SOURCE: "A Soft Touch," in New Statesman & Society, Vol. 7, No. 288, February 4, 1994, p. 49.

In the following unfavorable review, Kennedy contends that Disclosure is formulaic and timid in its handling of the sexual harassment issue.

On a recent flight to Hong Kong, I took a stroll down the aisles of the jumbo jet, looking at what my fellow passengers were reading. Yes, I did see one earnest-looking speedreader who risked excess baggage charges with A Suitable Boy. But most people were engrossed in easy-to-digest commercial fiction.

And of the 300 or so passengers, around a quarter appeared to be in possession of a novel by Michael Crichton. The 52-year-old Harvard-trained doctor has—in between directing Hollywood movies and hanging out with Laotian monks—also become the most bankable commercial novelist of the moment, thanks to Jurassic Park and Rising Sun. Unlike schlock merchants of the Jeffrey Archer ilk, he is also...