My Life as a Radical Lawyer

At 75, the peripatetic and controversial Kunstler steps back to recount his professional and private life. Notable is his candor: Kunstler admits to craving the limelight and enjoying the trappings of celebrity, as when he moved left during the civil-rights era and became radicalized during the 1969 Chicago Seven trial, which helped end his first marriage. After thoughtfully telling of his family, youth and early legal career, Kunstler relates a saga that includes an enormous cast: Martin Luther King, Lenny Bruce (with whom he once shot heroin), the Berrigan brothers, Leonard Peltier, the Central Park ``jogger case'' defendant Yusuf Salaam, and El Sayyid Nosair, the accused killer of Rabbi Meir Kahane. Though Kunstler never questions the veracity of his clients, he's mostly convincing in portraying himself as a Don Quixote in a system biased toward the rich. While parts of the book could use more detail or reflection, Isenberg (Women Who Love Men Who Kill) has tamed Kunstler's memoirs into a readable narrative of a very busy life. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)