His essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Scholar, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and many other publications. A longtime member of the National Book Critics Circle, he practiced law in government and the private sector for over twenty years after clerking for a federal judge. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and his law degree from Boston College. O’Donnell lives with his family in the Chicago area.
He applied the Page 69 Test to Concert Black with the following results:
Page 69 of Concert Black has only six lines—it ends a chapter—but it is a perfect fit for the Page 69 Test. The protagonist, Cecil Woodbridge, is just concluding a meeting with his attorney, Rene Hutchins. They are plotting strategy as Woodbridge tries to frustrate the author who wishes to write his biography. He has proved cagey with his attorney about why he doesn’t want it written, and a few pages earlier she finally gets him to say, “Half a century ago I did something rash and unseemly…. I took advantage of an opportunity. In a way that would not reflect well on my character, were it to come out now.”Visit Michael O'Donnell's website.
On page 69, their meeting wraps up. Woodbridge has dictated their course of action, and Hutchins promises to carry out his instructions. But she makes one final attempt to understand the stakes of stopping the book. What will happen, she asks him, if his secret comes out? “I’ll be ruined,” he replies.
In a sense, this exchange is the fulcrum of the book. The reader has spent the first 68 pages wondering why Cecil Woodbridge fights off his biographer. After all, most celebrities would view having their biography written as entry into a sort of club: it makes them newsworthy and raises their profile. And the reader spends the remaining 182 pages learning what the secret is, why it matters—and whether Woodbridge can succeed in keeping it hidden.
Q&A with Michael O'Donnell.
The Page 69 Test: Above the Fire.
Writers Read: Michael O'Donnell (December 2023).
--Marshal Zeringue
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