A Civil Action

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Summary: Who's got the money?
Review: Woburn was a city which voluntarily refused MDC water in place of water. When it finally decided to accept MDC water extensions the funds were commingled with school funds. Colonel Ribbs was in charge of the state public works commission and the MDC was mired in controversy surrounding the conviction of four involved with the MDC, including a John F. Kennedy. In examining this case one might wonder if the city of Woburn was a decoy for the Houston space center during the cold war.

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Summary: One of the top nonfiction reads of the 90's!
Review: I am extremely aware of how many people have written reviews of this book. This particular genre isn't in my areas of expertise, because I am a scientist and an educator, but this 'legal thriller' absolutely held my attention to the point that I finished it in two days in spite of being in school. Harr did a magnificent job of writing this incredible story, and it was the first time I had been exposed to the moral questionability of all of the groups involved (except the families who were hurt). Harr was fair and made it clear that that Jan Schlictman was not a very nice person when this case started. Typical of the generation I grew up in, money was the name of the game for him and others. But as the case evolved and he came to know the people who had been so devastated by the greed of the companies who dumped their hazardous waste into the drinking water of this community, Schlictman obviously became a changed man...and as both the book's ending and the ending of the movie indicated, he may not be as wealthy as he once was, but he is a better person and probably (I hope) happier. I keep waiting for Harr or someone else to find a case as riveting as this one was. Please, your audience is waiting with baited breath! Karen Sadler, Science education, University of Pittsburgh

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Summary: Good book but leaves a lot out
Review: Was this case linked to the Whitey Bulger case in some way? At the Woburn court was a former FBI agent Ronald Weafer and Woburn also had Spec.Agent Driscoll. A Justice Dept employee also lived there and the whole area was surrounded most likely in a national security veil.Bulger had a girlfriend in Woburn and Boston Edison had ties back to Woburn in the 1960s, future home of Agent John Connelly.

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Summary: A case of intrigue- Woburn,NASA,USS Thresher, JFK
Review: Was the Woburn epidemic indirectly linked to the sinking of the USS Thresher in Portmouth, NH in Aug. of 1963? In Woburn the NASA site might have been seen as a threat to funding for the Boston Navy Yard. Shortly before the USS thresher sunk , a group of transferees went to the Portsmouth Navy Yard from the Boston Navy Yard at a time when the two might have been seen as competing for funds as bases were being scrutinized for closing by Robert McNamara and the Thresher sinking might have been a way to cast serious doubt on quality of workmanship by the Portsmouth Navy Yard and ensure the operation of the Boston Navy Yard. Woburn was an epicenter between the space program and the military and JFK was personally involved in the site p[roposalfor Woburn on a parcel of land featured in this book.

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Summary: Is there much more to the story than this?
Review: Was the severity of this case downplayed? Why were the court records (about 190,000 pages) of this case thrown away after the book was written? Why are some of the obituaries and other info relevant to the history of Woburn excluded from the microfilm of local newspapers? Were some kids involved in the Woburn epidemic enrolled in secret medical experiments and then tracked or automatically inducted into government service later as a result of such treatments? Was the handling of the water pollution and long term exposure of thousands of people in Woburn and surrounding communities an experiment? Did one of the kids in the case not die? Many unanswered questions!

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Summary: Brilliant and all true!
Review: A Civil Action is absolutely one of the best books I have ever read! The best part about it is that it's a true story! The author was really there! If you read the last section in the back of the book, you will see that the author has had an unprecedented opportunity to see a complicated case from the inside. This book also reveals the truth about the case and why it couldn't be won. Jan Schlichtmann lost his money, his sanity, and a chunk of his life because of the problems in the execution of the legal system. The most galling part is how everybody failed to recognize this. The families he represented ultimately ended up screwing him. Then lawyers who had had very little to do with the case came in and demanded their share. They left him with nothing. I am glad that this has all been exposed. Words can't express how good this book is!

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Summary: An attempt to bring closure to a complex case
Review: In the early 1960s, NASA was looking to put a research center in Woburn that may have been perceived as competition for funding for New England military bases, like the Boston Navy Yard.The land around the area mentioned by this book was quite controversial and there were many more than 6-8 families affected by cancer in the wake of pollution of the local groundwater. It could have been stopped with the implementation of the Slichter Act, designed for public safety. This book highlights one controversial case involving 3 major companies,WR Grace the primary one along with Beatrice foods. Grace is a company that had at one time a former national security advisor (Zbignew Brezinski), CIA officer (Al Fiers) and Peter Lynch of Fidelity Investments (newspapers listed this info)...

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Summary: A TRUE STORY THAT READS LIKE FICTION
Review: Although I'm not usually a reader of non-fiction, many of my friends insisted that I read this book. The fact that the movie was coming out prompted me further. I can't tell you how much I loved this book. Even though it's 500 pages, it goes fast. There are times I wanted to punch everyone standing in the way of attorney Jan Schlictmann. You meet some sad people in this book, primarily the leukemia victims of Woburn, Massachusetts but sadder still the members of that "old boy's club of Harvard". Harr's writing of this appalling occurrence is nothing short of masterful. My hat is off not only to the author for this extraordinary undertaking but to the attorneys who made an incredibly true story seem so unbelievable that one could realistically believe it had to be fiction.

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Summary: An Extremely Well Written Book
Review: I read A Civil Action long before it came out as a movie. Knowing nothing about it, I was immediately struck by how well the book was written. It's an extremely easy read, written by an obviously professional writer. Then, the topic and treatment are absorbing, a book of marked social importance that reads as well as the best literary fiction. A Civil Action is a true literary accompliahment, a book I recommend at the highest level.

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Summary: Great example of investigative journalism
Review: This book is incredibly accurate, fair and entertaining. I agree that it should be required reading for anyone entering law school.