He had spent all his money on the case that forms the basis of the book.
In the dawn phone call incident, for example, Schlichtmann was sleeping on his office sofa because he had lost his home and car. Reading the book, you have a very unique insight into the smell and feel and reality of what happened." "He was an honest, frank, plain person, and I didn't feel he had any agenda but telling the story," Schlichtmann says. Schlichtmann says he granted it because his clients wanted the story to get out and because he was impressed with Harr's honesty and skill. Harr says he demanded that kind of access and wouldn't have written the book without it. There has been concern that some authors who attempt this kind of writing put thoughts in people's heads or describe events they could not have really known about. Some critics, however, have given Harr's book higher marks than Preston's, in part because of Harr's day-to-day presence at the events he describes. "People need to set up an `us and them' dichotomy.
"Killer viruses have replaced communists as identifiable enemies for Americans in the post-nuclear era," says Christian Messenger, English professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Random House still hopes that Harr's book, like Preston's, will reach the best-seller lists.īut Preston's book has some advantages over Harr's: There was increased interest in viruses due to an actual outbreak of Ebola in Zaire just after publication the story has a clear villain and it has a happy ending.
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