Personal Injuries addresses two main social concerns, the rooting out and punishment of judicial corruption and the horrors of a notorious but little-understood fatal disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Both concerns run throughout the novel, and the contrast between the public issues of bribery and malfeasance and the private suffering from a debilitating disease contrast nicely, both evoking the "personal injuries" of the title. By dramatizing the corruption investigation, Scott Turow pursues a number of agendas, including, as he does in all his works, illuminating the work of courtroom attorneys, highlighting the moral quandaries faced by decent attorneys and clients caught in the grip of ineluctable legal and social forces, and showing how the visible elements of the legal system are no more than iceberg tips compared to the subsurface machinations the public never sees. The ALS concern is clearly meant to raise consciousness about...