Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 14, 1994 TAG: 9402120126
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BERNARD WEINRAUB NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
"In this restaurant, the then owner came up to me with a review of `Rising Sun,' and said, `Is this you?' and I said, `Yeah,' and he said people are saying, `I shouldn't be your friend,' and I said, `I'd like you to read it,' " recalled the author of such huge best sellers as "Rising Sun," "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain."
Crichton settled into a seat. "So I got on the horn to Tokyo to get him an early Japanese copy," he said. "And when I came back he said two things that were characteristic of almost all Japanese readers. They say the book is true, and I understand why you're being criticized. And that's that."
The 51-year-old writer, bespectacled and buttoned-down, speaks slowly, firmly and laconically. Although charming and usually articulate, he always seems to be on guard.
The critical reaction to "The Rising Sun" stunned him, he said, because reviewers mostly saw the book as a shocking polemic, wrapped in a murder mystery, about Japan economically crushing the United States.
"I was astounded at the reaction," Crichton said. "I was really trying to describe the cultural chasm. The memory of my book tour was I spent most of my time defending Japan. It was weird."
Crichton looked up and smiled. He said he won't be astounded by the reaction to his new book, "Disclosure." The book was published last month by Alfred Knopf, which shipped out an extraordinary 900,000 copies to bookstores. In this case, with a book about what he calls "gender relations," Crichton seems to be courting controversy.
"People have said, `Buckle up,' " he said, just a little nervously.
The novel turns the sexual politics of the 1980s and '90s upside down, and raises questions about everything from the contemporary balancing act between men and women at home and at work to, most explosively, sexual harassment.
The heart of the book, which is taken from a real incident, focuses on a successful, married, 40-ish male executive at a computer company in Seattle who rejects the sexual advances of his new boss, a woman.
The fact that the woman was his lover 10 years before complicates the situation. And what turns the situation even more treacherous is that the woman falsely accuses the man of sexual harassment, which almost destroys him.
The woman is, of course, beautiful, manipulative and has a pattern of trying to seduce men who work for her. (Picture a combination of Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction" and Faye Dunaway in "Network.") And the man is, well, a perfectly nice guy from the Tom Hanks school. The book has already been sold to Warner Brothers for $3.5 million.
So, as feminist critics might ask, what can a 51-year-old multimillionaire from a privileged Long Island family, married four times, contribute to the often-ferocious debate about men, women and sex circa 1994?
Crichton anticipates that the main criticism of the book will be that sexual harassment of men by women is rare. As a novelist, Crichton insists that he is under no obligation to write about what he calls "a typical situation."
But he has done homework on the issue, as he always does before he writes. He interviewed the participants in the real-life case. (He declines to discuss the details.)
For more than a year he read books about feminism, visited computer companies (where he set the plot) to talk to employees and personnel specialists about sexual relationships, and spoke to lawyers and others about sexual harassment.
"Statistically," he said, "25 percent of harassment cases are brought by men, and the majority of those are against other men. Five percent of all harassment cases are brought by men against women."
"I think we live in a society in which it's perceived that if a man is coming on to a woman she's being stressed, but if a woman comes on to a man he's lucky," said Crichton. "The reality is not necessarily that way."
by CNB