1996: The Runaway Jury 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.

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:

1st edition cover

Length: 401 pages

Subject/Genre:litigation/legal thriller

In typical Grisham fashion, The Runaway Jury focuses on a trial in Mississippi, in this case, a product liability suit in Biloxi against the Pynex tobacco company.  Like his previous novel, The Rainmaker, this is a story of an unpopular, corrupt, and powerful organization being fought down in the courtroom.  As you might expect, the tobacco companies are in cahoots to prevent a plaintiff´s verdict, fearing future litigation, and they don't play by the rules.  The lavishly funded Rankin Fitch does all there dirty work outside the court.  But in this case, something else is afoot.  One juror, who goes by the name Nicholas Easter, isn't who he says he is.  And with outside help from the mysterious Marlee, it's clear he's setting himself up to swing the jury whichever way he wants.  But whether for profit or private motivation is unknown...

A little context.  I've frequently compared Grisham novels to episodes of Law & Order, and this included the ripped-from-the-headlines premises.  Tobacco litigation was reaching a peak in the 1990s, with not only individuals, but states suing the tobacco industry.  In 1994, Mississippi became the first of over 40 states to sue the manufacturers for health care costs incurred by the state.  And, as opposed to the individual cases, the states were having a good degree of success in the courts.  In an interesting sidenote, two years after The Runaway Jury  was published, the tobacco industry and the U.S. government entered the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.  In essence, the tobacco companies pay billions to the states and fund some anti-smoking non-profits, meanwhile the states don't sue and private lawsuits against the tobacco companies become more difficult.

I have trouble reviewing Grisham novels because they're always pretty much what they appear on the surface.  It's like reviewing an episode of CSI, where the only meaningful yardstick is other episodes of the same or similar shows.  Grisham is entertaining, easy and quick to read, and you know exactly what you´ll get going in.  Curled up on a bunk bed in Rome with a bad cold, Grisham was a good choice.  But I feel like I keep having to reiterate that he keeps approaching interesting questions and grand themes but always stops short and doesn't actually explore them at all.  The plot of The Runaway Jury would be great for discussions about things like the difference between legal justice and moral justice, and whether corruption can fight corruption.  But of course this is left to the reader as an exercise.  

The Runaway Jury was adapted for the screen in 2003.

"Drop the 'the.'  It's cleaner."

The films starred Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, John Cusack, and Rachel Weisz.  It also replaces the cigarette companies with gun manufacturers. 


Anyway, as I think I'll be repeating a lot in the upcoming reviews, if you want something light and entertaining, feel free to read a Grisham novel.  If not, don't.  Also, go watch Thank You for Smoking.

Bestsellers of 1996:

1. The Runaway Jury by John Grisham

2. Executive Orders by Tom Clancy

3. Desperation by Stephen King

4. Airframe by Michael Crichton

5. The Regulators by Stephen King

6. Malice by Danielle Steel

7. Silent Honor by Danielle Steel

8. Primary Colors by Anonymous

9. Cause of Death by Patricia Cornwell

10. The Tenth Insight by James Redfield 

Also Published in 1996:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Sources:

Grisham, John. The Runaway Jury. New York: Doubleday, 1996. Print.

1994: The Chamber 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.

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:

Length: 486 pages
Subject/Genre: Death Penalty Litigation/Legal Thriller

The Chamber begins in 1967 in rural Mississippi.  Sam Cayhall, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, assists in the bombing of a Jewish lawyer's office as part of the KKK's bombing campaign against civil rights activists. The bomb is set by another man, Rollie Wedge, and is put on a timer.  The bomb detonates later that morning, killing the lawyer's twin children, and crippling the lawyer.  Cayhall is caught by the police.  He is tried, but the jury is stacked in his favor and is deadlocked.  The same happens in a retrial.  Fourteen years pass, attitudes change, and a new D.A., looking to make a name for himself, brings Cayhall back on trial.  With testimony from the former imperial wizard of the KKK, Cayhall is convicted and given the death penalty.

In Chicago, young lawyer Adam Hall works for the major firm Kravitz & Bane, which had been representing Cayhall through his appeals as part of their pro bono program.  Hall admits that, after his father's suicide when Hall was seventeen, he learned that he was Sam Cayhall's grandson.  Hall goes on to say that he is against the death penalty in principle, and wants to represent his grandfather.  This he does, and heads out to Mississippi, connecting with his family's dark past and the legal vagaries of death penalty litigation.  

Grisham's novel strikes me as the equivalent of a strong episode of a tv courtroom drama.  There's a lot of investigation and legal maneuvering, and a lot of tension over whether or not Cayhall will be executed. The characters come up against a lot of serious, morally troublesome issues, not the least of which is the death penalty itself.  However, these issues are not dealt with to any depth.  While I don't expect a fifty page treatise debating the morality of capital punishment, the pro arguments are basically 'it's justice/it gives closure' and the con arguments are just 'killing is wrong/it doesn't help anyone.'  None of these points are argued beyond them being mentioned in conversation, and what could be a deep exploration of an incredibly contentious moral dilemma isn't really dealt with at all.  Grisham acknowledges that there is such a dilemma, his characters take one side or the other, but all he really does is have people ask if it's really good or bad (I mean, he literally has them ask, a lot).  It's easy for this novel to seem a lot deeper than it is, because it brings up serious topics, but it doesn't really have anything interesting to say about them.


The novel was adapted to film in 1996.  The Chamber starred Gene Hackman as Sam Cayhall, Faye Dunaway as Lee Cayhall, and Chris O'Donnell as Adam Hall.

The film was a critical catastrophe, with even Grisham himself describing it as "a train wreck."  It did, however, receive one award nomination: Faye Dunaway for worst supporting actress at the 1997 Razzies.


Make no mistake, though, the novel was entertaining.  It's like a good episode of Law & Order.  If you want something entertaining to read that will kill time, The Chamber is a good choice.

Bestsellers of 1994:

1. The Chamber by John Grisham

2. Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy

3. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

4. The Gift by Danielle Steel

5. Insomnia by Stephen King

6. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner

7. Wings by Danielle Steel

8. Accident by Danielle Steel

9. Disclosure by Michael Crichton

10. Remember Me by Marry Higgins Clark

Also Published in 1994:

Closing Time by Joseph Heller

Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem

Sources:

Grisham, John. The Chamber. New York: Doubleday, 1994. Print.

"John Grisham." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Literature Resource 
     Center. Web.