Summary of Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Schlichtmann had a Porsche loan that was several months in arrears. He had no idea if Baybank South Shore had been paid in the last several months, but he was sure it hadn’t. He called a man named James Gordon to handle his financial affairs, but he couldn’t get through.

#2 In the summer of 1986, Schlichtmann repossessed the Porsche of James Gordon, a lawyer, who had been involved in the trial of Anne Anderson.

#3 Schlichtmann was extremely nervous about the outcome of the trial. He was afraid that if he lost, he would lose something of far greater value than money: his confidence in himself.

#4 The jurors began arriving at around eight o’clock in the morning. They would conduct their deliberations in a small room at the end of the corridor, up a narrow flight of stairs. Schlichtmann would watch their every step.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Aug 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822582392

IRB Media

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Insights on Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Schlichtmann had a Porsche loan that was several months in arrears. He had no idea if Baybank South Shore had been paid in the last several months, but he was sure it hadn’t. He called a man named James Gordon to handle his financial affairs, but he couldn’t get through.

#2

In the summer of 1986, Schlichtmann repossessed the Porsche of James Gordon, a lawyer, who had been involved in the trial of Anne Anderson.

#3

Schlichtmann was extremely nervous about the outcome of the trial. He was afraid that if he lost, he would lose something of far greater value than money: his confidence in himself.

#4

The jurors began arriving at around eight o’clock in the morning. They would conduct their deliberations in a small room at the end of the corridor, up a narrow flight of stairs. Schlichtmann would watch their every step.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

When the Reverend Mr. Bruce Young arrived in 1966, he was twenty-eight years old and ambitious. He and his wife agreed that Woburn was a good place to begin a career, but not a place they intended to stay for long. The town square was surrounded by two- and three-story buildings, the heart of Woburn’s once bustling commercial district.

#2

The leather trade supported other industries. Woburn was known for its chemical factories, but by the 1960s, the tanning industry had been eclipsed by competition from abroad.

#3

The Andersons had a guest for dinner that night, and Anne wept as she thought of how she would have to tell the guests that their son had leukemia. She had never been close to the girl who had died of leukemia in her junior high school, but the disease had terrified her because it was so mysterious.

#4

When Anne and Charles brought their son to Boston, Truman examined him and found that he had acute lymphocytic leukemia. The treatment was not good, but the chances of a successful remission were good. There was a 10 percent chance that James might die during the next four weeks.

#5

By the end of the first week, James’s platelet count was still low but holding steady. He had no new bruises or petechiae. He was losing hair and experiencing severe nausea because of the drugs, but Truman felt he was clinically stable.

#6

After the Andersons moved to Woburn, they began attending Trinity Episcopal Church, and Charles began serving on the church’s board and treasurer. They became friends with the minister, who was happy to have new members.

#7

In 1972, three cases of leukemia were found in the same neighborhood in Woburn, Massachusetts. The parents of the children, who were aware of each other’s cases, began to wonder if there was something strange about the incidence of leukemia in their area.

#8

As the cases continued to pile up, Anne began to think that they all shared a common cause. She thought there was a virus in the water that was transmitted through the air.

#9

The water in Woburn began changing in November 1964, when a new city well began pumping water into the Woburn system. The wells were drilled in the marshland on the east bank of the Aberjona River, half a mile north of the Pine Street neighborhood.

#10

The Woburn City Council appointed a special committee to investigate the problem. The city engineer told the committee that the chlorine, which was the source of complaints about taste and odor, was added to the water to kill bacteria. The residents continued to complain about the water, and the wells were eventually closed again.

#11

Charles and Anne had a difficult time agreeing on how to deal with the water issue. Charles was skeptical of the water’s connection to leukemia, while Anne was adamant about it. They rarely spoke about it anymore.

#12

Charles believed that Anne’s water theory had become a destructive obsession. It was contributing to