Brain Storm

A stranger next to me on a plane finished Brain Storm and handed it to me because she wanted someone else to enjoy it as much as she did. Lucky me. Dooling combines a medical novel, a legal thriller, a sex comedy, and a sf novel while providing genuine character development ... and a book-length consideration of the meaning of free will. It's a funny, thoughtful, provocative book and total fun to read.After I finished, I went back and read everything Dooling has written. What a find! This one is my favorite, but the others are terrific, too.

Absolutely delightful! With one of the cheekiest pens this side of Carl Hiassen, Dooling spins out a terrific mystery that pulls the leg of every "classic" young-lawyer novelist of the past ten years. He manages to meld his sharp tongue with an accute observation of current debate between reductionist biology and mind-body philosophies. The book got off to a shaky start: it took some 50-or-so pages to realize what he was trying to do. The leaden dropping of techno-geek terms seemed careless. But as the reader finds the right register--this is not a serious detective novel--it becomes clear. If you relax, there's a lot of fun ahead. If you're all tensed up, you're going to miss the roller coaster thrills as this novel rockets around the curves of today's trends, allusions and illusions. Good stuff!

This is the type of book that should win a year end book award - not overrated, unreadable doorstops like "Mason & Dixon." If you are tired of reading hackneyed, Grisham legal thrillers, try this one.The story takes place in the near future and concerns a big firm associate (he endlessly researches arcane legal issues) who is suddenly assigned to defend a hate crime murderer by an irascible judge. Having worked as an associate in a big firm I can attest to the accuracy of Dooling's satire of the legal profession. He also displays a prescient knowledge of ridiculous hate crime laws and what they may look like in the not so distant future. I particularly enjoyed Dooling's stuff on Westlaw computer legal searches. Very funny. My only criticism is that he sometimes writes too much like a computer geek, showing off his knowledge on the subject.However, Dooling is a great writer and a brilliant satirist. Be prepared. You might want to wear your Depend undergarments. Reading this book may cause sudden laughter related bowel release.

Richard Dooling's new book "Brainstorm," is a roller coaster ride of a young attorney in an appointed case that he cannot win. The book delves into America's obsession with political correctness, finding someone to blame and our expectation that between government and science all of societies problems should be fixed without us lifting a finger. Dooling's sardonic style and cynical wit come through again and again in all of his characters but ecpecially the Federal Court Judge who is presiding over the young lawyers case. Dooling's Judge dispenses wisdom, wit and occasionally justice in a manner that makes you smile as he makes the lawyers squirm. The authors unspoken commentary on our judicial system, though sometimes heavy handed is always amusing and his characterization of life in a large law firm will strike home with anyone who has ever dealt with the creatures that are the product of these firms creation. Although I preferred "White Man's Grave," this book is a more than adequate follow up to that National Book Award nominee and I would suspect that this book could be one of this years sleepers. Do not miss it.

Dooling showed his command of black comedy with his first novel, Critical Care. In his second book, White Man's Grave (a National Book Award finalist), Dooling turned his pen to a comparison between West African witch doctory and one of the the West's own institutions of magic and religion--bankruptcy law. In Brain Storm, Dooling gives wonderful evidence that he has further sharpened both his comic skills and his already razor keen cultural commentary. He also adds a tight plot and more than a dollop of vivid sex that may tempt the undiscerning to accuse him of writing a market-driven book (which will also no doubt convert well to film--another curse to those same killjoys). If that is so, then may all "market" books evince such romping comic gifts and insightful social commentary. Don't hold your breath, though. Dooling's prose is rare and fine, despite being cross-dressed in market attire. In Brain Storm, Dooling puts the law, law firms, prosecutors and the judicial system squarely in his sights and then plugs them right where they deserve. Particularly appealing are his peeks into the workings of large law firms (of which he is a veteran) and the politics of prosecution. He also has some delightfully over-the-top characters, such as Judge Stang--a modern-day Roy Bean who would rather hang lawyers than criminals--and Myrna Schweich--a foul-mouthed, pint-sized criminal lawyer who can change from Urban Decay-accessorized grunge to pleated pinstripes in the back of a car on the way to the courthouse. Dooling's filter for sorting out our society's take on the law is neurology, specifically the neurology of criminal conduct. His guide through this area is a centerfold-eligible Ph.D. who becomes an expert neurology witness in the criminal case at the heart of the book. As you might guess from the decolletage on the book's cover, Dr. Brains is also Dr. Sex. But just as the cover is a poke at Harlequin Romance cover art, Dooling's sexy doctor is something of a poke at the law novel genre, which is rich with gratuitous sex. Sex in this case is just part of the fun, not the book's reason for being. I highly recommend Brain Storm. You can read it as a law novel, but one with a brain...and a sense of humor.