It’s October 1st! Welcome to our discussion of While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams.
This was a fun read! However, I must admit that I didn’t always understand what was going on. I’m neither a scientist nor a chess player nor a political junkie, so some of the medical terminology and the complex political machinations were, at times, a challenge for me to follow.
I also wasn’t always sure what was credible fiction (e.g., some degree of accuracy in how the courts work) and what was fantasy (e.g., Boursin’s syndrome). No matter – I let it all flow over me and marveled at Stacey Abrams breadth of knowledge (and imagination).
Before I was half-way through the first chapter of “While Justice Sleeps,” author Stacey Abrams had me rushing to look up Boursin’s syndrome. A few pages later, I was Googling Lasker vs. Bauer, which is not a trial but an 1889 chess game in which Emanuel Lasker defeated Johann Hermann Bauer by sacrificing two of his bishops to protect the king and win the endgame. And then there are haplogroups. What are they?
Boursin’s syndrome turned out to be a fictional malady. Google it and you’ll either come up with symptoms for bursitis or some mouthwatering cheese recipes. It’s not to be found in Harrison’s “Principles of Internal Medicine,” the standard medical book for internal medicine doctors. The chess references are real, however (as are haplogroups), and the strategies described indicate an intricate familiarity with the game.