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The Paper Chase
When initially published, The Paper Chase was widely acclaimed as the first novel to realistically describe the experiences of students within American law schools. The film version appeared to sensational reviews, and John Houseman, playing Professor Kingsfield won an Academy Award. Then, with Houseman again playing Kingsfield, The Paper Chase appeared as a television series on CBS. After that, the series in its entirety was re-run as a special on PBS, the first time a commercial American television series had been re-broadcast on public television. Subsequently, The Paper Chase television series was taken over by the cable network Showtime, which continued to produce new episodes. Every year, a theatrical play version of The Paper Chase is produced in regional theatres and schools across the United States. In its many incarnations, The Paper Chase has been one of the most influential books of its generation and has defined law school for millions of Americans.
249 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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1670 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
August 3, 2023
As I greatly enjoyed the film, I grabbed a copy of this book when I saw it in a used bookstore. It's very close to the movie, which I liked. The story focuses on the first year at Harvard Law School for a young man from the Midwest named Hart. The really interesting character, however, is Kingsfield, the intimidating law professor who ruthlessly uses the Socratic method with his students. Hart becomes obsessed with Kingsfield and even carries on a love affair with the professor's independent daughter, Susan. I have to say Kingsfield is one of my favorite film characters, as played most memorably by John Houseman (who won an Oscar for his performance). The author, Osborn, wrote the story while actually attending Harvard Law School--and he went on to become an attorney, a law professor himself, and, of course, a writer.
May 17, 2017
Read this in one day, and what an odd little book. I imagine many readers will be put off by the impenetrability of the characters, but personally I found this compelling because Osborn absolutely nails the many, many anxieties and insecurities of academia. A solid campus novel; I only wish it it had been a little longer and given the characters a little more room to breathe. (But also Susan is nuts and I love her.)
September 3, 2017
I have One L. by Scott Turow more than once because it is a really good book on the experience of Law School. Note: One L is non-fiction. Paper Chase is a novel. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with Paper Chase.
November 28, 2024
In 1975, I saw a movie that changed my life. I always felt like this movie was made just for me. I was tired of going to college---I started the day after I graduated from high school, and after only twelve months of college, I was burned out. The movie that changed my life was The Paper Chase.
It's the story of a young man, James Hart, who is determined to be the best student in the class of a formidable professor, Professor Kingsfield, at Harvard Law School. James does become an accomplished student, but in the end he realizes Kingsfield will never give him the acknowledgment he desires.
The movie ends with him folding his report card into a paper airplane and sailing it away. And that's what I longed to do.
But of course I did not.
And the author of the book from which the movie was made also, I learned, did not fold his report card into a paper airplane and sail it away. Ironically, author John Osborn finished at Harvard Law, and actually became a professor much like Kingsfield.
It's the story of a young man, James Hart, who is determined to be the best student in the class of a formidable professor, Professor Kingsfield, at Harvard Law School. James does become an accomplished student, but in the end he realizes Kingsfield will never give him the acknowledgment he desires.
The movie ends with him folding his report card into a paper airplane and sailing it away. And that's what I longed to do.
But of course I did not.
And the author of the book from which the movie was made also, I learned, did not fold his report card into a paper airplane and sail it away. Ironically, author John Osborn finished at Harvard Law, and actually became a professor much like Kingsfield.
August 7, 2018
Excellent. I watched the movie going into Law School and enjoyed it. Reading this after 1L made me appreciate the story even more. I highly recommend this book to any future law student or anyone interested in getting a fairly accurate depiction of what life is like as a first-year law student. Several things have changed since this book came out, but overall, it does well in describing classmates, professors, and sentiments one encounters. This book is also an incredibly fast read.
September 22, 2011
One of the worst books I've ever read, back in the 1980's. It had a particularly unsatisfactory way of ending; I remember swiftly reading the last few pages and in one fluid movement closing the book and placing it in the trash. Then I quickly stood up, left the room and closed the door!
August 2, 2023
2023 reads, #61. The world recently saw the passing of John Jay Osborn, Jr. (who, yes, was a descendent of founding father John Jay), an author who the world has largely forgotten by now; but Osborn will always hold a special place in my personal history, in that his debut novel, 1971's The Paper Chase, was the very first non-science-fiction adult book I ever read in my life, back when I was 15 and I spied it randomly on the shelves of my local library one day, and thought it was cool that someone had done a novelization of the late-'70s TV series I had caught a couple of episodes of when I was a kid. (This should tell you a lot about my reading maturity level at this point, that I thought the novel version of stories came after the movie or TV version, not before.) I thought I'd honor Osborn's passing and his importance to my life by re-reading this novel for the first time in 39 years; and since I doubt I'll ever be visiting this author again, I thought I'd also follow it up with my first readings of his two other titles in his so-called "Lawyer Trilogy," 1979's The Associates (which was also made into a TV show, providing Martin Short with one of his first early roles) and 1981's The Man Who Owned New York (which I had to special-order off Amazon, because this long out-of-print book doesn't even have a cheapie Kindle edition).
Written as his third-year writing project for Harvard Law School, it's (perhaps?) an autobiographical tale about a 22-year-old and his own first year at Harvard Law School, showing us the ins and outs of daily life at the oldest and most prestigious university in America, while trying to keep his head above water at one of the more competitive law programs in the entire world. What I didn't appreciate about this book, though, until doing this second read of it here in my fifties, is that this book is not really about the protagonist Hart at all; rather, it's a sneaky character study of one of his professors, one Charles W. Kingsfield Jr., who in our book is supposed to be Harvard's oldest active professor (at the ancient age of 69!) and, according to many, its meanest. Although we get glimpses of Hart's life outside his relationship with Kingsfield, including the disastrous study group he joins, the various romantic relationships he ends up in, and the immense, almost overwhelming amount of pressure he and his fellow students face in the weeks leading up to finals, the vast majority of the book takes place in the creaky old hallowed hall where Kingsfield has taught Contract Law 101 for literally decades, as Hart develops an unhealthy obsession over the man with an intensity that leads him to such daring acts as breaking into the school's law library in the middle of the night just to read Kingsfield's own student notes about contract law from back in the 1920s when he was a student himself, and even forming a bizarre, tension-filled romantic relationship with Kingsfield's late-in-life twentysomething daughter. (In fact, one of the most clever things that Osborn does here is show that Kingsfield himself barely knows who Hart is, and must always ask for his name every time Hart gets up the courage to say a few words to him, definitively showing us that Hart's obsession with the man is absolutely one-sided.)
This is easily the most interesting aspect of the book, the way Osborn builds this complex and weighty look at this indomitable character, not through our direct interaction with him (the professor himself has perhaps only a hundred words of dialogue in the entire book) but rather through the artifacts in his life, the stories and rumors that have built up around him over the years, and the reflections of a bitter daughter who has her own checkered relationship with this revered genius and cold sociopath who may or may not (depending on who you ask) have his own dysfunctional obsession with the way law students year after year hold him in fearful disdain and reverence; and it's no surprise that the one and only Oscar ever won by longtime film veteran John Houseman was for playing Kingsfield in the 1973 movie adaptation of the novel, a role that eventually came to define him and the part he's now overwhelmingly most remembered for.
I'll admit it, the rest of the book is kind of a mess, definitely the work of a full-time lawyer only taking a dilettante splash into the author kiddie pool; there's an entire subplot about a failing law student that doesn't really go anywhere, while the usually omniscient narrator is actually given his own voice and personality here (he's supposedly an unnamed peer of both Hart and the failing student, watching all the proceedings from a distance and giving us his own personal opinions on the events being conveyed), plus the relationship between Hart and Kingsfield's daughter is just really kind of strange and never really resolves itself in the way you would expect from a traditional three-act novel. But this is part of the book's shaggy charm, I've come to realize, that it very much feels like a look at Harvard Law School not from a professional novelist but from someone who was actually there, and who gives us a warts-and-all look at what it must be like to be a student there. (And as an added bonus, with this being written at the turn of the '70s, it's not just a look at law school but what it was like to attend such a conservative institution in the middle of the hippie countercultural years, giving us among other insights this amazing scene set at a private home full of former earnest students who have pretty much given up, and now spend their days doing drugs and having group sex, getting tutored on the day before major tests just enough to get a D in all their exams and barely pass.)
It was easy to see why 15-year-old me responded so well to this book, because it takes a subject (going to school) that up to then I had thought of as dreary and institutional, and makes almost a thriller out of it; the students here sneak around the Harvard tunnels in the middle of the night, smoke dope in their dorm rooms, purposely sit in unassigned chairs in their classes so that the professor won't call on them and publicly humiliate them, and all kinds of other details that bring a beating humanity to a subject that is usually as staid and buttoned-up as the smarmy little preppies who make up its population. (It also makes me want to read legal-thriller author Scott Turow's literary debut, One L, concerning the exact same subject and published six years after this book, so maybe I'll put that on reserve at the library soon as well.) This makes me more interested than ever in tackling Osborn's other novels, to see whether he improves as a writer or if this is a good sign of why his literary career was so relatively short (for those who don't know, Osborn's main career was as a practicing lawyer; he seems to have completely given up writing novels after 1981, except for one final book about marriage published three years before his death). I already have his other two lawyer novels in possession in my apartment as we speak, so please keep an eye out for further Osborn reviews soon.
Written as his third-year writing project for Harvard Law School, it's (perhaps?) an autobiographical tale about a 22-year-old and his own first year at Harvard Law School, showing us the ins and outs of daily life at the oldest and most prestigious university in America, while trying to keep his head above water at one of the more competitive law programs in the entire world. What I didn't appreciate about this book, though, until doing this second read of it here in my fifties, is that this book is not really about the protagonist Hart at all; rather, it's a sneaky character study of one of his professors, one Charles W. Kingsfield Jr., who in our book is supposed to be Harvard's oldest active professor (at the ancient age of 69!) and, according to many, its meanest. Although we get glimpses of Hart's life outside his relationship with Kingsfield, including the disastrous study group he joins, the various romantic relationships he ends up in, and the immense, almost overwhelming amount of pressure he and his fellow students face in the weeks leading up to finals, the vast majority of the book takes place in the creaky old hallowed hall where Kingsfield has taught Contract Law 101 for literally decades, as Hart develops an unhealthy obsession over the man with an intensity that leads him to such daring acts as breaking into the school's law library in the middle of the night just to read Kingsfield's own student notes about contract law from back in the 1920s when he was a student himself, and even forming a bizarre, tension-filled romantic relationship with Kingsfield's late-in-life twentysomething daughter. (In fact, one of the most clever things that Osborn does here is show that Kingsfield himself barely knows who Hart is, and must always ask for his name every time Hart gets up the courage to say a few words to him, definitively showing us that Hart's obsession with the man is absolutely one-sided.)
This is easily the most interesting aspect of the book, the way Osborn builds this complex and weighty look at this indomitable character, not through our direct interaction with him (the professor himself has perhaps only a hundred words of dialogue in the entire book) but rather through the artifacts in his life, the stories and rumors that have built up around him over the years, and the reflections of a bitter daughter who has her own checkered relationship with this revered genius and cold sociopath who may or may not (depending on who you ask) have his own dysfunctional obsession with the way law students year after year hold him in fearful disdain and reverence; and it's no surprise that the one and only Oscar ever won by longtime film veteran John Houseman was for playing Kingsfield in the 1973 movie adaptation of the novel, a role that eventually came to define him and the part he's now overwhelmingly most remembered for.
I'll admit it, the rest of the book is kind of a mess, definitely the work of a full-time lawyer only taking a dilettante splash into the author kiddie pool; there's an entire subplot about a failing law student that doesn't really go anywhere, while the usually omniscient narrator is actually given his own voice and personality here (he's supposedly an unnamed peer of both Hart and the failing student, watching all the proceedings from a distance and giving us his own personal opinions on the events being conveyed), plus the relationship between Hart and Kingsfield's daughter is just really kind of strange and never really resolves itself in the way you would expect from a traditional three-act novel. But this is part of the book's shaggy charm, I've come to realize, that it very much feels like a look at Harvard Law School not from a professional novelist but from someone who was actually there, and who gives us a warts-and-all look at what it must be like to be a student there. (And as an added bonus, with this being written at the turn of the '70s, it's not just a look at law school but what it was like to attend such a conservative institution in the middle of the hippie countercultural years, giving us among other insights this amazing scene set at a private home full of former earnest students who have pretty much given up, and now spend their days doing drugs and having group sex, getting tutored on the day before major tests just enough to get a D in all their exams and barely pass.)
It was easy to see why 15-year-old me responded so well to this book, because it takes a subject (going to school) that up to then I had thought of as dreary and institutional, and makes almost a thriller out of it; the students here sneak around the Harvard tunnels in the middle of the night, smoke dope in their dorm rooms, purposely sit in unassigned chairs in their classes so that the professor won't call on them and publicly humiliate them, and all kinds of other details that bring a beating humanity to a subject that is usually as staid and buttoned-up as the smarmy little preppies who make up its population. (It also makes me want to read legal-thriller author Scott Turow's literary debut, One L, concerning the exact same subject and published six years after this book, so maybe I'll put that on reserve at the library soon as well.) This makes me more interested than ever in tackling Osborn's other novels, to see whether he improves as a writer or if this is a good sign of why his literary career was so relatively short (for those who don't know, Osborn's main career was as a practicing lawyer; he seems to have completely given up writing novels after 1981, except for one final book about marriage published three years before his death). I already have his other two lawyer novels in possession in my apartment as we speak, so please keep an eye out for further Osborn reviews soon.
May 12, 2024
The ending was just downright stupid
March 3, 2010
A great book with a timeless theme - the relationship between teacher and student - but with plenty of themes that make this a highly individualized novel.
Also, I loved the insight into the mechanics of an ivy league law school. Working with law students here on the West Coast only added to the spice of this crazy rite-of-passage.
Also, I loved the insight into the mechanics of an ivy league law school. Working with law students here on the West Coast only added to the spice of this crazy rite-of-passage.
August 11, 2009
This is a fabulous read. It's short, takes a day to read, and gets right to the point. It does the job so much more brilliantly and pungently than Turow's One L. This is the definitive book about the first year at the Harvard Law School. It really made me glad I went somewhere else.
September 24, 2017
The movie is better.
March 17, 2021
"In the few days between arrival at Harvard Law School and the first classes, there are rumors. And stories. About being singled out, made to show your stuff. Mostly, they’re about people who made some terrible mistake. Couldn’t answer a question right. One concerns a boy who did a particularly bad job. His professor called him down to the front of the class, up to the podium, gave the student a dime and said, loudly: “Go call your mother, and tell her you’ll never be a lawyer.” Sometimes the story ends here, but the way I heard it, the crushed student bowed his head and limped slowly back through the one hundred and fifty students in the class. When he got to the door, his anger exploded. He screamed- “You’re a son of a bitch, Kingsfield.” “That’s the first intelligent thing you’ve said,” Kingsfield replied “Come back. Perhaps I’ve been too hasty. ”
Essentially this can be summed up as a story of some really stressed out students in a high stress law school. All well and fine but the lack of depth to said students keeps it away from anything higher than just being okay.
Essentially this can be summed up as a story of some really stressed out students in a high stress law school. All well and fine but the lack of depth to said students keeps it away from anything higher than just being okay.
January 23, 2023
Easy read, very little plot. I liked it but at times couldn’t see the point of the book.
January 29, 2024
This has to be right at the bottom of the worst books I have ever read. I only finished it because I did not want to think I missed something. The book read like the author wrote it while he was tripping on acid. There was no detail and no character development. I am just happy that I did not pay money for this book because then I would be even more angry. I would have lost time and money. The ending of the book was the most foolish ending. What was the point of building up all the hype around exams and law school just to have the book end the way it did? Foolish!
February 19, 2017
“The Paper Chase” is John Jay Osborn’s 1971 novel of law school and the main character Hart’s mostly one sided psychic war with contracts professor Kingsfield.
Osborn started writing “The Paper Chase” in his first year at the Harvard Law School. The novel is formatted like a series of vignettes of law school linked together by Hart’s romance with Kingsfield’s daughter Susan, a relationship he finds every bit as challenging and frustrating as his relationship with her father.
I’ve probably come to Osborn’s novel backwards. I was first a fan of “The Paper Chase” TV series, later I saw the 1973 movie version of “The Paper Chase” and now, finally Osborn’s novel. The main characters focus around the study group formed by Ford, and includes Hart, Anderson, Bell, and Brooks (if you’ve seen either the movie or the TV series you understand the lack of the characters first names). In the novel the characters aren’t as well defined as in either the movie or the TV series, both of which Osborn had a large input in; for instance nowhere is Ford’s background mentioned, not even a physical description. There are a few tantalizing peeks at some of the personalities behind the characters, Bell is obsessed with his property outline, which he believes will supersede the casebook, and he turns out to be a selfish creep.
“The Paper Chase” was created right at the end of the 60’s, 1970 but the counterculture mindset was still fully engaged, and the movie and the TV series always reflected those values (although Kingsfield and the college itself were conservative counter-balances). None of that exists in the novel, maybe Osborn employed a Hemingwayesque philosophy in the novel of it’s not only what you put in the book but that which is left out. The adversarial relationship between Hart and Kingsfield isn’t as well defined as in later iterations, although the characters comment upon it. Perhaps “The Paper Chase” is meant to be seen so much through Hart’s point of view that it focuses only on aspects that present themselves in the immediacy of the moment.
“The Paper Chase” is a compelling read and like the law school itself stands intact over the years as students pass through it and time passes around it.
Osborn started writing “The Paper Chase” in his first year at the Harvard Law School. The novel is formatted like a series of vignettes of law school linked together by Hart’s romance with Kingsfield’s daughter Susan, a relationship he finds every bit as challenging and frustrating as his relationship with her father.
I’ve probably come to Osborn’s novel backwards. I was first a fan of “The Paper Chase” TV series, later I saw the 1973 movie version of “The Paper Chase” and now, finally Osborn’s novel. The main characters focus around the study group formed by Ford, and includes Hart, Anderson, Bell, and Brooks (if you’ve seen either the movie or the TV series you understand the lack of the characters first names). In the novel the characters aren’t as well defined as in either the movie or the TV series, both of which Osborn had a large input in; for instance nowhere is Ford’s background mentioned, not even a physical description. There are a few tantalizing peeks at some of the personalities behind the characters, Bell is obsessed with his property outline, which he believes will supersede the casebook, and he turns out to be a selfish creep.
“The Paper Chase” was created right at the end of the 60’s, 1970 but the counterculture mindset was still fully engaged, and the movie and the TV series always reflected those values (although Kingsfield and the college itself were conservative counter-balances). None of that exists in the novel, maybe Osborn employed a Hemingwayesque philosophy in the novel of it’s not only what you put in the book but that which is left out. The adversarial relationship between Hart and Kingsfield isn’t as well defined as in later iterations, although the characters comment upon it. Perhaps “The Paper Chase” is meant to be seen so much through Hart’s point of view that it focuses only on aspects that present themselves in the immediacy of the moment.
“The Paper Chase” is a compelling read and like the law school itself stands intact over the years as students pass through it and time passes around it.
May 10, 2020
I normally don’t write reviews. However, I hated this book so much that I believe it’s worth trying to prevent anyone else from reading it.
My first issue is the description of the characters. I found every single character one-dimensional and heavily flawed. The reader is encouraged to root for Kingsfield, and the study group but each character has no positive qualities. They each show moments of cruelty and are boring. Frankly, I hoped that they’d all fail out by the end.
There is also no plot in this book. It merely drags on and on about how each character is stressed about law school and doing crappy things to compensate for the stress. The only concrete thing that happened is Kevin dropped out and they took their exams. Incredibly boring.
I also found the tone of the book to be incredibly antiquated. In particular, the descriptions of any female characters were ridiculous. I understand that this was written during a different time. However, it is incredibly clear that this was a book written by a man and intended for only men. It was incredibly difficult to relate to any experience or character.
My final thought is, if this is what law school is supposed to be like, that is a problem. I had the feeling that this book was glorifying the toxic environment it described. I understand that law school is stressful but glorifying a system that causes people to have breakdowns and attempt suicides (mentioned in the book several times) is just unreal to me.
My first issue is the description of the characters. I found every single character one-dimensional and heavily flawed. The reader is encouraged to root for Kingsfield, and the study group but each character has no positive qualities. They each show moments of cruelty and are boring. Frankly, I hoped that they’d all fail out by the end.
There is also no plot in this book. It merely drags on and on about how each character is stressed about law school and doing crappy things to compensate for the stress. The only concrete thing that happened is Kevin dropped out and they took their exams. Incredibly boring.
I also found the tone of the book to be incredibly antiquated. In particular, the descriptions of any female characters were ridiculous. I understand that this was written during a different time. However, it is incredibly clear that this was a book written by a man and intended for only men. It was incredibly difficult to relate to any experience or character.
My final thought is, if this is what law school is supposed to be like, that is a problem. I had the feeling that this book was glorifying the toxic environment it described. I understand that law school is stressful but glorifying a system that causes people to have breakdowns and attempt suicides (mentioned in the book several times) is just unreal to me.
February 28, 2016
Two good things:First, it is a good story. This is a story that needed telling. Second, the environment is described in a way that one can visualize it. Langdell Hall, the dorms, etc.
The distracting feature of this book is the style in which it is written. I describe it as "stilted," but I don't mean stiffly dignified; it is rather "stacked together." Too clipped at some points and the pacing seems very fast.
Overall, it is a fun read and, again, a good story. To quote ancient wisdom, "It is the tale and not the teller." One word of advice. If you have never seen the movie, read the book first. The movie follows the book closely, but you will not be able to get the movie characters out of your head if you watch before reading.
The distracting feature of this book is the style in which it is written. I describe it as "stilted," but I don't mean stiffly dignified; it is rather "stacked together." Too clipped at some points and the pacing seems very fast.
Overall, it is a fun read and, again, a good story. To quote ancient wisdom, "It is the tale and not the teller." One word of advice. If you have never seen the movie, read the book first. The movie follows the book closely, but you will not be able to get the movie characters out of your head if you watch before reading.
June 14, 2021
Really disappointed in this book. Was told by many folks that it is *the* quintessential fiction on the 1L experience... but I really didn't care for it. The whole thing read like a 20th century ode to pederasty (if you don't know, look it up).
Hardly any women (I guess a hallmark of the time). The women that are in the book are portrayed as insane, needy, violent, or over sexualized - and none of them were students at the law school. Quite a few scenes where the reader is just genuinely not sure if the scene unfolding is consensual sex or rape... other off-hand jokes about rape and abuse. Hoping that the 50 years between when this was published and today have made this book as irrelevant as it feels.
Hardly any women (I guess a hallmark of the time). The women that are in the book are portrayed as insane, needy, violent, or over sexualized - and none of them were students at the law school. Quite a few scenes where the reader is just genuinely not sure if the scene unfolding is consensual sex or rape... other off-hand jokes about rape and abuse. Hoping that the 50 years between when this was published and today have made this book as irrelevant as it feels.
October 9, 2024
It is a classic tale of a student with competing passions to know the law and to know its master. However, the highlight of the book, compared to the wonderful movie and TV series to which it gave birth, is the character of Susan.
April 24, 2024
Depressing book, but they keep telling me law school isn't like that anymore... ;-)
February 9, 2023
I gave this a three, but it's probably because I never went to law school and never considered becoming a lawyer. Lawyers might like this book. I must have seen the movie, but can't recall it.
So why did I read this book? I met John and eventually his family in what was to be his last years of life. At the time he was writing a book "Listen to the Marriage". At the time, this, which was to be his last book was essentially an idea on the back of an envelope. It was about his trying to save his marriage. There are 3 characters in this book - him and his wife and their therapist. The marriage was save. I loved this book. He was wonderful, and he and his wife stayed married, the relationship seemed strong and they raised 3 terrific kids.
If you read The Paper Chase, I recommend reading the 40th Anniversary edition. It's worth it for the comments on the back cover by several eminent Harvard Law Professors and for John's forward.
John died in late 2022 and he is missed by many.
So why did I read this book? I met John and eventually his family in what was to be his last years of life. At the time he was writing a book "Listen to the Marriage". At the time, this, which was to be his last book was essentially an idea on the back of an envelope. It was about his trying to save his marriage. There are 3 characters in this book - him and his wife and their therapist. The marriage was save. I loved this book. He was wonderful, and he and his wife stayed married, the relationship seemed strong and they raised 3 terrific kids.
If you read The Paper Chase, I recommend reading the 40th Anniversary edition. It's worth it for the comments on the back cover by several eminent Harvard Law Professors and for John's forward.
John died in late 2022 and he is missed by many.
March 24, 2025
I am a great fan of the movie, and enjoyed the television series, so I was excited to read the novel. Alas, I was completely disappointed. This is a case where the movie is an order of magnitude better than the book. The novel's narrative is choppy and disjointed. The characters are unlikeable and two-dimensional. The Kingsfield character is so superficial as to be barely there, and frankly uninteresting. He doesn't come close to invoking the awe, fear, and reverence one develops for John Houseman's character in the movie. Many of the character reactions and interactions are silly, overly dramatic, implausible, or at best awkward (particularly in the romantic scenes between Hart and Kingsfield's daughter). The way the author handled the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying. This could have been so much more. It read like a bunch of quickly written vignettes outlining a full-fledged novel that was never fleshed out. It took a special level of genius for James Bridges to envision and create a brilliant screenplay and movie from this rather mediocre novel.
June 5, 2025
It was good, but I only give it 3 stars as the dialog between Susan and Hart was not that exciting, and their relationship immature. I only got sustenance when Osborn would write about Professor Kingsfield and the contracts class - his interplay with the Socratic Method and how Hart and the other students dealt with it.
Contracts was one of my favorite subjects in Law School, and it gave me a lifelong interest in it as it touches everything in society to commerce and relationships. Perhaps Osborn chose this class as the mirror to life itself which ties into the ending of Hart making his glider when his law school grades arrived.
The "paper chase" ends with a paper airplane, perhaps a metaphor of what is important in life and not to get too lost in the immateriality of what is not important in life?
Contracts was one of my favorite subjects in Law School, and it gave me a lifelong interest in it as it touches everything in society to commerce and relationships. Perhaps Osborn chose this class as the mirror to life itself which ties into the ending of Hart making his glider when his law school grades arrived.
The "paper chase" ends with a paper airplane, perhaps a metaphor of what is important in life and not to get too lost in the immateriality of what is not important in life?
June 6, 2021
Law school is more than just the cases you read, the digests you write, and the cups of coffee you consume -- it is also about the faces you meet, the bonds you make, and the lessons you learn. Osborn's the Paper Chase captures the daily and incessant grind of law students, where every day is a battlefield, with the primary battle revolves between the clash of professor and students through the Socratic method. We see the events of the lives of several law students unfold over a course of a semester, focused on one Contracts class. I cruised through the book, and I alighted with an ending that was poetic and satisfying.
Favorite passage: "O.K., baby, OK.," "OK., bring that fucking test in here."
Favorite passage: "O.K., baby, OK.," "OK., bring that fucking test in here."
June 27, 2025
I had really high hopes for this book. I liked the main character—he was very developed and multidimensional. He also seemed realistic. But the other characters were just emotional (angry) for no reason. All the women portrayed in the book were dumb and there solely for men. I understand that most women didn’t go to law school, so it makes sense that the students were male. But I wish the women weren’t just there to take a class or two at Radcliffe (the female school of Harvard) to kill time while they were married. I didn’t like the romance at all—they were not right for each other in any way. I also felt the ending was unrealistic. But I loved the aspects of the law brought up throughout the book.
September 29, 2021
I was curious about this novel, like most readers probably are, after seeing the movie starring Timothy Bottoms. The novel and the film are fairly similar -- but I found the dynamic between Hart and the rest of the study group, especially Andersen and Ford, more complex and interesting in the book, while the relationship between Hart and Susan is more dated and two-dimensional in the book than in the movie. An interesting period piece that probably deserves its place as a footnote in movie history, but is worth reading for a fun, suspenseful diversion and for an insight into the world of Harvard Law in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
February 2, 2020
A terribly written book that gives random unrelated snippets of the various sub-components being played out. I found this book similar to the script of the latest Quentin Tarantino movie where it was cumbersome to make sense of occurrences. Elements being sought by the reader, e.g., Harvard Law School experience, domination by an infamous professor, or the love between one of his students and his daughter were not built to their maximum potential. The only positive was that this suffering spanned only 180 pages!
May 16, 2022
This book made me feel like a stressed out law student. There wasn’t really a plot just daily encounters of law school and the mention of cases like Hawkins Vs McGee or Taylor v Cunningham and the class analysing them . I liked how this book portrayed a more realistic view of law school and the severity of academic pressures and poor mental health in competitive academic scenes “Behind every good college are a hundred boys who killed themselves.” ( Osborn 33). Although this book had a more realistic view of law school it was not that interesting and the characters were very 2D.
December 29, 2022
I wish that would have been great. It wasn’t though.
I embarked because it was advertised as a Harvard 1L experience. I embarked for the law. The law was ten percent of the book. The rest was practically nonsensical dialogue, and snippets of the majorly depressed lives of law students and those ancillary affected by them. It wasn’t even well written. It surely had its moments, which is why it doesn’t have an atrocious rating. I’m hoping 1L by Turley will be better. Osborne read to me like a perfect mash-up of Harukami and Salinger. And that is not a compliment at all.
2.5 stars
I embarked because it was advertised as a Harvard 1L experience. I embarked for the law. The law was ten percent of the book. The rest was practically nonsensical dialogue, and snippets of the majorly depressed lives of law students and those ancillary affected by them. It wasn’t even well written. It surely had its moments, which is why it doesn’t have an atrocious rating. I’m hoping 1L by Turley will be better. Osborne read to me like a perfect mash-up of Harukami and Salinger. And that is not a compliment at all.
2.5 stars
October 16, 2018
An easy read and I got a rough feel about how stressful it was to be a law student back then. But I have to say it lacked any detail on what law school classes were like. Just a basic overview of how hard they studied and how they were intimidated by their professors. Very few scenes showing tension between the main character and the contracts professor...like I remember from the TV show.
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