Remember Mohammed Ali? Remember his rope a dope strategy to beat George Foreman? He would simply cover up, lean back on the ropes, and eventually Foreman punched himself out. It was masterfully done, and at the time the commentators were going berserk thinking Ali was simply giving up…… that is until all of a sudden Ali landed the knock out punches.
Reading ‘the Litigators’ is rather like watching that fight, or like watching a pot come to a boil. It seems to take forever, and then suddenly there is a mess all over the stove. Well this Grisham book, to mix my metaphors, is like both of those things.
For 340 of the 385 pages of this novel, the novel is a very average Grisham novel. Not great, not terrible…..but you keep wondering when is some action going to happen, when will the zingers shows up, what happened to court room drama?
The characters, apart perhaps from David Zinc (the book should have been entitled ‘Litigators: From A to Zinc’) are frankly very plebian, boring, even in some cases tedious and disgusting and slovenly. The firm of Finley and Figg could give ambulance chasers a bad name! And that is saying something.
You really don’t develop any sympathy for the main characters, or for that matter their clients, with one exception. Having sympathy for these sorts of bottom feeding lawyers conjures up memories of the old Rolling Stone’s classic— Sympathy for the Devil.
Now I have read a ton of Grisham. In fact I have consumed the vast majority of his burgeoning ouevre fiction and non-fiction and have not gotten indigestion yet. I like Grisham a lot, and I have learned a lot about plotting, character development, narratives of surprise and suspense, from reading him.
It has helped my own novel series— the Art West Series (most recent volume just out—- Corinthian Leather, and here’s the link to go get it—- it makes a fun Christmas present https://wipfandstock.com/store/Corinthian_Leather_The_Fourth_Art_West_Adventure).
Having said all that….. I have mixed feelings about Grisham’s latest. In my judgment, Grisham waited far too long to pull the trigger of excitement in this novel. You keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting….. and like I said, page 340 is too far into the novel.
I walked into the Mail Box postal service the other day. They were reading this novel…..and frankly were bored. And they had both read over a hundred pages. Now when a page turner doesn’t promote turning of pages, but rather putting down of the novel in boredom—- you are in trouble. Yes, it takes a while to set the scene of a sleazy ambulance chasing law firm. Yes, some characters need to be developed more slowly. Still…… it takes too long for our hero David Zinc to get up off the mat and counter punch. And I won’t tell you what happens when he does. The last forty or so pages of this novel are about as good as the best Grisham. And frankly 10% Good Grisham is much better than 80% of most other best selling novels of this ilk.
But here’s a Christmas tip— you will definitely enjoy Corinthian Leather better than the Litigators, and you will be more edified in the process as well. Even John Grisham is allowed an off day. But let’s hope that the next one is more like The Runaway Jury.
I am not sure whether I should see it as a good day or a bad day when I write a better thriller than Grisham, but I will take it as a good sign that the Art West series is doing well and taking on a life of its own, and I am learning things from Grisham, both from what he does, and what he doesn’t do.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In