Contemporary Literary Criticism | Crichton, Michael (Vol. 90) - Douglas Kennedy (review date 4 February 1994)

Douglas Kennedy (review date 4 February 1994)

SOURCE: "A Soft Touch," in New Statesman & Society, Vol. 7, No. 288, February 4, 1994, p. 49.

[In the following unfavorable review, Kennedy contends that Disclosure is formulaic and timid in its handling of the sexual harassment issue.]

On a recent flight to Hong Kong, I took a stroll down the aisles of the jumbo jet, looking at what my fellow passengers were reading. Yes, I did see one earnest-looking speedreader who risked excess baggage charges with A Suitable Boy. But most people were engrossed in easy-to-digest commercial fiction.

And of the 300 or so passengers, around a quarter appeared to be in possession of a novel by Michael Crichton. The 52-year-old Harvard-trained doctor has—in between directing Hollywood movies and hanging out with Laotian monks—also become the most bankable commercial novelist of the moment, thanks to Jurassic Park and...

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