The Education of Rick Green, Esq.

Set against a backdrop of corporate greed run amok in the 1980s, Sawikin's first novel starts out as a comedy and turns into a morality play, with most of the bright moments coming in the second half as the protagonist faces a daunting ethical dilemma. Rick Green is a Jewish attorney who seeks fortune and fame in the fast lane at a prestigious New York law firm, only to mix business and sexual attraction in his first big case with predictably disastrous results. The case involves a teetering Georgia company, and the object of Rick's affections is the firm's libidinous young blonde receptionist. Shuttling back and forth across the Mason-Dixon line, Rick attempts to balance the demands of corporate law, his straightlaced, religious fiancee and his wild and alcoholic new girlfriend. When he discovers that his own firm is helping to engineer a leveraged buyout that may ultimately cost his client the family business, however, Rick succumbs to the lure of insider trading-and then the SEC detects the dirty deed. The novel's would-be comedy falls mostly flat, largely because Rick begins the book as an unsympathetic character, part shameless yuppie, part terminal whiner. Once Sawikin fleshes out his protagonist and tones down the wisecracking, however, he delivers a series of effective scenes regarding the ethical conflicts that Rick must resolve as the SEC tightens the noose. Sawikin's take on morality and the law is sensitive and compelling, but this ex-lawyer's parody of his former profession is a losing case. (July)