…Jeffrey Toobin’s “The Run of his Life: The People vs. O.J. Simpson.” I like Toobin’s writing in “The New Yorker” and commentary on CNN, and I wanted something clear and direct and easy to read. I had followed the case at the time and I had seen both of the recent TV series, so I didn’t learn much, if anything, that was new. (SPOILER ALERT: O.J. did it.) The most interesting part to me was Toobin’s dissection of the attorneys, prosecution and defense. He is unsparingly critical of their personalities, ethics, and, even, court room performance. (Of the principals, only Barry Schenck comes through looking good.) I had grown up thinking I wanting to be a criminal defense attorney. (I even had a six-month run at it before getting canned.) I guess I had about a dozen jury trials, civil and criminal, and, boy, was that not for me. I still have tremendous respect for lawyers who do that, but this book sure reinforced the beauty of me getting off that track.
So many Bob Levins on the Internet; I'm the Bob Levin who writes.