Legal Research

Law Library Staff Recommend...

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An occasional feature, "Law Library Staff Recommend..." highlights books that Law Library staff members have read for enjoyment and now recommend that others consider for inclusion on their own reading lists. If you have any comments or questions about any of the titles presented in this feature, feel free to email lawlib@umn.edu or stop by the library. Today we highlight Paul Theroux?s The Mosquito Coast. (Houghton Mifflin, 1982)

What could be more stressful than the start of a(nother) year of law school? Try being uprooted from your Massachusetts home and moved to the Honduras jungle at the tender age of fourteen. Charlie Fox?s father, Allie, has a dream: to create a paradise by spreading his own idea of ?civilization,? featuring his own underappreciated inventions. Allie?s dream turns increasingly to a nightmare for his family as his descent into madness becomes more pronounced.

The Mosquito Coast can be read and enjoyed in a number of ways: as a classic father-son drama, as a study in insanity, even as an adventure story. Some have read it as social commentary, but I think these readers are missing the point?although Allie Fox does have a lot to say about modern America. However you read it, the one thing it won?t remind you of is law school.

Full post as published by LexLibris on September 03, 2008 (boomark / email).