Con artists work by gaining your confidence. Hell, it's in the name. Sometimes this is done by creating a thorough and plausible identity. Other times, they just wing it and hope no one will ask questions. Perhaps one the most ballsy types of this scam are people who claim to be close relatives of famous people, especially when those people do not exist. I recently heard about the case of Alison Reynolds, who in 2003 went around claiming to be TS Eliot's twin daughters, Claire and Chess, while scamming the British theater establishment for large sums of cash. There are two basic problems here: TS Eliot had no children, and Reynolds was incapable of being in two places at once. She was forced to drop the identity "after theatre staff became suspicious that they had never seen Claire and Chess in the same room." What's baffling is that she was able to get away with this in the age of Google. I'll be honest, I'd watch a movie about a con woman claiming to be the non-existent twins of a famous playwright and, if history is any indication, we might well get one.
A similar scam was perpetrated in Manhattan in the early 1980s, when David Hampton went around claiming to be Sidney Poitier's son. (Poitier has six daughters, but no sons). His story was the basis of the play and movie Six Degrees of Separation.
But of course, if we're talking about celebrity impostors, we have to acknowledge the infamous Alan Conway, who didn't settle for pretending to be related to Stanley Kubrick, but claimed that he was Stanley Kubrick. If you think it's a bit funny that a con artist would be named Conway, well so would he, considering that he chose the name for himself, after being charged with numerous frauds. But this is just the kind of boldness you'd expect from a guy who, despite being British, clean shaven, and having "had apparently only seen a couple of Kubrick's films," managed to keep convincing people he was the real deal. The story of his unmasking is worth a read. It was largely left up to the real Kubrick's assistant, Anthony Frewin, who later went on to write a screenplay about the ordeal, titled Colour Me Kubrick.
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Monday, June 22, 2015
From Page to Screen to Screen: Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not"
THE NOVEL:
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To Have and Have Not was Hemingway's third novel, released in 1937, between two of his major works (A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls). It's main character is Harry Morgan, a captain of a small boat in the Florida Keys and Cuba who makes a living chartering the wealthy for fishing trips. Short on cash after being stiffed his payment by a client, Morgan agrees to smuggle some Chinese immigrants from Cuba to the US. He tries to prevent Eddie, a rummy and his first mate, from going with him, but he sneaks on to the ship anyway. Thinking he'll be double-crossed after loading the immigrants on his boat, Morgan kills the man who hired him and then leaves the Chinese on the shores in Cuba.
Times being tough, Morgan takes to running rum from Cuba to the US, and on one trip he and another mate, Wesley, are shot by the Cuban patrol. Harry loses his arm and his boat is confiscated. The novels shifts at this point, Harry's relationship with his wife is delved into, his troubled relations with the wealthy inhabitants of the Florida keys, a few of whom temporarily become main the focus of the book. Hemingway swaps narrators and focuses on the Haves instead of the Have Nots for quite a while, before going back to Harry Morgan, who's agreed to steal back his boat and run some Cuban bank robbers back to Havana, but things don't go as planned. The robbers kill Morgan's friend Albert and in the ensuing drama, a shootout leaves all the boat's occupants dead, including Morgan.
This is one of Hemingway's more marginal novels, along the lines of Across the River and into the Trees, and is in fact better known for the first of it's film adaptations. The novels changing narrators and roving focus is a questionable choice, and has garnered divisive reviews.
THE FILMS:
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Length: 100 minutes
Director: Howard Hawks
To Have and Have Not is a classic of the Hollywood golden age. Humphrey Bogart plays Harry Morgan, a captain of a charter ship in Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean now under Nazi rule. Morgan is no fan of the Nazis, but he remains staunchly apolitical. Morgan and Eddie, played here as pure comic relief by Walter Brennan, turn down a job smuggling French resistance fighters into Martinique. At the hotel bar, Morgan notices a young woman pick-pocket his charter's wallet (said charter owed him a little under a thousand dollars, and claimed he'd need to cash a check the next morning). Morgan confronts the girl, and discovers that the charter had nearly two grand in cash and traveler's checks, as well as a plane ticket out of Martinique for the next morning. The woman introduces herself as Marie Browning (Lauren Bacall, in her first film role), and together they confront the charter. But the revolutionaries are attacked in the hotel bar, and the charter catches a stray bullet. Morgan is questioned by the Gestapo and has his money confiscated. In need of cash, he agrees to help the French resistance fighters. As the film goes on, his relationship with Browning and desire to help the resistance grows. The film also has an affable bar singer/pianist.
If the plot sounds a bit like Casablanca, that's because it is. Casablanca was a big hit, and the studios wanted to strike while the iron was hot. What's especially interesting is that one of the screenwriters was William Faulkner, who was not Hemingway's biggest fan. I can't imagine it caused him much heartache to cut a lot of the Hemingway from To Have and Have Not.
The Breaking Point (1950)
Length: 97minutes
Director: Michael Curtiz
The Breaking Point stars John Garfield as Harry Morgan, a charter boat captain who ferries between Newport, California and Mexico. His charter has them take him and a young, beautiful woman to Mexico. The woman, Leona Charles (Patrice Neal), attempts to seduce Morgan, but is rebuffed. After the charter strands Morgan, Leona, and Morgan's mate Wesley in Mexico, Morgan agrees to smuggle some Chinese immigrants aboard his ship. When the man who hired him tries to double cross him, Morgan kills him and dumps his body in the ocean before releasing the immigrants on the Mexican coast. When he gets back to California, he finds that one of the immigrants identified his boat, and it's being confiscated by the coast guard.
Morgan's relationship with his wife Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter) and their two daughters is a major part of the novel, and the relationship is fantastically complex. Not melodramatic, mind you, but they clearly love each other very much but have their own issues and insecurities, and his continuing friendship with Leona Charles throws a small wrinkle into things.
Morgan finds out that the boat was released due to the efforts of the crooked lawyer that facilitated the deal with the Chinese. The lawyer blackmails Morgan with the knowledge of the murder, and gets him to ferry some robbers to Mexico. Morgan decides to double cross the robbers and turn them in for the reward. Unfortunately, Wesley is on the boat when the robbers arrive, and they kill him. Some time later, there's a shootout, on the boat, and Morgan is the only survivor, but he'll need his arm amputated.
The Gun Runners (1958)
Length: 83 minutes
Director: Don Siegel
The Gun Runners stars Audie Murphy as Sam Martin, captain of a charter boat that runs between Cuba and the Florida keys. He works with an alcoholic first mate named Harvey (Everett Sloane). A combination of a crooked charter and a gambling problem land Martin in money troubles. He takes on a man named Hanagan (Eddie Albert) and his beautiful girlfriend Eva (Gita Hall) to Havana for what Martin believes is an affair, but is really a meeting for an arms deal with the Cuban revolutionaries which ends up with Hanagan shooting a Cuban military officer. When they get back to the keys, Martin tells his wife what happened. Lucy Martin, played by Patricia Owens, is the perfect wife. Beautiful, supportive, trusting, their relationship is completely without trouble, despite the obvious troubles in their lives.
Anyway, Hanagan buys the papers on Martin's boat, and forces Martin to smuggle the guns and a revolutionary into Cuba. When the revolutionary realizes that most of the boxes of guns are empty, Hanagan kills him. They discover that Harvey had been hiding on the ship, and he jumps overboard when Martin gets them close to a shoreline. Martin takes a bullet, but kills all the bad guys (which is completely believable; Murphy received the medal of honor for single-handedly holding off an entire company of German infantry). He picks up Harvey, and the two head home.
Murphy did a lot of Westerns and war movies, and the director is best known for crime/action movies, most notably Dirty Harry and Escape from Alcatraz (although those were after The Gun Runners. Siegel directed the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers as well as a bunch of crime thrillers with titles like Riot in Cell Block 11, Crime in the Streets, Private Hell 36). The Gun Runners tries to keep some of this aesthetic, but it's hit or miss.
THE BEST ADAPTATION:
The Breaking Point (1950)
While none of the films go into the rich/poor issue as Hemingway does, The Breaking Point at least attempts to with Leona Charles, the beautiful socialite. There is much more similarity with the plot of the novel in general, as Garfield is a bit darker than Murphy's Sam Martin, and less of a smooth talking maverick than Bogart's Morgan. The relationship between Morgan and his wife is complex and sincere, whereas this relationship is absent in To Have and Have Not and drastically simplified in The Gun Runners.
THE BEST FILM:
Tie-
To Have and Have Not (1944)
The Breaking Point (1950)
I know, declaring a tie is a bit of a cop out. But these movies are both fantastic and I honestly can't choose. I've already discussed the relationship in The Breaking Point, but I haven't mentioned the incredible chemistry between Bogart and Bacall (who ended up getting married). To Have and Have Not also has some great music, and fantastic acting. While The Gun Runners is a solid film, it's not on the level of the other two. Audie Murphy may have been one of the greatest soldiers of the twentieth century, but Bogart and Garfield are better actors. These are two very different movies, the former lighter in tone with a strong romantic core, while the latter is darker and morally ambiguous. Both films had excellent directors, and in an ironic twist, the film that wasn't trying to repeat Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz, who directed Casablanca in 1942.
Anyway, check back next week when I'll look at W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge (1944), and it's two adaptations.
The Razor's Edge (1946) starring Tyrone Power
The Razor's Edge (1984) starring Bill Murray (which is a pretty weird casting decision. I'm interested to see how it pans out.)
To Have and Have Not was Hemingway's third novel, released in 1937, between two of his major works (A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls). It's main character is Harry Morgan, a captain of a small boat in the Florida Keys and Cuba who makes a living chartering the wealthy for fishing trips. Short on cash after being stiffed his payment by a client, Morgan agrees to smuggle some Chinese immigrants from Cuba to the US. He tries to prevent Eddie, a rummy and his first mate, from going with him, but he sneaks on to the ship anyway. Thinking he'll be double-crossed after loading the immigrants on his boat, Morgan kills the man who hired him and then leaves the Chinese on the shores in Cuba.
Times being tough, Morgan takes to running rum from Cuba to the US, and on one trip he and another mate, Wesley, are shot by the Cuban patrol. Harry loses his arm and his boat is confiscated. The novels shifts at this point, Harry's relationship with his wife is delved into, his troubled relations with the wealthy inhabitants of the Florida keys, a few of whom temporarily become main the focus of the book. Hemingway swaps narrators and focuses on the Haves instead of the Have Nots for quite a while, before going back to Harry Morgan, who's agreed to steal back his boat and run some Cuban bank robbers back to Havana, but things don't go as planned. The robbers kill Morgan's friend Albert and in the ensuing drama, a shootout leaves all the boat's occupants dead, including Morgan.
This is one of Hemingway's more marginal novels, along the lines of Across the River and into the Trees, and is in fact better known for the first of it's film adaptations. The novels changing narrators and roving focus is a questionable choice, and has garnered divisive reviews.
THE FILMS:
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Length: 100 minutes
Director: Howard Hawks
To Have and Have Not is a classic of the Hollywood golden age. Humphrey Bogart plays Harry Morgan, a captain of a charter ship in Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean now under Nazi rule. Morgan is no fan of the Nazis, but he remains staunchly apolitical. Morgan and Eddie, played here as pure comic relief by Walter Brennan, turn down a job smuggling French resistance fighters into Martinique. At the hotel bar, Morgan notices a young woman pick-pocket his charter's wallet (said charter owed him a little under a thousand dollars, and claimed he'd need to cash a check the next morning). Morgan confronts the girl, and discovers that the charter had nearly two grand in cash and traveler's checks, as well as a plane ticket out of Martinique for the next morning. The woman introduces herself as Marie Browning (Lauren Bacall, in her first film role), and together they confront the charter. But the revolutionaries are attacked in the hotel bar, and the charter catches a stray bullet. Morgan is questioned by the Gestapo and has his money confiscated. In need of cash, he agrees to help the French resistance fighters. As the film goes on, his relationship with Browning and desire to help the resistance grows. The film also has an affable bar singer/pianist.
If the plot sounds a bit like Casablanca, that's because it is. Casablanca was a big hit, and the studios wanted to strike while the iron was hot. What's especially interesting is that one of the screenwriters was William Faulkner, who was not Hemingway's biggest fan. I can't imagine it caused him much heartache to cut a lot of the Hemingway from To Have and Have Not.
The Breaking Point (1950)
Length: 97minutes
Director: Michael Curtiz
The Breaking Point stars John Garfield as Harry Morgan, a charter boat captain who ferries between Newport, California and Mexico. His charter has them take him and a young, beautiful woman to Mexico. The woman, Leona Charles (Patrice Neal), attempts to seduce Morgan, but is rebuffed. After the charter strands Morgan, Leona, and Morgan's mate Wesley in Mexico, Morgan agrees to smuggle some Chinese immigrants aboard his ship. When the man who hired him tries to double cross him, Morgan kills him and dumps his body in the ocean before releasing the immigrants on the Mexican coast. When he gets back to California, he finds that one of the immigrants identified his boat, and it's being confiscated by the coast guard.
Morgan's relationship with his wife Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter) and their two daughters is a major part of the novel, and the relationship is fantastically complex. Not melodramatic, mind you, but they clearly love each other very much but have their own issues and insecurities, and his continuing friendship with Leona Charles throws a small wrinkle into things.
Morgan finds out that the boat was released due to the efforts of the crooked lawyer that facilitated the deal with the Chinese. The lawyer blackmails Morgan with the knowledge of the murder, and gets him to ferry some robbers to Mexico. Morgan decides to double cross the robbers and turn them in for the reward. Unfortunately, Wesley is on the boat when the robbers arrive, and they kill him. Some time later, there's a shootout, on the boat, and Morgan is the only survivor, but he'll need his arm amputated.
The Gun Runners (1958)
Length: 83 minutes
Director: Don Siegel
The Gun Runners stars Audie Murphy as Sam Martin, captain of a charter boat that runs between Cuba and the Florida keys. He works with an alcoholic first mate named Harvey (Everett Sloane). A combination of a crooked charter and a gambling problem land Martin in money troubles. He takes on a man named Hanagan (Eddie Albert) and his beautiful girlfriend Eva (Gita Hall) to Havana for what Martin believes is an affair, but is really a meeting for an arms deal with the Cuban revolutionaries which ends up with Hanagan shooting a Cuban military officer. When they get back to the keys, Martin tells his wife what happened. Lucy Martin, played by Patricia Owens, is the perfect wife. Beautiful, supportive, trusting, their relationship is completely without trouble, despite the obvious troubles in their lives.
Anyway, Hanagan buys the papers on Martin's boat, and forces Martin to smuggle the guns and a revolutionary into Cuba. When the revolutionary realizes that most of the boxes of guns are empty, Hanagan kills him. They discover that Harvey had been hiding on the ship, and he jumps overboard when Martin gets them close to a shoreline. Martin takes a bullet, but kills all the bad guys (which is completely believable; Murphy received the medal of honor for single-handedly holding off an entire company of German infantry). He picks up Harvey, and the two head home.
Murphy did a lot of Westerns and war movies, and the director is best known for crime/action movies, most notably Dirty Harry and Escape from Alcatraz (although those were after The Gun Runners. Siegel directed the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers as well as a bunch of crime thrillers with titles like Riot in Cell Block 11, Crime in the Streets, Private Hell 36). The Gun Runners tries to keep some of this aesthetic, but it's hit or miss.
THE BEST ADAPTATION:
The Breaking Point (1950)
While none of the films go into the rich/poor issue as Hemingway does, The Breaking Point at least attempts to with Leona Charles, the beautiful socialite. There is much more similarity with the plot of the novel in general, as Garfield is a bit darker than Murphy's Sam Martin, and less of a smooth talking maverick than Bogart's Morgan. The relationship between Morgan and his wife is complex and sincere, whereas this relationship is absent in To Have and Have Not and drastically simplified in The Gun Runners.
THE BEST FILM:
Tie-
To Have and Have Not (1944)
The Breaking Point (1950)
 |
| "You know how to whistle, don't you?" |
I know, declaring a tie is a bit of a cop out. But these movies are both fantastic and I honestly can't choose. I've already discussed the relationship in The Breaking Point, but I haven't mentioned the incredible chemistry between Bogart and Bacall (who ended up getting married). To Have and Have Not also has some great music, and fantastic acting. While The Gun Runners is a solid film, it's not on the level of the other two. Audie Murphy may have been one of the greatest soldiers of the twentieth century, but Bogart and Garfield are better actors. These are two very different movies, the former lighter in tone with a strong romantic core, while the latter is darker and morally ambiguous. Both films had excellent directors, and in an ironic twist, the film that wasn't trying to repeat Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz, who directed Casablanca in 1942.
Anyway, check back next week when I'll look at W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge (1944), and it's two adaptations.
The Razor's Edge (1946) starring Tyrone Power
The Razor's Edge (1984) starring Bill Murray (which is a pretty weird casting decision. I'm interested to see how it pans out.)
Monday, June 8, 2015
From Page to Screen to Screen: Hemingway's "The Killers"
THE SOURCE:
"The Killers" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway first published in 1927 and is part of his series of Nick Adams stories. Two men in trenchcoats walk into a lunch counter in Summit, Illinois, cynical, condescending men who talk circles around the owner. They make Nick, who's eating at the counter, go into the kitchen, where he and the cook are tied up while the owner turns away any customers that come in. They say they're there to kill a Swede named Ole Anderson. It's nothing personal, mind you. There killing him for a friend. When it becomes clear that Anderson isn't going to show, the killers leave. George unties Nick who runs off to warn Anderson. Anderson, a former boxer, clearly knows that the killers are on their way, but refuses to do anything about it. Nick returns to the cafe and declares his determination to get out of this town.
Like the other Nick Adams stories, the theme of disillusionment is major. There's the cowardice of the cook and owner, the former advising Nick to not get involved at all. The final lines of the story:
[Nick Adams says]"I can't stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he's going to get it. It's too damned awful."
"Well," said George, "you better not think about it."
The story also relies on Hemingway's iceberg theory. It's mentioned late in the story that Anderson "must have got mixed up in something in Chicago." In the 1920s, the mob was a big deal in Chicago. When law enforcement started cracking down, many relocated to Summit.
Overall, this is an excellent piece of minimalist literature.
THE FILMS:
THE KILLERS (1946):
Director: Robert Siodmak
Runtime: 97 Minutes
The movie starts with a fantastic, nearly blow-for-blow adaptation of the original story. The killers, played by noir character actors William Conrad (the fat man in "Jake and the Fat Man") and Charles McGraw, are sinister and distant in equal amounts.
Nick Adams (Phil Brown aka Uncle Owen from Star Wars) runs off to tell the Swede (Burt Lancaster in his first film role) that two men are out to kill him, but the Swede is resigned to his fate.
 |
| Conrad and McGraw as the Killers |
Enter Jim Reardon, played by Edmond O'Brien (The Wild Bunch, Oscar win for The Barefoot Contessa), an insurance investigator. Nick Adams and the Swede were both employed by the same service station, which gives its employees a small life insurance policy. While Reardon is going through the Swede's belongings, he finds a green handkerchief with a gold harp embroidered on it. This reminds him of something, but he can't quite put his finger on it. At the morgue, he sees that the Swede's right hand is busted up, so he figures the guy must have been a boxer. Thus begins his investigation.
He discovers that the Swede's name was Ole Anderson, a boxer who turned to a life of crime. The detective who arrested Anderson was once his good friend, and agrees to help Reardon figure out what happened. Anderson fell in love with femme fatale Kitty Collins, played perfectly by Ava Gardner (Showboat, On the Beach) and took the fall for her when she was caught with stolen jewelry. When he got out, he found that she'd gone back to her ex, crime lord Big Jim Colfax (Albert Dekker). Along with two other established crooks, Colfax and Collins invite Anderson in on the score of a lifetime: A $250,000 daylight robbery. (That's over $3 million adjusting for inflation.)
For reasons that will become clear later, I have to give away the rest of the plot. If you'd rather watch the movie before finding out the ending (which I highly recommend), stop reading now, watch the movie, and come back.
 |
| Lancaster and Gardner |
Reardon recognizes the handkerchief as the mask worn by one of the robbers at the Prentice Hat Robbery. It turns out that Anderson, believing that the others were going to double-cross him, stole the entire score and, unbeknownst to the rest of the gang, ran off with Kitty, who then ran off with the money. Reardon has a violent altercation with one of the other criminals, Dum-Dum Dugan (noir character actor Jim Lambert) who is trying to find where the money is and gets Reardon to admit Kitty ran off with it.
Reardon gets in contact with Jim Colfax, who's gone legitimate, and tells him what's happened. He soon gets in contact with Kitty, who sets him up to be killed, but Reardon manages to get a drop on the killers (who we haven't seen since the opening) and escape. Reardon goes to Colfax's house where Dugan and Colfax have just shot each other, and we get the final twist: Kitty was working with Colfax the entire time. She convinced Anderson to take all the money, so she and Colfax could have it without giving out shares.
This is a fantastic noir film, with a great plot, solid pacing, and fantastic acting. It was nominated for four academy awards, including directing and screenplay, but lost out to The Best Years of Our Lives on both.
THE KILLERS (1964):
Director: Don Siegel
Runtime: 93 Minutes
We start with two mysterious men walking into a school for the blind, looking for a man named Jimmy North. Someone gets word to North that two guys are after him and they mean to kill him, but North refuses to run. The two men find North, who offers no resistance when they shoot him. Or rather, they shake their guns at him, because apparently silencers mean there's no muzzle flash, shells, or any other thing one normally associates with a gun going bang.
We next see the men on a train out of town. Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen) plays Charlie Strom, a grizzled veteran hitman with great screen presence, while Western character actor Clu Galager plays his partner, Lee, a living cartoon character.
 |
| Clu Galager and Lee Marvin |
Strom realizes three things. 1. He was paid $25,000 for this hit, when he'd never been paid more than $10,000 2. Jimmy North had been involved in a million dollar robbery and ran off with the money. 3. If North had the money, they would have been asked to lean on him, not kill him. Therefore, whoever hired him has the money. And maybe they just oughta get that money for themselves.
It turns out that Jimmy North (Oscar nominated actor/writer/director John Cassavetes) used to be a racecar driver, so they go to his old mechanic for information. Fourteen minutes into the movie, we get our first flashback. The flashback lasts thirty goddamn minutes, and about half of that is driving footage with terrible greenscreen.
 |
| Yes, there's a go-kart scene. No, it never makes sense. |
Jimmy North falls for Sheila Farr (Angie Dickinson). His mechanic keeps claiming that Farr is bad for him, and she'll ruin his focus. Well, North has a blowout and crashes, leading to a period of hospitalization. He finds out that Farr is a kept woman, her benefactor being crime big shot Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan). Now, at the 45 minute mark, we cut back to Strom and Lee, who we haven't seen for two-thirds of the screentime so far. They find Mickey Farmer (Norman Fell), Browning's right hand man, who tells them what happened next. This flashback takes another twenty. goddamned. minutes. Basically, North is washed up, Farr gets him involved as a driver on a big score that Browning is organizing, and North double-crosses the group and makes off with the money. Now, over an hour and ten minutes into an hour and a half movie, we finally see Strom and Lee again. They confront Browning, and demand to see Farr. They go to Farr's apartment, threaten her, and she has a flashback (a mercifully brief five minute one this time) about how she convinced North that the gang was going to double cross him, and how she and Browning took the money and shot him. The killers leave the apartment building and are shot at. Lee is killed and Strom is hit. Strom makes his way to Browning's house, where he shoots Farr and Browning before bleeding out.
My god, the pacing in this movie is a wreck. The inexcusably long flashbacks destroy the pacing for the investigation storyline, and the constant driving scenes destroy the pacing for the rest. Look, car chases can be fun and exciting to watch. Driving, on the other hand, is not exciting at all.
There's only one good thing about this movie and his name is Lee Marvin.
Unfortunately, he gets practically no screen time.
THE BEST ADAPTATION:
THE KILLERS (1946)
In addition to a spot on direct adaptation of the story, Burt Lancaster is a solid Hemingway protagonist, the honorable tough man with big feelings. While in the 1964 version, the sum total of the similarity is two hitmen kill a guy who doesn't resist.
THE BEST FILM:
THE KILLERS (1946)
It's strange that the movie from the '40s has aged wonderfully while the movie from the '60s is so outdated. The 1946 version is fantastic. Pacing, acting, plot, aesthetics. It's a great film. The 1964 version? It's plagued by terrible decisions. Besides the aforementioned flashbacks and boring driving sequences, perhaps the most unforgivable is Angie Dickinson's character. In the 1946 version, Ava Gardner is tough, she steals every scene she's in, and you never know where her loyalties lie, or if she even has any. In both versions, there's a scene when the robbery is being planned. The femme fatale and the future murder victim flirt, much to the chagrin of the fatale's current beau. In the 1946 version, Big Jim Colfax threatens to slap Gardner. Lancaster makes a move but Gardner tells him she can take care of herself.
In the 1964 version, this happens.
Angie Dickinson spends half of her screentime flirting with the male characters, and the other half getting beaten up. All this does is make her a far less compelling character. In fact, every character in this version is worse than the 1946 one.
NEXT WEEK:
It's a Hemingway double-header!
We'll look at the 1937 novel To Have and Have Not, and it's three film adaptations:
The Bogart/Bacall vehicle To Have and Have Not (1944)
The John Garfield crime thriller The Breaking Point (1950)
And the Audie Murphy action flick The Gun Runners (1958)
NEXT WEEK:
It's a Hemingway double-header!
We'll look at the 1937 novel To Have and Have Not, and it's three film adaptations:
The Bogart/Bacall vehicle To Have and Have Not (1944)
The John Garfield crime thriller The Breaking Point (1950)
And the Audie Murphy action flick The Gun Runners (1958)
Monday, May 4, 2015
2010: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
The Author:
Karl Stig-Erland Larsson (1954-2004), better known as Stieg Larsson, was born in Västerbotten, Sweden, where he lived with his grandparents. As a teenager, he began editing science fiction fanzines. In 1977, he moved to Stockholm, where he continued his involvement with the SF community, while working for a news agency. He joined the Communist Workers League and was known for his journalism and activism exposing white-supremacist and totalitarian groups. He founded the Expo-foundation, which researched right-wing extremist groups and published exposés of their findings, which led to a steady stream of death threats. He co-wrote four non-fiction books, Extremhögern (The Extreme Right) (1991), with Anna-Lena Lodenius; Sverigedemokraterna: Den nationaella rörelsen (Sweden Democrats: The National Movement) (2001), with Mikael Ekman; Sverigedemokraterna från insidan: Berättelsen om Sveriges största parti utanför riksdagen (Sweden Democrats from the inside: The Story of Sweden's Largest Party Outside Parliament) (2004), with Maria Blomquist and David Lagerlöf; and Debatten om hedersmord: Feminism eller rasism (Debate on Honor Killings: Feminism or Racism) (2004), with Cecilia Englund. (N.B.: Title translations are done through google translate, so no guarantee on accuracy.)
Larsson started writing fiction as a hobby in 2001, and was partway through his third novel when he approached a publisher. Larsson died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2004, before any of his novels were published. The first novel, Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women) (2005) was translated to English by Reg Keeland and retitled The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008). His second novel Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire) was published in Swedish in 2006 and English in 2008. His last complete novel, Luftslottet som sprängdes (The Aircastle that Blew Up) was published in 2007 and translated into English 2010.
The Book:
Length: 563 pages
Subject/Genre: Conspiracy/Suspense thriller
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is the third and final book of Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. (Yes, I read the first two before writing this review.) If you want to read the trilogy, and haven't read the first two books, stop reading now to avoid spoilers.
Mikael Blomkvist is an investigative reporter for Millennium, a small monthly magazine specializing in investigative reporting of the financial world. He's tricked into publishing a story he can't prove about the corrupt financier Wennerstrom and is convicted of libel, destroying his credibility. He's then hired by Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance of his favorite granddaughter decades earlier in a classic locked-room (or, rather, island) mystery. Blomkvist eventually makes contact with Lisbeth Salander, who had been tasked with investigating his background by Vanger. Salander is an incredibly intelligent but introverted hacker who, despite being in her 20s, is a ward of the state for mental deficiency. Her guardian and surrogate father has a stroke, and her new guardian, Bjurman, sexually abuses her. Salander gathers proof of this abuse, and tortures/tattoos Bjurman in revenge, blackmailing him with the evidence. Anyway, Salander and Blomkvist solve the mystery, Salander falls for Blomkvist but realizes she can't have him. They find evidence to prove Wennerstrom's guilt, and Salander steals millions of dollars of Wennerstrom's dirty money before running off. End book one.
In The Girl Who Played with Fire, we start to get some back story on Salander. After the Millennium launches an investigation into sex trafficking, the reporter and his fiance are murdered and Lisbeth is the prime suspect. The gun used in the murder has Salander's fingerprints on it and was used to kill Bjurman. Bjurman had previously reached out to an unknown entity to destroy Salander. This unknown entity is a man named Zalachenko, Lisbeth's father. Zalachenko was a prominent Soviet spy who defected to Sweden in the 80s. To keep his identity secret, a small special unit was formed within the Swedish security police (SAPO) known only as "The Section". There duties involved covering up any crimes Zalachenko committed, including his consistently beating Lisbeth's mother. Unable to find help from the police, a twelve year old Lisbeth attacked Zalachenko by throwing a molotov cocktail in his car. To keep her quiet, she was locked up in a psychiatric ward and declared incompetent. This novel focuses on the investigation of the murders and the sex trafficking trade. Salander becomes public enemy number one, and has only limited contact with Blomkvist. The murders, we discover, were committed by Salander's half-brother, Niedermann. Zalachenko shoots Salander in the head with a .22, but she survives and nearly kills Zalachenko. The novel ends with Niedermann subdued and Blomkvist finding Salander, who's in bad shape but conscious.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest deals with the fallout from the previous novel. Salander and Zalachenko are both recuperating in the same hospital, and plotting to kill each other. "The Section" is desperate to cover up evidence of it's existence and wrongdoings. Blomkvist begins investigations into the Section.
Honestly, this was a well-plotted mystery/thriller. Except for the slowness at the beginning of the first novel, the whole series was solid. The characters manage to play to a type without being caricatures. It can be a bit preachy every now and then, but it's infrequent.
There hasn't been much Swedish lit on the US bestseller lists, and the Millennium trilogy is an interesting specimen, if only because so much of the series is not super Swedish. Much of the first novel could just as easily have taken place off the coast of New England and the latter two could replace SAPO with MI5/6. There are definitely aspects of Swedish culture and history that are addressed, but since the novel fits into the mystery/thriller genre so well, those aspects just form part of the background.
Like I said, we don't see much Swedish pop fic in the US, but that's changed a bit, in no small part due to Larsson himself. The genre known as Scandinavian Noir or Nordic Crime has been growing in popularity over the past several years, with Jo Nesbø being one of the best known. It's an interesting case of a genre crossing national borders and language barriers.
Of course, a series this popular has made its appearance on the big screen.
All three novels of the Millenium trilogy were adapted to film in Sweden in 2009.
The series stars Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) as Lisbeth Salander and Michael Nyqvist (John Wick, Europa Report) as Mikael Blomkvist.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was adapted to film again in 2011, starring Daniel Craig (Casino Royale, Skyfall) as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara (The Social Network, Her) as Lisbeth Salander, and directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network).
As a whole the Millenium trilogy is an above-average crime thriller, definitely worth a read unless you can't stand crime thrillers.
Bestsellers of 2010:
1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
2. The Confession by John Grisham
3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
4. Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
5. Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy
6. Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
7. Cross Fire by James Patterson
8. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
9. Port Mortuary by Partricia Cornwell
10. Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
Also Published in 2010:
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis
The Thousand Augusts of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Sources:
"Stieg Larsson." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web.
Karl Stig-Erland Larsson (1954-2004), better known as Stieg Larsson, was born in Västerbotten, Sweden, where he lived with his grandparents. As a teenager, he began editing science fiction fanzines. In 1977, he moved to Stockholm, where he continued his involvement with the SF community, while working for a news agency. He joined the Communist Workers League and was known for his journalism and activism exposing white-supremacist and totalitarian groups. He founded the Expo-foundation, which researched right-wing extremist groups and published exposés of their findings, which led to a steady stream of death threats. He co-wrote four non-fiction books, Extremhögern (The Extreme Right) (1991), with Anna-Lena Lodenius; Sverigedemokraterna: Den nationaella rörelsen (Sweden Democrats: The National Movement) (2001), with Mikael Ekman; Sverigedemokraterna från insidan: Berättelsen om Sveriges största parti utanför riksdagen (Sweden Democrats from the inside: The Story of Sweden's Largest Party Outside Parliament) (2004), with Maria Blomquist and David Lagerlöf; and Debatten om hedersmord: Feminism eller rasism (Debate on Honor Killings: Feminism or Racism) (2004), with Cecilia Englund. (N.B.: Title translations are done through google translate, so no guarantee on accuracy.)
Larsson started writing fiction as a hobby in 2001, and was partway through his third novel when he approached a publisher. Larsson died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2004, before any of his novels were published. The first novel, Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women) (2005) was translated to English by Reg Keeland and retitled The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008). His second novel Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire) was published in Swedish in 2006 and English in 2008. His last complete novel, Luftslottet som sprängdes (The Aircastle that Blew Up) was published in 2007 and translated into English 2010.
The Book:
 |
| 1st American edition/ Cover Design-Peter Mendelsund |
Length: 563 pages
Subject/Genre: Conspiracy/Suspense thriller
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is the third and final book of Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. (Yes, I read the first two before writing this review.) If you want to read the trilogy, and haven't read the first two books, stop reading now to avoid spoilers.
Mikael Blomkvist is an investigative reporter for Millennium, a small monthly magazine specializing in investigative reporting of the financial world. He's tricked into publishing a story he can't prove about the corrupt financier Wennerstrom and is convicted of libel, destroying his credibility. He's then hired by Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance of his favorite granddaughter decades earlier in a classic locked-room (or, rather, island) mystery. Blomkvist eventually makes contact with Lisbeth Salander, who had been tasked with investigating his background by Vanger. Salander is an incredibly intelligent but introverted hacker who, despite being in her 20s, is a ward of the state for mental deficiency. Her guardian and surrogate father has a stroke, and her new guardian, Bjurman, sexually abuses her. Salander gathers proof of this abuse, and tortures/tattoos Bjurman in revenge, blackmailing him with the evidence. Anyway, Salander and Blomkvist solve the mystery, Salander falls for Blomkvist but realizes she can't have him. They find evidence to prove Wennerstrom's guilt, and Salander steals millions of dollars of Wennerstrom's dirty money before running off. End book one.
In The Girl Who Played with Fire, we start to get some back story on Salander. After the Millennium launches an investigation into sex trafficking, the reporter and his fiance are murdered and Lisbeth is the prime suspect. The gun used in the murder has Salander's fingerprints on it and was used to kill Bjurman. Bjurman had previously reached out to an unknown entity to destroy Salander. This unknown entity is a man named Zalachenko, Lisbeth's father. Zalachenko was a prominent Soviet spy who defected to Sweden in the 80s. To keep his identity secret, a small special unit was formed within the Swedish security police (SAPO) known only as "The Section". There duties involved covering up any crimes Zalachenko committed, including his consistently beating Lisbeth's mother. Unable to find help from the police, a twelve year old Lisbeth attacked Zalachenko by throwing a molotov cocktail in his car. To keep her quiet, she was locked up in a psychiatric ward and declared incompetent. This novel focuses on the investigation of the murders and the sex trafficking trade. Salander becomes public enemy number one, and has only limited contact with Blomkvist. The murders, we discover, were committed by Salander's half-brother, Niedermann. Zalachenko shoots Salander in the head with a .22, but she survives and nearly kills Zalachenko. The novel ends with Niedermann subdued and Blomkvist finding Salander, who's in bad shape but conscious.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest deals with the fallout from the previous novel. Salander and Zalachenko are both recuperating in the same hospital, and plotting to kill each other. "The Section" is desperate to cover up evidence of it's existence and wrongdoings. Blomkvist begins investigations into the Section.
Honestly, this was a well-plotted mystery/thriller. Except for the slowness at the beginning of the first novel, the whole series was solid. The characters manage to play to a type without being caricatures. It can be a bit preachy every now and then, but it's infrequent.
There hasn't been much Swedish lit on the US bestseller lists, and the Millennium trilogy is an interesting specimen, if only because so much of the series is not super Swedish. Much of the first novel could just as easily have taken place off the coast of New England and the latter two could replace SAPO with MI5/6. There are definitely aspects of Swedish culture and history that are addressed, but since the novel fits into the mystery/thriller genre so well, those aspects just form part of the background.
Like I said, we don't see much Swedish pop fic in the US, but that's changed a bit, in no small part due to Larsson himself. The genre known as Scandinavian Noir or Nordic Crime has been growing in popularity over the past several years, with Jo Nesbø being one of the best known. It's an interesting case of a genre crossing national borders and language barriers.
Of course, a series this popular has made its appearance on the big screen.
All three novels of the Millenium trilogy were adapted to film in Sweden in 2009.
The series stars Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) as Lisbeth Salander and Michael Nyqvist (John Wick, Europa Report) as Mikael Blomkvist.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was adapted to film again in 2011, starring Daniel Craig (Casino Royale, Skyfall) as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara (The Social Network, Her) as Lisbeth Salander, and directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network).
As a whole the Millenium trilogy is an above-average crime thriller, definitely worth a read unless you can't stand crime thrillers.
Bestsellers of 2010:
1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
2. The Confession by John Grisham
3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
4. Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
5. Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy
6. Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
7. Cross Fire by James Patterson
8. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
9. Port Mortuary by Partricia Cornwell
10. Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
Also Published in 2010:
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis
The Thousand Augusts of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Sources:
"Stieg Larsson." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web.
Monday, March 16, 2015
2002: The Summons by John Grisham
The Author:
John Grisham (1955- ) was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the son of a construction worker. At the age of twelve, his family moved to Southaven, Mississippi. He graduated with a B.S. from Mississippi State University in 1979. He passed the Mississippi Bar exam in 1981, and received his J.D. from the University of Mississippi. In 1981, he married Renee Jones, with whom he had two children.
Grisham began a successful law practice in 1981, starting in criminal law, and moving to more lucrative civil law. In 1984, he was elected to the Mississippi State House of Representatives, a position he held in addition to running his law practice. A case he witnessed while in the state legislature led him to write his first novel, A Time to Kill (1989). He had trouble finding an agent and publisher. He eventually found both, and a limited run of 5,000 copies was printed of his first novel. In 1990, Grisham resigned from his position on state legislature and retired his practice. In 1991, Doubleday published his second novel, The Firm. It was a massive commercial success, as were his third and fourth novels, The Pelican Brief (1992) and The Client (1993). His fourth book, The Chamber (1994) is the first of eleven novels to become the number one annual bestselling novel in the U.S.
John Grisham (1955- ) was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the son of a construction worker. At the age of twelve, his family moved to Southaven, Mississippi. He graduated with a B.S. from Mississippi State University in 1979. He passed the Mississippi Bar exam in 1981, and received his J.D. from the University of Mississippi. In 1981, he married Renee Jones, with whom he had two children.
Grisham began a successful law practice in 1981, starting in criminal law, and moving to more lucrative civil law. In 1984, he was elected to the Mississippi State House of Representatives, a position he held in addition to running his law practice. A case he witnessed while in the state legislature led him to write his first novel, A Time to Kill (1989). He had trouble finding an agent and publisher. He eventually found both, and a limited run of 5,000 copies was printed of his first novel. In 1990, Grisham resigned from his position on state legislature and retired his practice. In 1991, Doubleday published his second novel, The Firm. It was a massive commercial success, as were his third and fourth novels, The Pelican Brief (1992) and The Client (1993). His fourth book, The Chamber (1994) is the first of eleven novels to become the number one annual bestselling novel in the U.S.
Since 1989, Grisham has published a total of 29 novels, five children's books, and a work of non-fiction. His family splits its time between homes in Oxford, Mississippi, Charlottesville, Virginia, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Grisham also serves as a board member on the Innocence Project.
The Book:
Length: 341 Pages
Subject/Genre: Crime?/Legal "thriller"
The Summons focuses on Ray Atlee, a law professor at the University of Virginia. His father, an elderly, dying chancery judge, sends him a summons (like the title. Get it?!) to come back to Clanton, Mississippi (the setting for other Grisham novels, including The Chamber) to discuss the will. Ray's addict brother, Forrest, is also sent a summons. When Ray arrives, his father has already passed away, leaving a handwritten will declaring Ray the executor and asking that everything be split 50/50 between Ray and Forrest. The family, though descended from southern gentry, was never well off, so imagine Ray's surprise when he finds about three million dollars in cash hidden in his father's house. Just so you know, it takes over seventy pages for the novel to get this far into the story. There's a lot of brooding about how Ray's father was always so distant, bitter nostalgia about small town Mississippi, and a subplot about Ray's divorce that never goes anywhere.
Anyway, Forrest arrives, and they call the coroner. Someone tries to break into the house and take the money, but Ray had already moved it. In fact, much of the rest of the novel details Ray's attempts to hide the money, to find out where it came from, and to figure out who's trying to find the cash. The first is interesting until it becomes tedious, the second is interesting until the cop-out ending, the third is self-defeating, because the pursuer's method of intimidation (anonymous notes left on his car, etc.) show that he knows where Ray is, but won't harm him. Because with the information we know the pursuer has, he could just shove Ray into the back of a van and get him to say where the money is. That the pursuer can, but doesn't, do anything like that, tells me as a reader that he's not a serious threat, which of course leads up to a pointless twist ending.
This novel is just tedious. Ray spends half his time drenching himself in nostalgia and recriminations. His quest for the source of his father's money is mostly comprised of dead ends, but that's only because he waits until the very end of the book to look through his father's papers. Ray points out again and again his father's annoying habit of keeping pretty much every document for the last fifty years of his life, but for some reason doesn't bother to check the papers for clues, clues which he finds on his first day of looking, and which leads him directly to the source of the money. There's no reason Ray didn't check the papers first, except that over 100 pages of useless investigating would have to be cut from the manuscript. This novel had no idea what it was supposed to be. A nostalgic reflection on small town life and family? A mystery novel about a mysterious three million and the people chasing after it? A legal thriller about the difficulties of hiding and laundering a large sum of money? Well, Grisham tried to do them all at once, and it didn't really work.
The Summons focuses on Ray Atlee, a law professor at the University of Virginia. His father, an elderly, dying chancery judge, sends him a summons (like the title. Get it?!) to come back to Clanton, Mississippi (the setting for other Grisham novels, including The Chamber) to discuss the will. Ray's addict brother, Forrest, is also sent a summons. When Ray arrives, his father has already passed away, leaving a handwritten will declaring Ray the executor and asking that everything be split 50/50 between Ray and Forrest. The family, though descended from southern gentry, was never well off, so imagine Ray's surprise when he finds about three million dollars in cash hidden in his father's house. Just so you know, it takes over seventy pages for the novel to get this far into the story. There's a lot of brooding about how Ray's father was always so distant, bitter nostalgia about small town Mississippi, and a subplot about Ray's divorce that never goes anywhere.
Anyway, Forrest arrives, and they call the coroner. Someone tries to break into the house and take the money, but Ray had already moved it. In fact, much of the rest of the novel details Ray's attempts to hide the money, to find out where it came from, and to figure out who's trying to find the cash. The first is interesting until it becomes tedious, the second is interesting until the cop-out ending, the third is self-defeating, because the pursuer's method of intimidation (anonymous notes left on his car, etc.) show that he knows where Ray is, but won't harm him. Because with the information we know the pursuer has, he could just shove Ray into the back of a van and get him to say where the money is. That the pursuer can, but doesn't, do anything like that, tells me as a reader that he's not a serious threat, which of course leads up to a pointless twist ending.
This novel is just tedious. Ray spends half his time drenching himself in nostalgia and recriminations. His quest for the source of his father's money is mostly comprised of dead ends, but that's only because he waits until the very end of the book to look through his father's papers. Ray points out again and again his father's annoying habit of keeping pretty much every document for the last fifty years of his life, but for some reason doesn't bother to check the papers for clues, clues which he finds on his first day of looking, and which leads him directly to the source of the money. There's no reason Ray didn't check the papers first, except that over 100 pages of useless investigating would have to be cut from the manuscript. This novel had no idea what it was supposed to be. A nostalgic reflection on small town life and family? A mystery novel about a mysterious three million and the people chasing after it? A legal thriller about the difficulties of hiding and laundering a large sum of money? Well, Grisham tried to do them all at once, and it didn't really work.
Bestsellers of 2002:
1. The Summons by John Grisham
2. Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy
3. The Remnant by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye
4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
5. Prey by Michael Crichton
6. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
7. The Shelters of Stone by Jean Auel
8. Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
9. Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King
10. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Also published in 2002:
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
1. The Summons by John Grisham
2. Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy
3. The Remnant by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye
4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
5. Prey by Michael Crichton
6. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
7. The Shelters of Stone by Jean Auel
8. Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
9. Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King
10. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Also published in 2002:
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Monday, February 9, 2015
1997: The Partner by John Grisham
The Author:
John Grisham (1955- ) was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the son of a construction worker. At the age of twelve, his family moved to Southaven, Mississippi. He graduated with a B.S. from Mississippi State University in 1979. He passed the Mississippi Bar exam in 1981, and received his J.D. from the University of Mississippi. In 1981, he married Renee Jones, with whom he had two children.
Grisham began a successful law practice in 1981, starting in criminal law, and moving to more lucrative civil law. In 1984, he was elected to the Mississippi State House of Representatives, a position he held in addition to running his law practice. A case he witnessed while in the state legislature led him to write his first novel, A Time to Kill (1989). He had trouble finding an agent and publisher. He eventually found both, and a limited run of 5,000 copies was printed of his first novel. In 1990, Grisham resigned from his position on state legislature and retired his practice. In 1991, Doubleday published his second novel, The Firm. It was a massive commercial success, as were his third and fourth novels, The Pelican Brief (1992) and The Client (1993). His fourth book, The Chamber (1994) is the first of eleven novels to become the number one annual bestselling novel in the U.S.
John Grisham (1955- ) was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the son of a construction worker. At the age of twelve, his family moved to Southaven, Mississippi. He graduated with a B.S. from Mississippi State University in 1979. He passed the Mississippi Bar exam in 1981, and received his J.D. from the University of Mississippi. In 1981, he married Renee Jones, with whom he had two children.
Grisham began a successful law practice in 1981, starting in criminal law, and moving to more lucrative civil law. In 1984, he was elected to the Mississippi State House of Representatives, a position he held in addition to running his law practice. A case he witnessed while in the state legislature led him to write his first novel, A Time to Kill (1989). He had trouble finding an agent and publisher. He eventually found both, and a limited run of 5,000 copies was printed of his first novel. In 1990, Grisham resigned from his position on state legislature and retired his practice. In 1991, Doubleday published his second novel, The Firm. It was a massive commercial success, as were his third and fourth novels, The Pelican Brief (1992) and The Client (1993). His fourth book, The Chamber (1994) is the first of eleven novels to become the number one annual bestselling novel in the U.S.
Since 1989, Grisham has published a total of 28 novels, four children's books, and a work of non-fiction. His family splits its time between homes in Oxford, Mississippi, Charlottesville, Virginia, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Grisham also serves as a board member on the Innocence Project.
The Book:
 |
| first edition cover |
Length: 366 pages
Subject/Genre: crime/legal thriller
The Partner begins in a small town in Brazil, when an American living under an assumed name is kidnapped and tortured for information. His girlfriend/accomplice, a Brazilian lawyer, quickly hides the $90 million that the bad guys are looking for, and alerts the FBI of the man's whereabouts. The FBI takes custody of the man, and brings him back to Biloxi for trial. The crime? After faking his own death, Patrick Lanigan stole the aforementioned $90 million from his law firm. There are now only two questions: "Where's the money" and "whose body is buried in Lanigan's grave?"
The Partner is very similar to The Runaway Jury. Lanigan, like Easter, is running an elaborate plan, all the details of which are known only by him and his girlfriend on the outside. There's the amoral thugs-for-hire agency, and the crooked corporations bankrolling them. Most of the novel is just Lanigan slowly revealing how he committed his crimes while his master plan unravels. He hires an old lawyer friend to represent him. For no good reason, Lanigan withholds information from the lawyer. Or rather, there is a reason, but the reason is Grisham's, not Lanigan's. The only reason to keep reading The Partner is to find out what the plan was, which requires Lanigan to keep secrets he has no reason to keep. Character is sacrificed to plot. A little common sense and critical thinking and most of the plan will become pretty obvious, making this the most boring of the Grishams I've read so far.
As opposed to the earlier Grisham novels I reviewed, this one doesn't take a stance on a moral issue like The Chamber, or reflect the social/legal issues of exploitative insurance companies or cigarette manufacturers, as in The Rainmaker or The Runaway Jury. While there is corruption, it's mostly limited to a high level scam that would seem more at home in a Ludlum or Clancy novel. The Partner is pretty much a paint-by-numbers legal thriller.
Unless you're a Grisham completist or you're engaged in a project like mine, don't bother with The Partner. Even if you're a legal thriller devotee, pick another Grisham.
The Partner begins in a small town in Brazil, when an American living under an assumed name is kidnapped and tortured for information. His girlfriend/accomplice, a Brazilian lawyer, quickly hides the $90 million that the bad guys are looking for, and alerts the FBI of the man's whereabouts. The FBI takes custody of the man, and brings him back to Biloxi for trial. The crime? After faking his own death, Patrick Lanigan stole the aforementioned $90 million from his law firm. There are now only two questions: "Where's the money" and "whose body is buried in Lanigan's grave?"
The Partner is very similar to The Runaway Jury. Lanigan, like Easter, is running an elaborate plan, all the details of which are known only by him and his girlfriend on the outside. There's the amoral thugs-for-hire agency, and the crooked corporations bankrolling them. Most of the novel is just Lanigan slowly revealing how he committed his crimes while his master plan unravels. He hires an old lawyer friend to represent him. For no good reason, Lanigan withholds information from the lawyer. Or rather, there is a reason, but the reason is Grisham's, not Lanigan's. The only reason to keep reading The Partner is to find out what the plan was, which requires Lanigan to keep secrets he has no reason to keep. Character is sacrificed to plot. A little common sense and critical thinking and most of the plan will become pretty obvious, making this the most boring of the Grishams I've read so far.
As opposed to the earlier Grisham novels I reviewed, this one doesn't take a stance on a moral issue like The Chamber, or reflect the social/legal issues of exploitative insurance companies or cigarette manufacturers, as in The Rainmaker or The Runaway Jury. While there is corruption, it's mostly limited to a high level scam that would seem more at home in a Ludlum or Clancy novel. The Partner is pretty much a paint-by-numbers legal thriller.
Unless you're a Grisham completist or you're engaged in a project like mine, don't bother with The Partner. Even if you're a legal thriller devotee, pick another Grisham.
Bestsellers of 1997:
1. The Partner by John Grisham
2. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
3. The Ghost by Danielle Steel
4. The Ranch by Danielle Steel
5. Special Delivery by Danielle Steel
6. Unnatural Exposure by Patricia Cornwell
7. The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon
8. Pretend You Don't See Her by Mary Higgins Clark
9. Cat and Mouse by James Patterson
10. Hornet's Nest by Patricia Cornwell
Also Published in 1997:
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Underworld by Don DeLillo
Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
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