A certain fine madness and a keen sense of the outrageous... When Leon Drew, a typical law-abiding, hard-working (senior copywriter for Rifkin, Blaze and Gillari Advertising), deeply committed family man (a wife, a son, a dog) receives a summons to jury duty, he reacts like most civic-minded Americans... but his request for postponement is denied. Forced to accept his duty, Drew takes his role as a juror very seriously and soon becomes obsessed by the Civil Court trial of a cab driver, Simon Varnik vs. The City of New York. However, while basking in the blazing spotlight of The Law in a "juror's special state of grace," he finds himself caught up in an urge to perform a series of delectably unnatural and criminal acts. The result is a fast-paced story of modern city life which is at once funny and serious, touching and irreverent, warm, human, and always identifiable even in its extremity-a story of love and law and a man trying to make his way through the maze of his limited days as a juror passing judgment upon his fellow man. Leon Drew, Barbara Drew, son Charlie, Judge Amos Gleeb (a local Ayatollah), lawyers Helene Rich and Peter Ross Blatsky, Simon Varnik, the witnesses, and the jurors themselves make up the quirky cast of characters in this very special novel. When the verdict is in, you'll cheer. You'll be the judge. If you've ever served on a jury, you'll enjoy The Juror, and if you've never served, you might just run downtown and insist on a summons! Praise for Harvey Jacobs work "Hypnotized, the reader is compelled to listen. Bizarre urban fairy tales delivered with kick and rhythm." -Time Magazine "Move over Philip Roth, Mel Brooks, Heironymus Bosch. At last we've got another original... it's so rich in everything! ... An exuberant first novel by an already master." -Ann Rosenberg, Philadelphia Inquirer "There are few finer pleasures than discovering a good writer whose work you have not read before, and it is with great delight that I recommend The Egg of the Glak. ... Jacobs, a superb wordsmith, is at home in many areas.... His characters are haunting. He has an original mind with a highly attractive way of looking at things. I have rarely enjoyed finding a writer as much as I have enjoyed my own discovery of Jacobs." -Robert Cromie, Chicago Tribune (NET Book Week) "Quietly amused, wry approach that gives distinction to Mr. Jacobs's work ... his dry humor would be hard to improve on." -Elizabeth Easton, The Saturday Review Of his short stories: "It's impossible to stop reading any of them. The best are great. Here is an author who sees life clearly and with humor everything there is to know." -Publishers Weekly "'I have dangerous tendencies toward ecstasy, ' confesses a character in one of Harvey Jacobs's short stories. And. so, it seems, does everyone else in his slightly screwball, highly readable collection. The characters who climb Jacobs's ladder are in search of a friend or a lover, but the ladder is shaped like a corkscrew, most of the rungs are missing, and there's no room at the top. Give us more, Jacobs " -Kirkus
