Limitations
Encyclopedia
Limitations is a novel by Scott Turow
which was published in 2006. It is by far his shortest novel (197 pages) and prior to publication as a novel was released as a serial story
in the Sunday New York Times Magazine.
, and he revives some familiar characters, including George Mason from Personal Injuries
and Rusty Sabich, the hero of his acclaimed fiction debut, Presumed Innocent
. Mason is now a judge, faced with the challenge of deciding a high-profile case involving a rape case that reawakens his long-suppressed guilt over his own role in a similar incident decades before. To compound this inner struggle, Mason finds himself the object of threatening e-mails from an unknown source, all while trying to care for his cancer stricken wife.
stated that the novel "forces us to grapple with the notion of crime and redemption, a little Dostoevsky-lite to go with our potboiler mystery".
Scott Turow
Scott F. Turow is an American author and a practicing lawyer. Turow has written eight fiction and two nonfiction books, which have been translated into over 20 languages and have sold over 25 million copies...
which was published in 2006. It is by far his shortest novel (197 pages) and prior to publication as a novel was released as a serial story
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
in the Sunday New York Times Magazine.
Plot summary
As Turow's other novels, it is set in fictional Kindle County in IllinoisIllinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and he revives some familiar characters, including George Mason from Personal Injuries
Personal Injuries
Personal Injuries is a novel by Scott Turow which was published in 1999. Like all of Turow's novels, it takes place in fictional Kindle County and many of the characters are recognized from other Turow novels.-Plot:...
and Rusty Sabich, the hero of his acclaimed fiction debut, Presumed Innocent
Presumed Innocent
Presumed Innocent, published in 1987, is Scott Turow's first novel, which tells the story of a prosecutor charged with the murder of his colleague, an attractive and intelligent prosecutor, Carolyn Polhemus. It is told in the first person by the accused, Rǒzat "Rusty" Sabich...
. Mason is now a judge, faced with the challenge of deciding a high-profile case involving a rape case that reawakens his long-suppressed guilt over his own role in a similar incident decades before. To compound this inner struggle, Mason finds himself the object of threatening e-mails from an unknown source, all while trying to care for his cancer stricken wife.
Critical reception
Randy Michael Signor of The Chicago Sun-Times said of the setting "if there is a more cross-examined, eviscerated fictional community than Kindle County, it remains a secret". Marc Weingarten of the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
stated that the novel "forces us to grapple with the notion of crime and redemption, a little Dostoevsky-lite to go with our potboiler mystery".