Breezy portraits of lawyers and judges that capture the quirkiness of the Australian legal profession.
O’Donnell, in his debut memoir, takes an irreverent look at practicing law Down Under.
In Australia, making fun of others is known as “sledging.” In this book, a Melbourne attorney subjects his colleagues to a fair amount of sledging, providing readers with a light, irreverent memoir. “If you are expecting that this book is about the law, I’m sorry,” he writes. “It’s not. It’s about people.” Those people include a veritable encyclopedia of legal professionals, from fellow law firm partners and law clerks to judges, whom O’Donnell often captures with a sharp, satirical pen. They include “Simon,” who used “nearly $300,000 of his clients’ money to purchase a flock of emus”; “Fred,” whose wife challenged him to perform sexually while he was hospitalized in traction; “Bert,” whom local police described as “the FBI (fat bald and ignorant)”; and two elderly judges who refused to recognize the concept of daylight saving time. As O’Donnell tells tales of his colleagues’ boozing, cricket-playing and mutual sledging, readers may wonder how Australian lawyers ever get any work done. But the author gets into the work as well, offering readers an intriguing window into Australia’s British-style legal system. Along the way, he details several cases, including that of a woman who claimed workers’ compensation benefits after a lamp fell on her when she was having sex with a colleague. The book becomes a bit tedious when the author discusses trusts, mortgage funds and other dry legal subjects, but it doesn’t take long before he’s back sledging a cop known as “Radar,” who claimed he didn’t need any electronic equipment to gauge a car’s exact speed.
Breezy portraits of lawyers and judges that capture the quirkiness of the Australian legal profession.Pub Date: June 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-1452513874
Page Count: 310
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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