There are many reasons to read John Grisham novels not the least of which is to figure out why so many Americans do read him in an age of non-reading! Of course some of his novels are much better than others. When you are as prolific as John, this is bound to be the case. All of them are readable (yes I’ve read all of them except some of the children’s books), some of them are real page turners, some of them are good legal thrillers, and some of them are just plain fun or interesting. What they are not, nor do they pretend to be, is haut literateur of the Faulkner, Hemingway, Hawthorne etc. class. But good beach reading they are. It is somewhat ironic then that this novel is about ‘the great American novel’ or two.
John knows his niche, and he knows his audience. So what should we think about John’s latest, Camino Island (290 pages, just out in June 2017), in which he writes about writers– their quirks, their qualms, their loves their lusts, their fears their fun? Sometimes whether you like a novel or not depends on whether you like the characters in the novel, or whether you like the setting of the novel, or whether you like the plot, or all of the above. On characters in the novel, Camino Island gets an A-, especially for the fact that there a number of very colorful characters in this particular story, and one of them at least is very likable. Her name is Mercer Mann and she’s an adjust literature prof at UNC-Chapel Hill (already I like her!). And as for plot, the story revolves around the theft of some of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original novel manuscripts from the Firestone Library at Prinecton, so it gets a B+ on that score. So its a heist and recovery kind of caper. And the setting is mostly in a dying breed of store— a bookstore on Camino Island off Jacksonville Fla. run by a charmer named Bruce Cable. Here’s the official summary from Amazon—
“A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a secure vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, but Princeton has insured it for twenty-five million dollars.
Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts.
Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. She is approached by an elegant, mysterious woman working for an even more mysterious company. A generous offer of money convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Bruce Cable’s circle of literary friends, ideally getting close enough to him to learn his secrets.
But eventually Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise as only John Grisham can deliver it.”
For me, as a writer, I was especially interested in the depiction of the literati— writers and their publishers and their sycophants including bookstore owners and book peddlers. Can you say eccentric? It is not true that all artists or writers are eccentric, but plenty of them are. Say what you will, they are not boring. The portrayal of all these types rang true to my experience. Writers are an especially vulnerable and sensitive lot, always looking for someone’s approval, or advice, or help, or direction, or funding. Precisely because they feel deeply, they often become prey to those who exploit people’s feelings— salesmen, fans, hangers’ on. Some of the most successful ones are like rock stars with groupies, but that is not the case with Mercer Mann, who finds herself in over her head, romantically, personally, as a writer, and as in insider.
Of the recent novels by Grisham, I’d rate this one a bit lower than the last one, The Whistler, and considerably lower than Grey Mountain or Sycamore Row, but it is nonetheless a beguiling baguette— easily consumed, and not all empty calories. Summer fun for sure.
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