Images of Law School and Law Teaching in An Imperfect Spy

Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities Volume 8 | Issue 1 Article 10 January 1996 Images of Law School and Law Teaching in An Imperfect Spy Stacy Caplow Spencer Weber Waller Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh Part of the History Commons, and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Stacy Caplow & Spencer W. Waller, Images of Law School and Law Teaching in An Imperfect Spy, 8 Yale J.L. & Human. (1996). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol8/iss1/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities by an authorized editor of Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact . Caplow and Waller: Images of Law School and Law Teaching in An Imperfect Spy Book Reviews Images of Law School and Law Teaching in An Imperfect Spy Amanda Cross, An Imperfect Spy. New York: Ballantine, 1995. Pp. 240. $20.00. Stacy Caplow Spencer Weber Waller* We looked forward with great anticipation to reading An Imperfect2 Spy,' the latest in a series of mysteries written by Amanda Cross, the pseudonym of Carolyn G. Heilbrun, the retired Avalon Foun- * We would like to thank our friends and colleagues Tony Sebok, Betsy Fajans, and Marilyn Walter for their helpful comments and encouragement. The preparation of this Article was partially supported by Brooklyn Law School summer research stipends. 1. AMANDA CROSS, AN IMPERFECT Spy (1995) [hereinafter SPY]. 2. AMANDA CROSS, THE PLAYERS COME AGAIN (1990); A TRAP FOR FOOLS (1989); No WORDS FROM WINIFRED (1986); SWEET DEATH, KIND DEATH (1984); THE JAMES JOYCE MURDERS (1982); DEATH IN A TENURED POSmON (1981); THE QUESTION OF MAX (1976); THE THEBAN MYSTERIES (1971); POETIC JUSTICE (1970); IN THE LAST ANALYSIS (1964). Published by Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository, 1996 1 Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, Vol. 8, Iss. 1 [1996], Art. 10 264 Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities [Vol 8: 263 dation Professor of Humanities at Columbia University.3 The book promised the perfect combination of ingredients for two law professors who enjoy a refreshing literary sorbet in between customarily weightier dishes of law review articles, cases, and other professional writings. We had every reason to believe that An Imperfect Spy would cleanse our mental palates. First, it is one of many mysteries that feature an engaging yet feisty female protagonist. 4 Kate Fansler, the didactic, scotch-drinking, old-money WASP, feminist literature professor has the special knack of being around whenever people die or have baffling mysteries to solve. Unlike other popular female detectives, Kate solves her cases with her intellect rather than a gun. Even better, the book is set in a law school. The academic novel is a well-established genre5 and one of our favorite forms of literary fare. These "midnight snacks" satisfy our craving for parody and selfmockery, while leaving room for consumption of the legal literature we need to keep current in the classroom and in our scholarship. We particularly savor the academic mystery novel, which combines the familiar, self-absorbed, easily satirized aspects of the academic world with the intrigues of plot and problem-solving, 6 and we especially 3. Professor Heilbrun's academic writings, predominantly in the field of feminist literary criticism, are almost as prolific, and much more influential, than those of her alter ego. See CAROLYN G. HEILBRUN, THE EDUCATION OF A WOMAN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GLORIA STEINEM (1995); HAMLET'S MOTHER AND OTHER WOMEN [hereinafter HAMLET'S MOTHER] (1990); WRITING A WOMAN'S LIFE (1988); THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN FICTION (Carolyn G. Heilbrun ed., 1983); REINVENTING WOMANHOOD (1979). In 1992, Heilbrun resigned her faculty position at Columbia in exasperation at the sexism in her department. See Courtney Leatherman, 'Isolation' of Pioneering Feminist Scholar Stirs Reappraisal of Women's Status in Academe, CHRON. HIGHER ED., Nov. 11, 1992, at A17 ("Heilbrun said her retirement was brought about by her disappointment with the conservative male establishment of the university, whose policies were unfair and condescending to feminists like her."); Anne Matthews, Rage in a Tenured Position, N.Y. TIMES, Nov. 8, 1992, § 6 (Magazine), at 47 ("When I spoke up for women's issues, I was made to feel unwelcome in my own department, kept off crucial committees, ridiculed, ignored."); Kay Mills, Life After a Tenured Position, L.A. TIMES, July 19, 1992, § 13 (Magazine), at 13; Stephanie Schorow, Men Meet Their Match, BOSTON HERALD, Feb. 24, 1995, at 39. 4. The "Sisters in Crime" roster is long and estimable. Recent works featuring female detectives include: PATRICIA CORNWELL, FROM POTrER'S FIELD (1995); SUE GRAFTON, L Is FOR LAWLESS (1995); WENDY HORMSBY, MIDNIGHT BABY (1994); MARCIA MULLER, WILD AND LONELY PLACE (1995); SARAH PARETSKY, TUNNEL VISION (1994). 5. See, e.g., KINGLEY AMIS, LUCKY JIM (1953); JOHN BARTH, THE END OF THE ROAD (1967); ANNE BERNAYS, PROFESSOR ROMEO (1989); A.S. BYATr, POSSESSION (1990); ROBERTSON DAVIES, REBEL ANGELS (1981); REBECCA GOLDSTEIN, THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM (1983); DAVID LODGE, SMALL WORLD (1984); CHANGING PLACES (1975); ALLISON LURIE, THE WAR AGAINST THE TATES (1974); CAROL SHIELDS, SWANN (1987); JANE SMILEY, Moo (1995). 6. E.g., BATYA GUR, LITERARY MURDER (1994) (Hebrew University); D.J. JONES, MURDER AT THE MLA (1994); SUSAN KENNEY, GRAVES IN ACADEME (1985); GARDEN OF MALICE (1983); JANE LANGTON, EMILY DICKINSON IS DEAD (1984) (Amherst); THE MEMORIAL HALL MURDER (1978) (Harvard); DOROTHY L. SAYERS, GAUDY NIGHT (1936) (Oxford); EDITH SKOM, THE MARK TWAIN MURDERS (1989). https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol8/iss1/10 2 Caplow and Waller: Images of Law School and Law Teaching in An Imperfect Spy 1996] Caplow & Waller enjoy mystery novels with a legal backdrop, whether set at a law school7 or featuring a lawyer protagonist.' An Imperfect Spy seemed the perfect recipe: an academic mystery with a law-driven intrigue, set in a law school, solved by a smart woman protagonist. Heilbrun's story takes place at Schulyer Law School, described as "the worst law school in New York and perhaps the whole United States."9 The fictional Kate Fansler, married to Reed Amhearst, a law professor at an unnamed Ivy League university (presumably Columbia), almost capriciously signs on as a visiting professor of feminist law and literature at Schuyler while her husband is spending a term there to start the school's first clinical program. The book is a sometimes humorous and often horrifying depiction of Schulyer Law, its faculty, its administration, and its students. The "spy" of the title is Harriet, an academic from another university working at Schuyler "undercover" as a secretary-with some initially undisclosed purpose in mind."0 By posing as an agin (...truncated)