“The Litigators” was a hilarious work by Grisham. I don’t recall him creating such comic figures in his other books. And so while the subject matter was grave, the characters enlivened and gave a kaleidoscope of colours to the narrative.
The fact that litigation can be an expensive, drawn out and energy sapping endeavour was clearly interwoven with the elements of greed, freedom and family time represented by each of the 3 protagonists in the ambulance chasing firm. Other than the young Harvard lawyer who literally stumbled into this barely surviving practice, the other 2 lawyers reminded me of the first two firms in KL who invited me to spend some time with them when I first went back to Malaysia more than 20 years ago. Both did personal injury work, but the first did plaintiff work while the second did more defendant work. Invariably, the plantiff work firm made more money but it was a firm with little respect within the legal fraternity. Grisham showed why ambulance chasers are generally frowned upon. He exaggerated the behaviour of course but I’m glad he did because he made it really funny.
So last weekend I thought I had enough of another quick and dirty Grisham novel on lawyers and lawsuits but I had barely started on G. K. Chesterton’s “The Everlasting Man” when I felt the itch for more Grisham… oh no…
So much has been happening I couldnt really dwell on something potentially layered with meaning so a quick and dirty page turner looks the obvious gap filler.
It isnt always time wasting anyway. “The Confession” for example, started with a convict needing help and wandering into a church. There, he met a pastor who quickly discovered that convict had something important to say in relation to a death row inmate.
That scene of a man walking down the street and wandering into a church office and starting a process leading to a possible redemption of a condemned man, was played out as a possible real life scenario last night.
Someone rang, and recounted the aftermath of the weekend circus. One small detail amongst severl to have emerged was how a pastor was loathed to spend time in church office. That caller bemoaned the fact that the opportunity, such as illustrated in Grisham’s fiction, was probably denied to God knows how many souls. Simply because a pastor wanted to have a ministry largely on his own terms. Well he can now, pretty much.
Ante 