the really nasty people happen to be on the conservative side. There are also a few missing pieces in the abortion argument, which I'll address later. By the way, the author of this review leans slightly towards the left for his political camp.

The book builds up to interesting stories at once. First, the machinations involved in selecting a Supreme Court Chief Justice. The second is a challenge by a fifteen year-old pregnant girl who wants to have an abortion without her parents' consent.

Less compelling of the two is the Supreme Court story, only because it does leave a bad taste in one's mouth about how high-stakes politics works. No player is without blame in this story, which makes one wonder sometimes if we are doing it right. The argument for this centers around the practice that getting into power is by far the most important goal, much more than actually doing the best thing for the people they govern. So much so that they will do whatever they can to hinder the progress of government when the other guy is in power to show that your own side can do it better.

Both sides will also present extreme cases as the norm when trying to deface the other side, which the issues in this book do big time. The issues of smear campaigns and digging up personal dirt also get examined. I should point out that in the book it is the conservatives who publicly drag a liberal's sexuality through the mud, where the only real instance of this I can recall is the liberal smear campaign of Clarence Thomas. Just trying to play fair here.

The other story concerns the abortion story. I will give credit to the author by bringing most of the arguments both sides have on the issue, and going into great depth on both sides. The author clearly thinks abortion is the way to go, but he does give the pro-life ample time by describing the actual procedure of a so-called "partial birth" ( a media-generated term, we learn) abortion, the one the fifteen-year-old would have to have. But he leaves out two important issues, which tend to tip HIS argument in HIS favor.

First, while proclaiming that abortion is good because it prevents unwanted children from being born to parents that can't afford them, the fact remains that most abortions are done by middle and upper class women as a convenient form of birth control. Lower income women keep their babies more than upper class women. Second, the abortion doctor they present is a compassionate one who would only perform "partial-birth" when it will benefit the health of the mother. It doesn't bother to mention that most abortion clinics really are "mills", where the academic worst of the medical-school crop run businesses strictly based on the fact that the more abortions they perform, the more money they will make. This, and the fact that most of the pro-lifers in the trial do get there heads handed to them by the young feminist lawyer point out that all that is right and true seems to belong to the liberal world. As a left-leaner, I don't buy all of it.

Rating:
Summary: intolerance speaks
Review: At the end of the book, Patterson writes that the 2 largest pro-life groups did not respond to his request for information. They must have read the manuscript and realized how hopeless it was. Patterson goes to great detail in investigating the pro-choice arguments but litters the opposite side with the standard southern, white, male, close-minded stereotypes. His blame of lack of research on the pro-life groups is lame and without support. He should have spent some time trying to understand the mindset of conservatives and pro-life advocates and he would have been much more successful in articulating this difficult subject. He ends up with the tired liberal picture of being tolerant of anyone who does not believe in absolute truth. And intolerant of anyone who does. He could have done so much better.

Rating:
Summary: Preaching to the Left-wing Choir
Review: From the pulpits of east and west coast liberal meccas, Martha's Vinyard and San Francisco, Patterson rants to his masses. His praises are sung on the review pages by such unbiased reviewers as Mario Cuomo, Barbara Boxer, Molly Ivins, Archibald Cox and the head of the ACLU - gee I wonder in which direction we are headed? This book is laden with cartoon characters - good hearted, good natured, big thinking liberal lawyers and alternately thuggish or hopelessly misguided and bovine Christian conservatives.

As the book opens, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (a card-carrying Conservative) is so apoplectic over the Democratic swearing in ceremony that he collapses in a fatal stroke. Frankly, its all downhill from there. Patterson's treatise is a pre-emptive cruise missile strike paving the way for the salvation of partial birth abortions. America, as portrayed in this novel is a land of manipulative mean-spirited, deep-pocketed Christians and liberals courageous enough to battle these evil minions.

Regardless of what the reader may think of the abortion debate, there is nothing quite so tedious as being bludgeoned with terribly one-sided arguments for over six hundred pages. I would recommend reading Patterson's thrillers and suggest to the author that he leave the left-wing diatribes to writers for the Washington Post and New York Times.

Rating:
Summary: Protect and Defend
Review: I can't believe I have not read a Richard North Patterson book before. This held me in it's grip as Grisham or Baldacci never have. It felt real and read easily. The ultimate tests have been- I still recall the story weeks after closing the back cover, buying another copy for a friend, and using scenario's from the story in conversation.
Today I purchased Degree of Guilt. We shall see if I am as enthralled...