Protect and Defend

Rating:
Summary: Protect and Defend: An Intellectual Read to be Enjoyed
Review: Protect and Defend by Richard North Patterson is a book that intertwines politics and ethics, career goals and the instinct to do what's right. It begins with Democrat Kerry Kilcannon narrowly winnning the office of Commander in Chief. When Kilcannon first assumes position in the Oval Office, he faces choosing a replacement for the Chief Justice for the United States Supreme Court. The president selects Caroline Masters, not only a liberal, but a woman. Republican opposistion includes Senator MacDonald Gage who searches to find the well hidden secret on this Californian judge to stop her from assuming office. Meanwhile, a recent law passed has sparked a historical case regarding abortion. Young lawyer Sarah Dash fights for 15-year-old Mary Ann Tierney not only against the church and pro-life supporters, but against the pregnant girl's parents. As the case battles forward, secrets and deceit are revealed on others besides Caroline Masters and Mary Ann Tierny. The fight for truth against ambition can be encountered by many characters in Patterson's masterpiece. Protect and Defend leads up to a riviting decision that will forever effect the United States.

I am a teenager, yet I found Protect and Defend very interesting and revealing of politics. The plot and characters are easily grasped, and the reading is relatively easy with the short chapters. However, the actually length of the book left a little to be desired, after awhile it felt like the numerous pages were bogging me down and halting me from enjoying the book's true potential. I have no other complaints, I know I will have to read the book again to search for details missed, but I can honestly say I will not mind doing so.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating from beginning to end
Review: Protect and Defend is a captivating book that investigates the inner workings of the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government, combining fictional characters with real issues to create a thrilling twist on the battle between good and evil: the fight between Pro-Choicers and Pro-Lifers, Democrats and Republicans, and Females and Males. The events in the novel are on opposite sides of the country, in Washington D.C. and San Francisco. In Washington, immediately after the inauguration of Kerry Kilcannon, a democrat, the Chief Justice, a conservative, has a stroke and drops dead. The vice president is a female. With the death of Chief Justice Bannon, the president must start searching immediately for a replacement, only one day into his term, against a strikingly Republican senate led by MacDonald Gage a vicious man whose main desire and ambition is to become president. In San Francisco, Mary Ann Tierney, just fifteen years old, is seeking an abortion at five months pregnant. Without parental consent, she cannot abort the fetus, which is hydrocephalic and if delivered, could ruin her chances to have children in the future. Her parents are famous Pro-Lifers and her father is a law professor, well-known and respected for his consistent, anti-abortion views, so she gets a lawyer, young Sarah Dash to represent her in a case suing her parents for permission to get an abortion, challenging the Supreme Court in their recent rulings on late-term abortions. Also from San Francisco is Caroline Masters, a female liberal whom Kilcannon nominates. Patterson's novel examines many different perspectives on abortion an different political views taken by members of the government. Giving an in-depth look at both the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice movements, the book shows the effect of the issue on different lives and the struggles it causes families internally. It also demonstrates the ruthlessness of politicians and the extremes they will go to in order to get their ways. Patterson's extensive research on the subject shows and his realistic sketches of the characters are enthralling, keeping the reader's attention with every flip of perspective and countryside.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Novel: Patterson's Best Yet
Review: PROTECT AND DEFEND is one of the most intelligent and exciting novels I have ever read. I couldn't put this book down. This book is what good writing is all about. It has drama, suspense and believability. The character development of all of the main players is superb. I think that this may be Patterson's best book to date.

Kerry Kilcannon is the new President of the United States of America. Caroline Masters is the President's nominee as the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The nomination is not well received by a conservative Senate led by Majority Leader and presidential aspirant Macdonald Gage; and Gage sets about to defeat the nomination by any means necessary. Set against this backdrop is an ongoing trial (nationally televised) involving the pregnant teenage daughter of Christian fundamentalist parents challenge to the constitutionality of a law passed by Congress called the Protection of Life Act: favored by anti-abortionists groups and disfavored by pro-choice groups. Richard North Patterson has created a well-researched novel about the current political issues of our times. PROTECT AND DEFEND challenges our notions about campaign reform, abortion and whether or not those who aspire to public office have any right to or expectation of any modicum of privacy in their private lives. Reading this book will lead you out of the grip of any unconsidered opinion you may have had about these issues. A thoughtful reader will find here a certain level of skepticism that lifts the mind out of all certainties but doesn't then corrupt it with cynicism.

Be sure to read Patterson's acknowledgements at the end of the book. It will give you insight into why this novel was so well crafted.