In his debut novel, Jeremy Blachman introduces us to Anonymous
Lawyer.
Blachman's main character is a senior hiring partner in a prestigious
law firm who decides to vent his frustrations in the form of an
anonymous weblog. Written in blog form, the novel is a collection of
individual entries interspersed with emails between "Anonymous Lawyer"
and "Anonymous Niece," the only family member Blachman's laywer
considers worth associating with because she has chosen to attend law
school. (She also possesses the Web knowledge to maintain his blog and
ensure his anonymnity.)
The attorney offers his readers a glimpse of the inner
workings of the mind of a man corrupted by greed. Anonymous Lawyer has
one objective: obtaining a chair position. He'll plow over whatever and
whoever gets in his way. In fact, he's already picked out an arch
rival, aptly titled "The Jerk." It seems The Jerk is lurking around
every corner, waiting to pounce on Anonymous Lawyer and yank that chair
position right out from under him. As the two rivals plot against each
other, it is difficult to discern which attorney is the "good guy," if
one even exists.
Anonymous Lawyer spends his days stalking the associates at
his law firm, delighting in their suffering and playing mind games with
them at every opportunity. As he sizes up summer interns, he decides
their worth based on client-billable hours (the intern who drinks too
much water will inevitably spend too many billable hours in the
bathroom). As his exploits of the associates become more detailed in
his blog, he finds he possesses a larger readership than he had
expected, and some of his readers are in his firm and catching on.
Unfortunately, he's found the blog to be such a release that he just
can't stop gabbing.
Anonymous Lawyer is a novel that can appeal to the
short attention spans of today's tech savvy reader. In fact, it is
based on a fictional blog that the author maintains online at
www.anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com.
The short, quippy blog entries provide the reader with a familiar
format that can be scanned in minimal time. The sarcastic observations
and biting insults of the aspiring chair keep us in stitches. Despite
using pseudonyms, every character is easily identifiable by their
personality. Anonymous Lawyer has lost his grip on reality and he's
taking the entire firm with him.
Author Web
Site
(though it is his Blog that is the great link!)
