genre: fiction, based on law (u know, the typical john grisham books)
rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
This is the second or third John Grisham book I’ve read so far. I’m not a Grisham fan usually, but I chanced upon this book in the library that day while hunting for something lighter to read. It’s not as good as the other book of his that I’ve read. (heck, I don’t even remember the title! hehe)
On a separate note, I wouldn’t mind reading another one of his books, anyone has a suggestion on which one is good?
Synopsis
The novel is set in 1970s’ town of Clanton, in Mississippi. It’s a small town with under ten thousand inhabitants, and where racial prejudice still persevered. A 23-year-old college drop-out, Willie Traynor, buys over the local paper and transforms a news office that is facing bankruptcy into a popular paper worth millions. All this was done possible by coverage of a brutal murder and rape done by Danny Padgitt, a member of the fiercely reclusive, pirate-like, cold-blooded Padgitts. Despite all odds and corruption, and following a highly-charge trial, Danny Padgitt was sentenced to life imprisonment by the jury. Before being hauled off to serve his sentence, Danny had threatened to ‘get’ every single member of the jury if they found him guilty. However, what they did not forestall was that the life sentence in Mississippi was only ten years, after which, Danny was set free on parole… and the gruesome murders of the jury began…
Review
Appropriately, this book was divided into three parts, the first centred on the trial of Danny Padgitt, and the last focussed on the murders following Padgitt’s release. In my view, Grisham added a part two in order to show the transition of time, to emphasise the passing of years. However, much of it was unnecessarily played-up and there were too many sub-plots and sub-sub-plots that I was unable to really focus. This question repeatedly crossed my mind, ‘What does the author want me to think about? What is the subject matter here?’ I could understand and appreciate the sub-plots of racism, shown from the story of the only black female juror, Callie Ruffin; I could understand the ennui Willie felt after 10 years of running the newspaper almost single-handedly. But I could not fathom the other tiny bits and pieces of stories about others, worse, when they did not seem to link up.
With regards to Willie Traynor, I did not feel that Grisham had allowed the character sufficient development. There was a lot of discussion about ‘ennui’, about his lack of spiritual enrichment in the story, but there was absolutely no closure about the matter.
The novel ended rather abruptly, there was no proper closure as to whether Danny Padgitt did indeed make good his threat. Perhaps this is how things could happen in real-life, but I think it’s hardly appropriate for a fictional story.
