Four Trials » (Special Value)

On July 6, 2004 Senator John Edwards was chosen by John Kerry to be his running mate and will be nominated for the Vice-Presidency at the Democratic Convention in Boston July 26-29. After graduating from North Carolina State University in 1974, John Edwards earned a law degree with honors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For the next twenty years, Edwards dedicated his career to representing families and children hurt by the negligence of others. In 1998, he was elected U.S. Senator in North Carolina , and has emerged as a champion for issues affecting the daily lives of regular people in North Carolina and the nation. Edwards resides with his wife and children in North Carolina.

Raised in a small town by parents employed in the local mills, John Edwards worked in those mills himself — and then went on to become one of America's most successful and respected attorneys. He built a national reputation representing people whose lives had been shattered by corporate recklessness and grievous medical negligence. In landmark cases, Edwards helped people from all walks of life stand up for themselves against tremendous odds. Four Trials provides an electrifying account of four of his cases as it tells the story of the courageous and unmistakably decent people Edwards was privileged to represent in times of tragedy, great loss, and often great joy. And in a deeply moving account, Four Trials also speaks of the tragedies and joys that Senator Edwards has known in his own life — and how today life and justice are more precious to him than ever.

Publishers Weekly

In his campaigns for the U.S. Senate (successful) and the Democratic presidential nomination (struggling), Edwards has defiantly celebrated his earlier career as a trial lawyer. Following that instinct, Edwards has chosen to cast his campaign memoir as an account of four of his courtroom experiences. Four Trials is brimming with Clintonian empathy for regular folks, and Edwards is at his best in his endearing portraits of the victims he represented in medical malpractice and personal injury lawsuits. He also displays a keen understanding of the psychology of a jury, which he calls "a microcosm of democracy." Edwards weaves in recollections of his youth as the son of a mill worker, his rise to prominence as a lawyer, his dedicated family life and the death of his son in a car accident. But he mostly sticks to the details of the cases; he omits almost entirely his years in the Senate and his plans for the presidency. Edwards can tell a good yarn, and at times this book works as a courtroom drama. But it suffers from shoddy, platitudinous prose. The book is chiefly of interest for the way it manifests Edwards's strategy to present himself as an advocate for the downtrodden to his new jury, the American electorate. Agents, Mel Berger and Norman Brokaw. (Dec. 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.