SOURCE: Prose, Francine. “The Lawyer in His Labyrinth.” Washington Post Book World 26, no. 37 (15 September 1996): 5.

In the following review of About Schmidt, Prose lauds Begley's depiction of an unsympathetic and unapologetic anti-hero, holding that the author's refusal to create a likeable character is refreshing in light of the glut of contemporary novels containing congenial and sensitive protagonists.

Like many of us, Albert Schmidt—the retired lawyer at the center of Louis Begley's new novel [About Schmidt]—spends a certain fraction of his time fretting about personal finances, tallying the figures upon which his future depends. But among the significant differences between the eponymous protagonist of About Schmidt and (one assumes) most of Begley's readers is the magnitude of the numbers these calculations involve: “He would have to take almost three million of his cash and invest it in … the purchase of a new house he didn't want and, in...