John Grisham

This is John Grisham's best novel out of the half dozen or so of his that I have read. More than any of his others and more than any other book I've read for a long time, I found the first couple of pages were absolutely gripping. From the very first sentence I was hooked.

Whilst there are a few moments in the book when I felt that the whole thing could have come crashing down at that point, Grisham soldiers on.

The basic plot is that we are privy to the goings on inside a trial relating to death by smoking in the USA. There has been a major settlement in this areas in the USA since this book was published and the result went the same way as Runaway Jury as I remember it but I hope that the shenanigans in that court room didn't match what Grisham has set out here!

There are really three sets of characters in this book: the tobacco lobby, the anti tobacco lobby and the jury. There are other characters and characterisations, of course, but they come and go as they do in any decent novel.

At the heart of the entire book, however, is Nicholas Easter. Nicholas is a fascination whilst being an enigma. The first point at which this book could fall apart surrounds Easter's acceptance for service on the jury in the trial at the centre of this book. The first two pages concern the process that Easter, however unwittingly, has to go through to gain acceptance by the lawyers ... he is an enigma but he comes through!

In fact the novel reveals for all to see how appalling the American jury selection process is, assuming that Grisham has accurately portrayed reality. If the judge in the story is a reflection of reality, too, then justice is in need of some reflective action in the USA for this reason too!

I can't say too much about the rest of the story now except that out of the blue a woman enters the story in such a fascinating way. The book could fall apart here too but this woman is such a fascination that I imagine all readers need this woman to stay in the picture. Suffice it to say that from now on the story maintains a life of its own. The story unfurls in a more predictable way than before but then again there are developments that are presented in true Grisham style.

The lawyers come out of this story with no credit whatsover: shallow, amoral, base people for whom nothing could ever be too low! In the end I think it's fair to say that the main lawyers finish this story having suffered something of what they don't deserve: one good and one bad!

In the end, the focal point of the story becomes the triumph of good over evil and the resurection of morality over immorality. The woman who enters so enigmatically sheds some of her enigmatism, as does Nicholas Easter. However, they leave the story by allowing the immoral to regain some of their pride. After all, this man and woman blazed a trail that would have vbeered significantly off course if they were to leave it we thought they were going to: or as we might have hoped they would.

I really believe that this is Grisham's best novel and although I haven't checked, I believe they have made a film out of it. If they have done justice to the story it will be wrll worth watching.

© Duncan Williamson

15 February 2004

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