Book Review: Sycamore Row by John Grisham

Sycamore Row

Author: John Grisham

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Date of Publication: October 22, 2013

Pages: 464 (Hardcover Edition) 

  You have to give John Grisham his due.  Year after year he spins out great stories filled with memorable characters and just the right amount of tension.  A Time to Kill was his first novel (which I read shortly after I read his breakthrough novel The Firm) and Sycamore Row is a worthy sequel.  Grisham reprises most of the characters from his first book, including young and struggling attorney Jake Brigance.  It is three years after the heralded murder trial from A Time to Kill (the late 1980s).  Jake still runs his practice on a shoestring budget, fending off creditors and looking for business.  "Business" finds him in the form of a letter from an elderly white male, in the terminal stages of lung cancer, who hung himself from a Sycamore tree shortly after penning the letter to Jake.  Included in the letter is a hand-written will which leaves the bulk of his considerable estate to his black housekeeper and specifically excludes his derelict children.

  It's hard to believe that a 460 page novel about a contested will could be interesting much less entertaining, but Grisham achieves both.  The cast of characters is large and they are portrayed well.  Even though the author is describing "typical" Southerners, he doesn't wallow in stereotype or cliche.  The disgruntled heirs and their "big city" lawyers who swoop in like turkey vultures on roadkill, the locals who all have opinions fueled by gossip and innuendo, Jake and his family and a multitude of other minor characters all keep the story vibrant and moving.  

     Like A Time to Kill the main theme here is race and bigotry.  The difference in Sycamore Row is that the race issue is more simmering with overtones everywhere but it is not as bluntly in your face.  The final message is that events of decades past can indeed have serious repercussions generations later.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It is just what you would expect from this author: a fine story, great characters and a very satisfying resolution.  What more could a reader ask?

    

Book Review: Calico Joe by John Grisham

Calico Joe

Author: John Grisham

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Date of Publication: March 26, 2013

Pages: 240 (Trade Paperback)

   
      It's almost October and playoff baseball time.  This is the perfect book to read to get into the proper World Series frame of mind.  John Grisham, known as a master of the legal thriller, has penned a very good baseball novel.  It captures the magic of baseball for young boys and the triumphs and tragedies of men playing a boy's game for high stakes.  The author does a great job of including some of the nuances of baseball strategy and the "baseball code" which are entertaining for baseball fans but not so obscure that they would bore the non-fan.

     The story is told by an adult male, the son of a former major league player.  As a youngster in the 1970s he listens to games on the radio, avidly computes statistics and keeps notebooks with newspaper and magazine clippings on his favorite players, including his father, a journeyman pitcher for the New York Mets.   I can relate to this character in every regard except my father didn't play baseball.  He is captivated by the story of a young phenom for the Chicago Cubs, "Calico Joe", who flashes on the baseball scene performing Ruthian feats with his bat and speed.  The intertwined tales of Calico Joe, the kids father and their tumultuous interaction and its effect on all parties including the narrator are magically told. It's a story of fathers and sons, tragedy and regret and the power of forgiveness. 

     There's really nothing to dislike abut this book.  The characters are a bit stereotyped but very engaging.  The plot, although fairly predictable, is very satisfying.  There is humor, pathos and irony mixed in just about equal perfect proportions.  This was a fun book to read and I enjoyed it very much.  Play ball!