Skip to main content

John Grisham's America

 John Grisham wrote "A Time to Kill," then "The Firm"--and it was "The Firm"'s world-historical success that led readers *back* to "A Time to Kill."


Though "Time to Kill" didn't initially have the sales that "The Firm" had, readers did discover and did fall in love with "Time to Kill," and Grisham now reports that most readers who come to him to describe a favorite Grisham book.....are describing "A Time to Kill."


Partly for this reason, Grisham has now revisited the "Kill" setting. "A Time for Mercy" brings back Jake Brigance, a lawyer in Mississippi in 1990. Near Jake's home, a well-liked police officer regularly abuses alcohol and secretly assaults his family (once or twice per night). On an especially bad night, the officer beats his girlfriend so severely that she seems to lose her life. Her young son picks up a gun and murders the police officer, who has been passed out on his bed for several minutes.


How do you approach this case? It's not self-defense. The officer was unconscious (and maybe even dead from drinking!) when his enemy attacked him with the gun. But would you really send a kid to his death via capital punishment, when the kid was severely traumatized and responding to months and months of violence in the house?


This is a gripping scenario, and it allows Grisham to invent several wacky characters. The decent lawyer who will nonetheless lie about unpleasant evidence, if the lie could be helpful. The potential juror who knows she ought to speak up about her own history with domestic abuse--and who, mysteriously, opts not to speak up. The bright office assistant who surely could try the case on her own, in a less rule-bound world. The murderer-for-hire, waiting in the wings, wondering if he might assist Jake by unconventional means....


One of Grisham's great gifts is a detailed understanding of the legal system--how one side can cheat the other out of months of hard work, how the announcement of a pregnancy can be used as a kind of courtroom ambush, how two people can listen to opening remarks, and one feels the remarks are too maudlin, while the other feels the remarks are far too restrained. Grisham folds in his knowledge without becoming preachy or didactic, and he keeps the story moving.


Grisham has expressed his fondness for Michael Connelly--another wizard of storytelling--and it's fun to imagine what the two might invent if they worked together.


I was able to get absorbed in "A Time for Mercy," in a difficult and stressful month, and that's a tribute to Grisham. Four stars.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...
3 comments
Read more

The Death of Bergoglio

  It's frustrating for me to hear Bergoglio described as "the less awful pope"--because awful is still awful. I think I get fixated on ideas of purity, which can be juvenile, but putting that aside, here are some things that Bergoglio could have done and did not. (I'm quoting from a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of the Church.) He could levy the harshest penalty, excommunication, against a dozen or more of the most egregious abuse enabling church officials. (He's done this to no enablers, or predators for that matter.) He could insist that every diocese and religious order turn over every record they have about suspected and known abusers to law enforcement. Francis could order every prelate on the planet to post on his diocesan website the names of every proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting cleric. (Imagine how much safer children would be if police, prosecutors, parents and the public knew the identities of these potentially dangerous me...
1 comment
Read more

Raymond Carver: "What's in Alaska?"

Outside, Mary held Jack's arm and walked with her head down. They moved slowly on the sidewalk. He listened to the scuffing sounds her shoes made. He heard the sharp and separate sound of a dog barking and above that a murmuring of very distant traffic.  She raised her head. "When we get home, Jack, I want to be fucked, talked to, diverted. Divert me, Jack. I need to be diverted tonight." She tightened her hold on his arm. He could feel the dampness in that shoe. He unlocked the door and flipped the light. "Come to bed," she said. "I'm coming," he said. He went to the kitchen and drank two glasses of water. He turned off the living-room light and felt his way along the wall into the bedroom. "Jack!" she yelled. "Jack!" "Jesus Christ, it's me!" he said. "I'm trying to get the light on." He found the lamp, and she sat up in bed. Her eyes were bright. He pulled the stem on the alarm and b...
1 comment
Read more