Dec 17, 2015 11:59 AM
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In this story, John Grisham, an attorney in Mississippi, was in court one day when he heard the testimony of a 12-year old rape victim. Her testimony allowed his mind to wonder what would happen if her father killed the rapist. The result of his musings was his first novel, A Time To Kill . It took him three years to write it and it was not very widely received because of the subject matter.
Fortunately, for the entertainment industry, Grisham did not give up. He continued working as an attorney while working on his next book, The Firm, which went on to be the best selling book of 1991. His career took off, and eventually readers turned back to his first novel, A Time to Kill . Years later, Warner Bros. bought the screen rights to the book and made the movie, which starred Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson and Sandra Bullock. Big names for a book that only 5, 000 copies were originally printed.
Before I critique the book any further, I will give you a brief plot synopsis, so that my comments will make a little more sense. I will not give away the ending for those who have not read this book.
The story takes place in Clanton, Mississippi. A 10-year old black girl is raped by two white guys who are drinking and on drugs. They hurt the little girl so bad that she would never be able to have children, and then they dump her at the roadside as if she were garbage.
