My latest read was this one from John Grisham which I picked up from a local charity shop for 50p.
Basic Plot:
Will Traynor the new owner of the local newspaper has
his first major story as a murder is committed in the small town of Clanton in
the district of Ford County, Mississippi……
At the trial some suspect the perpetrator will simply get
off as his family have money and have, in the past, bought the jury and the
judge……
Traynor reports the facts of the case and the aftermath and
the circulation swells but will justice be done and will Traynor manage to stay
alive….?
What I thought of it:
I have to say that this, for me, is not the best John
Grisham book that I have read but that could be that I have a slight aversion
to books which are written in the first person. This does not mean that it is
badly written or a poor story – it is well written and the story as a whole is
a good one. I would just have preferred it to be in the third person.
The novel, for me, dragged on a bit at points and some things
written about were really irrelevant to the main plot but nor were they sub
plots it did I suppose help set the scene of the local area but going on about
all the different churches Traynor went to for me added little if anything to
the story. However, the court cases are well written and the events after the
trial do have some suspense to them.
It is set in the 1970s in a small town in the deepish south
in the USA whilst there was still aspects of segregation based on a person’s
race. The book not only is a thriller/crime/legal novel but also partly a
social commentary on the ending of the segregation which is partly told through
the friendship that develops between Traynor and Miss Callie – a well-known in
her community, tough as old boots, with a heart of gold black lady who appears to have decided that
Traynor needs feeding up and this she does. Miss Callie also becomes Traynor’s proof
reader and sends him corrections on spelling and grammar from the paper.
However, her main part is as the ‘last juror’ and in this she becomes the first
black person to sit on a jury in the town. Within the novel there is also the
corruption of the legal system running through the story showing that if you
have money you can, sometimes, buy your way out of trouble and at times into
elected office.
The main characters in the novel were Traynor (the narrator)
and Miss Callie Ruffin and throughout the novel these
characters are well developed and I found Miss Callie to be by far the most
interesting of these two as Traynor comes across as rather a one dimensional at
times whereas Miss Callie with her husband and their now grown up children have
had a more interesting life. Other more minor characters are used really to
flesh out scenes and to make sure Traynor can get the job of running the paper
done and for him to mull the events over with.
Whilst there is a sort of main plot to the story it is quite
fragmented as events within it do occur years apart and this means that it is
more a collection of sub plots centred on a number of the characters within the
novel. The settings do work from the newspaper offices to Miss Callie’s home
each has its own distinctive atmosphere. The court room for example appears to
be set up more for cases of ‘he stole an apple from my tree’ rather than the
murder that is central to the plot as it gives a rather claustrophobic feel
when it is full.
Whilst there are a few twists in the main plot I do feel
that perhaps these could have been a bit bigger and more dramatic. The
conclusion was perhaps slightly underwhelming as it was perhaps a little flat
as if writers block was setting in as it ends with more of a whimper than a
bang.
Whilst the book is on the whole well researched Grisham does
admit, in the author’s notes, that he has taken a few liberties with the legal
system in Mississippi at the time the book was set in.
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