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A review by juliebuckles
A Case of Need by Michael Crichton, Jeffery Hudson
3.0
I discovered a first edition of A Case of Need by Jeffery Hudson in one of the stacks in my bookstore. I was intrigued for a few reasons. 1/ Jeffery Hudson was a pseudonym for author Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame. 2/ published in 1968, five years before Roe v. Wade, the book is about abortion.
From the dust jacket: Pathologist John Berry strips away the secrecy and hypocrisy that surround abortion when his best friend is accused of performing "the scrape" that led to the death of the teenage daughter of a prominent Boston surgeon.
Michael Crichton graduated Harvard Medical School in 1968 or 1969 but chose to become a writer. I read A Case of Need as a historical document of the medical field in the 1960s, of attitudes about abortion, of this Madmen-like world of doctors with wives and nurses flitting around the edges of the action (being "wild" or "hysterical" or "flirtatious"). Crichton also uses footnotes which is surprising but also an indication of how seriously he took medicine--and wanted his readers to understand this world. And he does talk about the strides in medicine, including The Pill.
As for the plot, there's nothing too surprising. John Berry is an ex-military (WWII), ex-cop turned pathologist who charges from one doctor to the next to find clues about the death of a prominent surgeon's daughter. He interviews roommates tracks down boyfriends, and talks a lot about abortion. Who has them and who performs them—all from an uber male perspective. There's plenty of holes in the plot and the ending left me a bit confused but overall I found it intriguing to read as we are about to confirm a supreme court justice who may upend a legal right to an abortion.
From the dust jacket: Pathologist John Berry strips away the secrecy and hypocrisy that surround abortion when his best friend is accused of performing "the scrape" that led to the death of the teenage daughter of a prominent Boston surgeon.
Michael Crichton graduated Harvard Medical School in 1968 or 1969 but chose to become a writer. I read A Case of Need as a historical document of the medical field in the 1960s, of attitudes about abortion, of this Madmen-like world of doctors with wives and nurses flitting around the edges of the action (being "wild" or "hysterical" or "flirtatious"). Crichton also uses footnotes which is surprising but also an indication of how seriously he took medicine--and wanted his readers to understand this world. And he does talk about the strides in medicine, including The Pill.
As for the plot, there's nothing too surprising. John Berry is an ex-military (WWII), ex-cop turned pathologist who charges from one doctor to the next to find clues about the death of a prominent surgeon's daughter. He interviews roommates tracks down boyfriends, and talks a lot about abortion. Who has them and who performs them—all from an uber male perspective. There's plenty of holes in the plot and the ending left me a bit confused but overall I found it intriguing to read as we are about to confirm a supreme court justice who may upend a legal right to an abortion.