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May 4, 2003
Review: Here comes the king of legal fiction
WHEN John Grisham released The Firm in 1992, he single-handedly made legal fiction the genre. Soon, anyone who was someone had a copy of that paperback and then later every other novel by Grisham on their bookshelf. Wannabee best-selling legal thriller authors like Brad Meltzer (The Tenth Justice, Dead Even) and William Diehl (Primal Fear) tried to cash in on Grisham’s success, but were unable to attain even half his acclaim or come close to dethroning him from his pedestal.
The author became such a household name that bookstores like Amazon.com featured lists entitled “Legal Thrillers not by John Grisham” because he was in a league different from his contemporaries. In fact, the name Grisham and legal fiction remained en vogue until J.K. Rowling brought children’s books to the forefront with her runaway smash creation of a young wizard named Harry Potter. Simultaneously, Grisham’s writing standards began to plunge, and his plotlines became more lacklustre, culminating with his short failed stint at semi-autobiographical work.
Fortunately, the king of legal fiction is back in true form with his latest release, The King of Torts. Not only is his writing as liquid and compelling as ever, but he has created a fascinating, suspenseful and educational skeletal plot. The tale revolves around the life of Public Defender J. Clay Carter II. When Carter reluctantly takes the case of a teenage thug charged with a random street killing, he assumes it is a routine, senseless murder like the many that hit Washington, D.C. every week.
Only once he delves into the background of his client, Carter unwittingly stumbles upon a larger-than-life conspiracy. Before he can discover too much, he is approached by a representative of a pharmaceutical company who claims the company’s experimental drug caused the murder. If Carter can settle a product liability suit before it goes to trial, he’ll be rewarded with ten million dollars and a new career path. The young lawyer bites at the offer and soon finds himself a highly successful tort lawyer. Like any overnight celebrity, Carter is drawn into the life of wealth and fantasy, and finds that he soon must compromise his principles in order to keep it all.
From the first page, the world of Carter is fast-paced and intriguing in Grisham’s hands, despite the Office of the Public Defender being one of the most mundane, stagnant settings. The King of Torts is the antithesis of The Firm. While the earlier novel was fast-paced, glitzy and told the tale of a rising star, this latest effort is slower-paced, practical and revolves around the life of a jaded, depressed “could’ve been”.
The King of Torts is Grisham’s most unusual legal thriller yet. Unlike some of his earlier works like The Client and The Pelican Brief, this novel boasts a protagonist who is driven solely by avarice. The main character is at once both hero and villain.
Obsessed by the deadly sin of greed, Carter is assaulted by an intense moral dilemma that consumes the story as it deepens and darkens into an SRS-like assault on some of the novelist’s peers within the law. The author targets mass tort lawyers who win billion-dollar class-action settlements from corporations selling defective or dangerous products, then charge obscene fees off the top, so that minimal payouts actually reach the people harmed by the products.
Grisham still manages to connect the reader with his central hero by making Carter an average guy who finds himself caught in a significant moral dilemma. The tension is considerable throughout, and there is appeal in the judicious ending, but overriding all else is Grisham’s ability to educate as he entertains. The story is peppered with effective words of wisdom: Grishamisms.
“Nobody earns ten million dollars in six months, Clay,” a friend warns. “You might win it, steal it, or have it drop out of the sky, but nobody earns money like that. It’s ridiculous and obscene.” Like a pact with the devil, when Carter accepts the offer to move to the dark side, he is consumed internally and externally by the choice he made. Grisham is renowned for his fierce moral stance and he is true to form here and he depicts through Carter the moral dangers that can await even the ordinary man.
The tale is powerful and engrossing as Grisham draws you willingly into a love-hate relationship with Carter. Although The King of Torts is a worthwhile read and a return of Grisham at his best, it doesn’t have the dazzle of The Firm, and so is unlikely to resurrect legal fiction as the king of genres.
The King of Torts
By John Grisham
Random House/Arrow
Available at Liberty Books (Pvt) Ltd, 3 Rafiq Plaza, M.R. Kayani Road, Saddar, Karachi.
Tel: 021-5683026
Email: libooks@cyber.net.pk Website:
www.Libertybooks.com
ISBN 0-09-941617-4
372pp. Rs315
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