“Do what you want with me” by JK Oates in summary
Part one. Twenty-eight years two months twenty-six days
On May 4, 1950 in Pittsburgh, a man kidnaps seven-year-old Elina from the schoolyard. This is her father Leo Ross, after a divorce from his wife deprived of the right to meet with her daughter. Leo loves his daughter and hates his ex-wife – the beautiful Ardis. He sends Ardis mocking letters, trying to knock her off the trail. Leo is taking the girl to the West, to California. So that no one knows Elina, Leo paints her hair black. In San Francisco, he takes a room, without telling the hostess that he is a child. He asks Elina to behave as quietly as possible, to move less when he is not at home. She obediently obeys her father, never asks for food, and he forgets to feed her, she does not like to wash her head, and he stops washing the girl. Elina gets sick, and he, despite the insanity, understands that the daughter can not stay with him. Leo Ross escapes, and Elina goes first to the hospital, and then to the mother.
Part two. Disparate facts, events, speculation, evidence taken into account and not taken
In 1953 in Detroit there is a murder – Joseph Morrissey kills Neil Stelin, a contractor-builder. The mentally retarded son of Morrissey Ronnie climbed onto the construction site, and he was overwhelmed by construction debris. Morrissey considers Stelina guilty of the death of his beloved younger son. Young lawyer Marvin Howe undertakes to defend Morrissey. He tries to persuade his eldest son, Jack, who believes that his father is guilty, because he brought himself to the point of obscuring his mind that in fact he is innocent. Jack loves his father, but does not want to lie, even to save him. Hou inspires him that everything is relative, that the memory of man is imperfect, that he must have noticed this and that, in general, tells him what he should testify in court. The court recognizes that Joseph Morrissey acted in a state of temporary obscuration of the understanding, and justifies it.
Jack Morrissey grows up and becomes a lawyer. He works in various committees, helps lawyers of the American Civil Liberties Union to conduct cases for the protection of civil rights in the North, then comes to the South, to Java – the center of Lyme County, Mississippi – where the National Association for the Development of Colored People and the American Union of Struggle for civil liberties opened a legal aid office. He meets Rachel, who is also fighting for the rights of the Negroes, and they are together trying to persuade the parents of the white negro policeman Hurley to sue. Jack believes in the law, believes in the triumph of justice, he is committed to achieving the goal. But negroes do not believe in success and do not excite matters. For Jack, the main thing is not to win the process, but to promote change, to pave the way for other lawsuits to appear in court, and her family does not want to be guided by general considerations and is afraid of revenge. Jack marries Rachel and returns to Detroit. Rachel is working at the local branch of the Committee for ending the war in Vietnam. Three years after Jack’s unsuccessful attempt, the hearing of the case of Hurley resumed. His conduct is a lawyer, Deevee. Jack offers him his help, but Deevee does not respond to his letter. Although now, in July 1967, there is much more hope of winning the process, Deevee loses. Jack writes a condolent message to him. In 1969, Jack accidentally gets acquainted with Brouwer – a young lawyer, Assistant Deevee in the case of Hurley. Brouwer lives in Ann Arbor and once a week comes to Detroit to give lectures on courses for adults. One day, Brouwer shows Jack in the crack one of his listeners – a blonde about twenty years old, very pretty, but, it seems to Jack, ” “Her calm face” seemed almost worn out, as if nonexistent, had the woman not been so good. “This is Elina Howe, at work, Jack discovers that Elina’s face is standing before his eyes. Jack is trying to convince everyone that the victim is to blame, that she, consciously or unconsciously, provoked the crime. and Jack and Rachel are fighting against the council’s activities, Rachel gets a summons but does not want to go to court, Jack scolds her for contempt of the law, they are arguing. Jack feels that he and Rachel are different people, that they are far from each other. In April 1971, Jack accidentally meets Elina on the street and follows her, several times finding himself very close, but she does not know him and does not pay attention to him. She stops in front of the statue with a distanced look, and Jack, who suspects that something is wrong with her, calls to her.
Part Three. A crime
Elina’s dizzy. Jack takes her home. At parting he leaves her her phone number, but she does not call him. In June, Marvin suddenly sends Elina to her friend in California. There she remembers Jack and calls him. Jack did not expect her call, it’s been two months since they met. Jack asks Elina – when she will return, but she does not know and invites him to come to her in San Francisco. The next day Jack arrives in San Francisco, where Elina is already waiting for him at the hotel. He becomes her lover.
Marvin Howe is talking with one of his friends. He asks what to do if a large trust or a private company is prosecuted and the prosecutor is the prosecutor. Howe believes that the only way out is to say nolo contendere – “do what you want with me” – and surrender to his mercy.
Returning to Detroit, Elina and Jack continue to meet secretly. Their feelings are becoming more serious. The husband never tells Elina about his affairs, Jack, on the contrary, dedicates it to all his professional difficulties. He defends the Negroes, but Negroes prefer black lawyers, so his clients, as a rule, are those whom no one else wants to protect, “an old junk that has not lost faith in the struggle for civil rights since the sixties.” Jack undertakes to defend Meredith Doe, a preacher of universal love and an enemy of violence, almost a saint, Jack tells Elina that Rachel wants to raise a child in the hope that it will unite their family. Rachel believes that now is not the time to have children, but a child who has already been born needs a parent, even a foster child. Jack understands that this will separate him from Elina, and does not know,
Elina goes to the public performance of Meredith Dow. During the rally, riots begin, a girl next to her is knocked down. Two men take Elina away from the meeting and bring her home. She understands that these are the people her husband hired to watch her. Doe breaks the skull and damages the spine. He’s in the hospital. Jack is getting ready for the process. He defends not Dow’s views and not even himself, but his right to have his own views and preach them.
Ardis informs Elina that she is married to an English aristocrat and moves to England. Jack tells Elina that if she leaves her husband, then he leaves his wife, but if Elina does not want to live with him, tomorrow he and his wife sign documents for the adoption of the child and then he will not be able to meet Elina. Elina can not decide to leave her husband, Jack furiously yells at her, they quarrel, Jack calls her “thing.” Elina returns to Marvin, who does not reproach her in anything and burns all the papers and photographs related to her novel with Jack. Marvin kept an eye on her and knew everything, but did not say anything to her. He still loves her.
Summing up
Elina’s father Leo Ross, never found by the police, decides to commit suicide. He goes to the cinema, the next day he again goes to the same film. The cashier, who remembered the strange visitor, wants to see him again and waits for him to leave after the session, but Leo disappears – the emergency exit is locked, and through the main one he did not go out. The cashier and the policeman are sure that the cashier just did not notice him.
The court sentences Meredith Doe to imprisonment for a term of eight to ten years. Doe wrote letters from the prison to the judge, and appeals. He demands that in the future Jack Morrissey, who does not share his views, was removed from the case, and wants to defend himself. Rachel sees that although there was a child in their family, he and Jack did not get any closer. She threatens to leave Jack and go with the baby to Seattle. Once Jack and Rachel accidentally fall into the house of Stelin, whom Jack’s father killed, – now this house belongs to quite different people. Everyone sympathizes with Jack, who lost the case to Dow. Jack gets drunk, and Rachel takes him home.
Elina leaves on the coast of Maine, where Marvin has a house. Marvin is very affectionate and careful with her. Having lived there from the end of April to the end of August, she suddenly tells Marvin that he can no longer be his wife and wants to leave. Marvin asks her not to hurry up and after eleven years of marriage to wait at least a few days. Elina calls Jack, but Jack answers her “no” and hangs up. Marvin begs Elina not to leave him, but she does not want to stay with him. She refuses money and only takes notes at the end, which he throws after her so that she does not leave without a penny, Elina comes to Jack’s house and asks him to go downstairs. She is waiting for him on the street, but he does not go and does not go. When he finally appears, both of them are surprised and delighted to smile at each other and at this moment forget about everything else.
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