Review by GiselleBengochea -- The Spirit of Want
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Review by GiselleBengochea -- The Spirit of Want
In The Spirit of Want by William H. Coles, the protagonist Lucy Mac Miel, is portrayed as a self-centered individual whose sole ambition is to benefit from whatever relationship or situation in which she is placed. In the initial chapter she is introduced to Luke Osbourne, a doctor and medical colleague of her father A.J., at a fund-raiser. It is later revealed that Luke’s car has been stripped by professional car-jackers and he has been coerced by A.J .in to accepting a ride home with Lucy. Lucy, a lawyer by trade, has consumed too much alcohol at the party and eventually they end up in a car accident. “A few days after Luke had been sutured and X-rayed and observed for twenty-four hours in a trauma holding-unit and still not able to return to work, the intercom bell from the condo security desk awakened him in the middle of the night. ‘Lucy Mac Miel,’ the concierge said, “and her associate.”(pg. 15) In an effort to protect her legal career, she has Townsend, a criminal defence attorney, go over the details of the accident with Luke. The accident becomes more complicated when a woman’s body is found near the scene of the accident, by the roadside.
“A week later, Lucy asked Luke if he wanted to go to dinner. This was a first try at neutralizing him, he thought. But he was widowed with only rare female companionship these days, and Lucy was a very attractive woman.” (pg.19) “Luke’s doubt about Lucy festered over the next few days. Her denial of possible complicity worried him, and she didn’t seem to have any concern for the dead woman, whether she had been involved or not.”(pg.21)There was an investigation by the District Attorney’s Office which led to a trial before a grand jury. The results of the case: “she was indicted and charged with vehicular manslaughter.”(pg.26) Despite all of this, Luke and Lucy get married before a Justice of the Peace and honey-moon in the Virgin Islands. The charges of manslaughter are eventually dropped and Lucy continues her legal practice. The honey-moon ends abruptly when Lucy receives a telephone call from the office. She is requested to return to the United States in order to defend an evangelist called Hower Bain who is accused of rape.
What I liked most about the book is the author’s sarcastic wit in the portrayal of the central character Lucy. Lucy is supposed to be a prominent and highly successful lawyer at the firm and yet she loses the case in which she was defending the evangelist Hower Bain. As a matter of fact, when she was first introduced to the evangelist who was hesitant to accept her representation, Alan Mc. Cormick, one of the partners at the Law Firm referred to her as “a competent woman.”(pg.35)
What I disliked most about the book is that the protagonist Lucy seems to be conflicted in her worldview and in her emotions. “And she was tired of acting happy. Tired of pretending to have a good time. Why was marriage special anyway? She’d have to face it soon, but with the Bain case and being freed up from the manslaughter worry, her life would be busy, and her career could again become what she wanted it to be.”(pg.33) Lucy appears to be struggling from an identity crisis. She is an adopted child and she does not quite feel as though ‘she fits into the family.’ “They’re racist. Oh, they don’t hang people, but deep down in never-tell land they don’t think that colored folk can think or reason like whites. They still like looking down on those ‘pickaninies’ that tap dance for coins in New Orleans. My great grandfather on my mother’s side was black. That’s what A.J. said once to me. For years they talked about it. As if adopting me was a magnanimous gesture to the underprivileged—in mind and body. I worry about parents who see me as inferior and embarrassing because they think I’m black.”(pg.11)
What I also disliked about the book is the foolish choices that Lucy made. She abandoned relatives, her husband and child to journey to Africa in an effort to follow the evangelist who escapes the country while on appeal. The consequences of her actions are devastating. She is forced to return to the United Sates where she tries to rebuild her career but she cannot regain the respect or normalcy from family ties and former colleagues who have now severed all connections and refuse to forgive her indiscretion.
There are no typographical, grammatical or spelling errors in this manuscript. This book is professionally edited. There is mild profanity but this does not detract from the flow of the narrative. There are no erotic scenes or descriptions even though sexual topics like rape and molestation are covered. The author was able to address these issues without expressing too many unsavoury details. I rate this book as 4 out of 4 and I would recommend this book to young adult and adult audiences who are interested in fiction, mild romance and the consequences of making bad decisions based on a self-centered agenda.
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The Spirit of Want
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