Life's Illusions, by Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny's Life's Illusions is an in-depth look at what happens when you place career over personal.  It's a story that makes you think about how you are living your life.  That's not always comfortable, but it sure can be important.  Here is the blurb:

All Jonathan Kent wanted from life was to escape his humble origins and live life on his own terms.  For this ambitious young man, becoming a superstar trial lawyer would be his pathway to success.  Emotionally bruised from a jilted love in college, he pursued his goal with singular focus, excelling in law school, clerking for a federal judge, and landing a job in "Big Law" at an elite Washington, DC firm.  Mentored by a brilliant, charismatic alcoholic with an acute sense of fairness and economic and racial justice, Jonathan became a mesmerizing trial lawyer.  For most of his career, he epitomized the amoral zeitgeist of Big Law success, but he was changing.  Now, poised to try the biggest case of the twenty-first century, Jonathan is forced to reconnect with his past and, ultimately, choose between selfless love and a self-indulgent career.

Here are a few things about the book that impressed me:

1.  His early explanation about Alzheimers was very educational.  I learned a lot.                                          

2.  His writing reminds me of Amor Towles.  It's very well written but still readable.

3.  I had some tearing up, which means I made an emotional connection to one or more characters.

4.  At one point he describes the personal excesses of the wealthy.  I can't relate to his lists(!), but I was just impressed by the size and magnitude of the lists themselves.

5.  His supporting characters fit right in, and the reader is made to feel a connection with them as well.

Mr. Kenny can flat-out write.  Life's Illusions is a story that will grab you and make you want to know what happens to the protagonist up to the last page.  I highly recommend it.