This book came out last year and I'm only getting around to reading it now. One of my reasons for pushing it to the top of my TBR (to-be-read) list is my interest in finding out if it would be a good selection for a book group.
I'm now past the two-thirds mark. I have to say I am really enjoying this book.
One of the qualities Grisham possesses, one which has turned me off in the past, is his intense interest on who stands where in the pecking order. His interest in how manners, money, dress and comportment dictate your social standing has made me feel painfully self-conscious, and I have not enjoyed it. It is the business of the novel, in my opinion, to talk about how we live now and certainly, this novel and his other novels do that. I think that one of the things that I particularly like about this novel is that there is so much to say about everything in this long novel that his socioeconomic rankings are less obtrusive than I have found them to be in the past.
Jake Brigance is a small town "street lawyer," in Mississippi in 1984. He's well-known in his town because he represented Carl Lee Hailey in his trial for murdering the white men who raped his daughter, three years earlier. Carl Lee was African-American, so Jake is highly regarded in the African-American community.
Jake is struggling financially, however. He didn't make much money defending Carl Lee and his house was firebombed by racists during the trial. He's been unable to settle with the insurance company and he, his wife, and his daughter are living in a rental house.
Enter Seth Hubbard, albeit by letter. Seth is a cantankerous soul, who has made millions in timber and furniture in the previous ten years. Then Seth learned that he had terminal cancer.
Seth has hung himself, and before doing so, made a new will and writtern Jake a letter in which he asks Jake to defend the new will vigorously. (Seth chooses Jake because of his local reputation as the defender of Carl Lee Hailey) Seth knows it will be challenged, because in his new will he cuts out his children. The new beneficiary is his housekeeper, who is to receive 90% of Hubbard's estate.
Jake is stunned, but he instantly understands that the new will will be contested by the deceased's children and that he, as the estate's lawyer defending the new will, will have an opportunity to have a good, steady income for the first time in years. When he begins discussing the will with his closest attorney friends, and the local sheriff, they all immediately understand that the fact that Seth Hubbard's housekeeper was black means that there will be a very big fight and that some jurors will feel reluctance to award 90% of a multimillion dollar estate to a black woman.
Grisham mentions Faulkner more than once in this book, and it's clear to me that he shared Faulkner's view that "the past isn't dead, it isn't even passed." Nevertheless, the book ends on a hopeful note.
Appropos of nothing, I found this reference to dining and shopping in East London in an ad from Phaidon, the publishers.
http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/food/articles/2014/may/19/the-insiders-guide-to-london/
10/24/2017
I read Sycamore Row for a second time this past spring, for another book group, and I have to say that I enjoyed it even more the second time. I found myself dwelling on details I hadn't noticed the first time around, and I loved the local color - the restaurant and Jake and one of his cronies goes to discuss the trial during a lunch break. It's in the country, and Jake's lunch partner is another lawyer, a really startling intellect. It's so rich in detail and feeling. If only every Grisham outing were this resonant. And this book is resonant.
I'm now past the two-thirds mark. I have to say I am really enjoying this book.
One of the qualities Grisham possesses, one which has turned me off in the past, is his intense interest on who stands where in the pecking order. His interest in how manners, money, dress and comportment dictate your social standing has made me feel painfully self-conscious, and I have not enjoyed it. It is the business of the novel, in my opinion, to talk about how we live now and certainly, this novel and his other novels do that. I think that one of the things that I particularly like about this novel is that there is so much to say about everything in this long novel that his socioeconomic rankings are less obtrusive than I have found them to be in the past.
Jake Brigance is a small town "street lawyer," in Mississippi in 1984. He's well-known in his town because he represented Carl Lee Hailey in his trial for murdering the white men who raped his daughter, three years earlier. Carl Lee was African-American, so Jake is highly regarded in the African-American community.
Jake is struggling financially, however. He didn't make much money defending Carl Lee and his house was firebombed by racists during the trial. He's been unable to settle with the insurance company and he, his wife, and his daughter are living in a rental house.
Enter Seth Hubbard, albeit by letter. Seth is a cantankerous soul, who has made millions in timber and furniture in the previous ten years. Then Seth learned that he had terminal cancer.
Seth has hung himself, and before doing so, made a new will and writtern Jake a letter in which he asks Jake to defend the new will vigorously. (Seth chooses Jake because of his local reputation as the defender of Carl Lee Hailey) Seth knows it will be challenged, because in his new will he cuts out his children. The new beneficiary is his housekeeper, who is to receive 90% of Hubbard's estate.
Jake is stunned, but he instantly understands that the new will will be contested by the deceased's children and that he, as the estate's lawyer defending the new will, will have an opportunity to have a good, steady income for the first time in years. When he begins discussing the will with his closest attorney friends, and the local sheriff, they all immediately understand that the fact that Seth Hubbard's housekeeper was black means that there will be a very big fight and that some jurors will feel reluctance to award 90% of a multimillion dollar estate to a black woman.
Grisham mentions Faulkner more than once in this book, and it's clear to me that he shared Faulkner's view that "the past isn't dead, it isn't even passed." Nevertheless, the book ends on a hopeful note.
Appropos of nothing, I found this reference to dining and shopping in East London in an ad from Phaidon, the publishers.
http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/food/articles/2014/may/19/the-insiders-guide-to-london/
10/24/2017
I read Sycamore Row for a second time this past spring, for another book group, and I have to say that I enjoyed it even more the second time. I found myself dwelling on details I hadn't noticed the first time around, and I loved the local color - the restaurant and Jake and one of his cronies goes to discuss the trial during a lunch break. It's in the country, and Jake's lunch partner is another lawyer, a really startling intellect. It's so rich in detail and feeling. If only every Grisham outing were this resonant. And this book is resonant.
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