Switch-hitting Dynamo -- Scott Turow.

• Author: Normey, Rob

Scott Turow is a remarkable and highly productive man; of that there can be little doubt. He has succeeded at not one but two highly competitive careers -- law and literature. Lawyers with dreams of breaking into print can only shake their heads in awe: how does he do it? With iron discipline, huge dollops of energy and intelligence, and a workaholic routine, that's how. Before discussing Turow's The Laws of Our Fathers, an ambitious attempt to write an epic novel of American society and to provide the excitement of a sensational murder trial, let's review his career to date.

Our switch-hitting dynamo was born in Chicago, the windy city with a reputation as a mean, often corrupt metropolis where bandit capitalism got an early start. He grew up with the corruption of the infamous political machine of Mayor Richard Daley, built on patronage, personality and corruption. Corruption has existed at all institutional levels in this Darwinian metropolis. The Chicago police were notorious for their robbery and extortion rings. A typical Chicago joke goes like this: a motorist is stopped for speeding and is given a ticket. "Thank Heavens," he exclaims, "I was afraid it was a stick-up."

Chicago is the home of both Al Capone and Saul Bellow, the Nobel prizewinning novelist born in Quebec. Bellow has been a major inspiration to Turow and his ability to write about social and intellectual problems in an absorbing and accessible manner is something that

Turow, in his treatment of the legal thriller, desires to emulate. Turow's parents were hard-working and success-oriented. They seem to have instilled in him a raging competitive streak. The budding writer attended university in the late sixties and graduate school at Stanford in the early seventies -- a turbulent and heady time to be sure. While his lifestyle was not too dissimilar to that of his peers, he imbibed enough of the revolutionary spirit of that era to warrant being described, in his phrase, as a "wild-assed hippy."

Turow had a few stories published and moved on to become a creative writing teacher. He was offered an even better university post in 1974 but reevaluated his career path. He chose instead to attend Harvard Law School. This was an ordeal by fire, of which he has given an account in his classic primer for law school students, One L.

After graduation, our man of law became an assistant US attorney, which he described as "a dream job, because it presented an opportunity to combat...