Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws. -- Francis Bacon
Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. -- Daniel Webster
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PROLOGUE
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John Grisham is one of the most successful fiction writers in history. A successful lawyer himself, he has taken the fiction of jurisdictional nature to zenith. “A Time to Kill”, is the best work from him yet, in my opinion. John takes us through an emotional roller coaster with his stunning novel. Rightfully depicted in this novel, the racial prejudices are not completely over in US, since the days of Dr. MLK.
If you think of it in a way, prejudices are part of every society in a lot of ways. This is a very bad trait followed by so many people in a knowingly unknowing manner. John has given a truly masterful piece of work with his imaginative power. The subject itself touches the basic fabric of lives of people living in southern US.
Let us delve into the review. Shall we?
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THE PLOT
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The plot is pretty much revealed in the most powerful and grueling pages of this book, the first four pages. In a Mississippi town, Clanton, MS, a 10-year-old black girl is going back home from a store. She is picked up by couple of conniving rednecks. She is beaten, raped, tortured and let go through a painful suffering. At the end of paragraph one, you detest these rednecks. The girl’s father, a black man, is duly enraged by this incident. Given the nature of the town and the prejudices of the society, he just goes out of the way to provide justice in his perspective. He kills the rednecks. The result, he is the target of this racially motivated towns critics. A White Lawyer takes his defense and is the hero of this story. Whites and the KKK who want to get justice for the killing of two white people by a black man target the Lawyer. This legal tug-of-war goes on.
You have black people shouting “Free Carl Lee” on one side and KKK and others fighting for his execution which is allowed in Mississippi. What happens in this legal melodrama? Read the novel or see the movie. Believe me, you will not leave this book behind, but will finish it in couple of days.
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THE CHARACTERS
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· Carl Lee Hailey – The Black Man Who is Accused of murdering the two rednecks who brutally raped and tortured his daughter Tanya Lee
· Billy Ray Cobb and James Louis 'Pete' Willard – The Rednecks who are killed by Carl Lee
· Jake Tyler Brigance & Ellen Roark – The White Attorneys fighting for the release of Carl Lee
· Rufus Buckley – The District Attorney who convicts Carl Lee
· Ozzie Wells – The Sheriff of the county
There are other memorable characters in the story as well. As a person who has read the book and seen the story, I felt that the movie had its due cuts to make it more interesting to see in the time limit mentioned. Some of the characters are based on the authors real life influence. John based the crux of the story based on a real life incidence while he was practicing law in Mississippi.
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MY ANALYSIS
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This book is a classic page-turner from the very first page. Like one of the writers had mentioned, you really tend to have inkling to finish this book at a single breath, upon reading the first four pages of the story.
This book is the first from John Grisham that sold some 5000 odd copies before he became famous, when “The Firm” was made into the movie, starring Tom Cruise. This book was made into an equally excellent movie starring “Matthew McConaughey ,Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson , Kevin Spacey & Oliver Platt”. I saw the movie first and read the book later.
To tell you the truth, I felt that the book was far more excellent than the movie. For the emotions in the book was excellent and to the point. As this was John’s first work, he has put all his energy and no-holds-barred effort into it. This is pretty much visible. Largely coming from a white dominated suburb, John has tried to capture the essence of the society that surrounded him for most of the time. The book starts of with a blast and tends to incline more towards the racial prejudices, the closet racists, KKK, the underprivileged and all. You can correlate this to any society in the world. Be it US, Be it India, Be it Russia, Be it any part of the world, prejudices exist. No one can deny that unless you have closed eyes.
John Grisham succeeds wildly in the court-room scenes that he is fully aware of. This successful lawyer takes a lesson or two when it comes to defense of a convicted or the para-legal systems in US. Where he succeeds wildly is how he imbibes the characters into your inner consciousness, while you are reading this novel. You tend to feel like Carl Lee initially, and then you become Jake Brigance and so on.
One thing I felt as a misnomer was how the “black” side is given a much smaller role in the later parts of the story. This solely becomes a Jake Brigance Vs the World by the time this book ends. John somewhat lost track as the book evolves. But hey! This is his first book. Remember?. Another thing is lack of complete analysis of why this prejudice prevails in one of the most successful societies. While this is a novel only, he could have thrown his own opinion using a character embedded into story. I sorely missed a “Sutradhar” in this story in a way. Another of my gripe about this book is the glib manner in which Grisham handles his subject. At times the novel seems to be almost frivolous in content, to an extent.
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EPILOGUE
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I had an excellent time watching the movie (again and again). I had a much nicer time reading this book, for the lingering feeling it invokes in you. The book is a masterpiece, I would say, barring its shortcomings. John Grisham is a successful author. An author par excellence, showed us his capacity in this wonderful novel.
All in all, “A Time to Kill” is a “Book to read and remember”. Two Thumbs Up
I hope you liked the review, Please comment, when you have time
KALIL
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Punishment - The justice that the guilty deal out to those that are caught. -- Elbert Hubbard
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
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