Attorney-at-Large by Gaynell Gavin (review)

Anarchy Barbie, the novella’s protagonist—a specialist in family and juvenile law—describes her profession as “triage law.” This assessment is accurate. Gavin’s book centers on a woman whose practice of law is often complicated by legal dealings that run counter to the common sense one would anticipate as critical to the safety of children and families, thus depleting both her energy and her ability to fight the system.

Through a progression of vignettes, the reader experiences the complexity of removing children from the home of their biological parents, the frustrations of foster care and the social services system, the intricacies of the court system, and the contingencies of such specific programs as the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act.

If one approaches a legal decision as simply a matter of one side winning and another losing, then the reader will see that often in this text the loser is the child. As Gavin creates continuous scenarios about children and families at risk, the reader views the complexity of the judicial system and how almost hopeless some of these family situations are. When Gavin allows Anarchy Barbie the device of “What I Did Not Say” and “What I Did Say” as preface to dialogue, the reader sees Barbie’s credibility as a caring, competent human being as well as a foreshadowing of her movement away from the law as her chosen profession. The stereotypes of wealth, privilege, and status that may be commonly associated with practitioners of the legal profession are dispelled. Barbie’s character is a single parent of an ethnically diverse child, and her finances are not secure. Gavin also provides important insight into the painful realities of social work professionals and the foster care system.

While the novella takes place in the Denver area, it could just as easily take place anywhere in this country. If it takes a village to raise a child, Gavin’s book shows how woefully short we are falling in that attempt.