The Critical Response

 

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (Jonathan Yardley): Star Witness is daring and ambitious: daring because Mr. Kluger’s narrator, a young lawyer who comes to work for a conservative law firm, is a woman; and ambitious because the novel presents something of a tour de horizon of present-day legal issues…. Kluger is a serious man who has written a serious, provocative book…and a thoroughly entertaining novel.”

 

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER (Michael J. Bandler): “Captivating…. Skilled, eager to learn, resourceful, manipulative Tabor Hill is – despite her bravado among her male peers – driven by doubts. She irritates as she captivates, determined to prove herself in a world of men, to quench her professional and physical thirsts…. She overflows with life.”

 

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (Barbara Bannon): “A well-nigh perfect narrative…. As he describes Tabor’s involvement with peers, lovers, friends, and clients, Kluger excels in character delineation and in conveying the subtle nuances of human relationships…. A rich, satisfying narrative, full of sensitive insights and character portrayals that will reverberate in the reader’s imagination.”

 

BUSINESS WEEK: “Richard Kluger…has pulled a neat trick. He has written such a compelling first-person account of the early times and lessons of a young female lawyer…that most people will be sorry they can only meet her in print….. Kluger tells it all in frank detail…and the characters are warm, irascible, intriguing, inspiring, irritating, and peculiar: real.. This is not a fast read, but if you stay the course, you’ll hope for a sequel….”

 

TIME MAGAZINE: “Feminist Lawyer Tabor Hill…[is a] woman with a hair-trigger wit [who] could give lessons in politics to Machiavelli….she does it all, and does it well. So does Kluger, who knows the layout of the corridors of small-city power down to the decibel level of the lunches…. In the end she is pregnant and jobless, but Kluger makes sure she is not quipless.”

 

DETROIT NEWS (Joseph Barbato): “Kluger…is a skillful writer who gives us an entertaining and informative peek at the inner workings of a small law firm.”

 

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES (F. Lee Bailey): “Kluger’s grasp of the pragmatic affairs of lawyering range from commendable to astonishing. He lays open – in some cases right to the bone – a number of the basic reasons that lawyers are a discomforting lot…. The book’s best asset is Hill’s dialog. Like most advocates of high talent, she has a tongue like the business end of a freshly stropped razor and a devastating sense of timing.”

 

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER (James R. Frakes): “Kluger apparently knows as much about law and lawyers as any current novelist…. The most daring feature here is Kluger’s decision to render the action through Tabor Hill’s first-person narration. The voice sounds consistently authentic – whiplash smart, painfully self-critical, witty, candid, even raunchy when baited by swine (as she often is).”

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt): “Mr. Kluger…is endlessly resourceful in dreaming up new hurdles for Tabor Hill to trip over…. A psychological tour de force that depends for its impact on our sense of social justice.”

 

COLUMBUS DISPATCH (Patty Hillis Carro): “Kluger…has tackled the women’s liberation theme with a fresh, appealing approach. Where other books of the genre often settle for the hackneyed phrase, the familiar dialogue, Kluger fashions his sentences with care. One cannot coast through this novel. It’s filled with little gems that need time for digestion – prose worth savoring.”