Woychuk is an unusually candid New York Citybased lawyer who specializes in work with the criminally insane. He is an advocate for patients' rights at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, a maximum security hospital for the dangerously mentally ill, men and women who often have a history of violence. Woychuk came to this unusually specialized practice as a result of a desire to use his skills in the courtroom and his dissatisfaction with endless days of paper-chasing in a corporate law firm. Here he relates six cases from his extensive files (over 300 cases) to illustrate various aspects of how the law treats the mentally ill. The clients he represented in these cases range from an infamous murderer who allegedly cooked and ate the heart of his victim to a quiet, gentle Sudanese whose biggest problem was that the psychiatrist who examined him knew even less English than the patient did. Finally, the author offers a lengthy essay on how to change a system that clearly has serious flaws. Woychuk is admirably frank about his tactics, his profession, his shortcomings, and his doubts (``I live with the painful knowledge that I am somehow complicit in the horrible acts some of my clients commit after I . . . help them get released''). Along the way, he offers insights into the workings of a trial lawyer's mind (``Lawyers strive to make the facts fit their theory of the case, not the other way around'') that should have extra resonance for Court TV addicts. Perhaps the book's greatest contribution is to show how little the criminally mentally ill resemble the monsters of serial-killer fiction and film; even the scariest of the clients Woychuk describes began his life as an abused child, the common denominator in almost all such cases. An intelligently written, often riveting collection of ``war stories.''
Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1996
ISBN: 0-684-87438-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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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