The Appeal
I heard John Grisham criticized for not being in a league with proven contemporary writers like Joyce Carol Oates. But come on, his books read so well. Sometimes we want the Big Mac over the filet and nothing else will do.
In addition, the messages Grisham comes up with…the timing. John Edwards could have used the David versus Goliath mantra in his campaign. All on the heels of Playing for Pizza and Innocent Man, a non-legal thriller and non-fiction work respectively.
The vile Krane Chemical Corporation, run by its rich and selfish CEO Carl Trudeau who spends multi millions buying art he detests just to appease his trophy wife, kills a town of water drinking folks by polluting the supply.
The juicy reading of the trial verdict opens the story at $41 million. The plaintiff lawyers – a husband and wife legal team - have put their lifeblood and souls into getting the case to trial and their banker is calling in the loans they have not been making payments on. Meanwhile Krane has set out to finance a campaign for a handpicked conservative Judge who will, presumably, uphold his “conservative” corporate special interest group and reject the appeal of the verdict on behalf of Krane.
Grisham gives us the brain injury of the purchased Judge Fisk just as he is about to make the appellate decision. His son is injured when hit with a baseball. Fisk agonizes in the hospital waiting to see the extent of damage to his son. He learns that the bat used by the league to hit the ball was taken off the market due to product defect and the ER doctor read the wrong MRI when initially and negligently misdiagnosing the damage: All potential lawsuits to recover for the permanent and significant damage to his son. However, will he be converted?
The methodical subversion of justice is all too familiar. Our contemporary presidential election, judicial elections and appointments, all strategically financed by the rich, could make us realize how small our own voices are in this so-called democracy. Grisham’s book is both entertaining and a public service announcement.
