Thursday, March 5, 1998
Latest from Grisham too similar to ‘The Firm’
BOOK: Ready-made for a movie, ‘Street Lawyer’ follows the
standard formula
By Christopher Bates
Daily Bruin Contributor
John Grisham’s new book, "The Street Lawyer," tells the story of
a young lawyer who battles an evil corporation and, because of his
incredible savvy as well as the righteousness of his cause, comes
out a winner.
If this sounds familiar to Grisham fans, it should, because it
essentially the plot of every John Grisham book.
This particular story revolves around Michael Brock,
attorney-at-law in the firm of Drake & Sweeney. Brock is a
rising star among the 800 lawyers of his firm and is sure to make
partner soon. Then, tragedy strikes. Brock is held hostage by a
homeless man. Though Brock escapes physically unharmed, he is a
changed man. He becomes disenchanted with the corporate life and
moves on to a new career as an advocate for the homeless.
The remainder of the plot will remain unsaid, such as it is.
However, if this sounds somewhat trite and cliche, that’s because
it is. The rest of the book, unfortunately, does not do much
better.
Most of the standard elements of a Grisham work are here. The
legal profession takes its usual thrashing – lawyers are greedy and
materialistic, judges are manipulative and lack compassion,
politicians are interested only in getting votes, and everyone else
is too blind or ignorant to see what’s going on.
Brock is also the standard fare; he’s young, he worked extra
hard to make his way through an exclusive law school, and now he
has a career trajectory that will eventually make him wealthy
beyond most people’s wildest dreams. Tom Cruise might as well play
him in the movie version. (It’s essentially the same character as
we saw in "The Firm.")
The main difference between "The Street Lawyer" and Grisham’s
past work is the fact that Brock’s epiphany comes early in the
novel. Most of the time, the lawyer doesn’t see the error of his
ways until halfway through the book, which leaves just enough time
for a prolonged battle and a "stunning" climax.
This could have been interesting. From his other works, we have
very little sense that Grisham believes a lawyer can see the light
and still stay in the profession. Certainly Grisham himself bailed
out and became an author. However, Brock’s transition from
corporate lawyer to street lawyer is not particularly believable or
compelling. The character is not important to Grisham except as a
means to his end, which is to deliver his message about the
homeless.
Occasionally throughout his career Grisham has attempted to
write a book that makes a statement. In fact, his first book, "A
Time To Kill," was a thinly veiled takeoff on Harper Lee’s classic
"To Kill a Mockingbird." Unfortunately, there are two things that
will probably always keep Grisham from writing a book of enduring
importance.
First is Grisham’s need to have a happy ending. In every book,
the sympathetic character comes out on top. "The Street Lawyer’s"
ending is so happy that one wonders if the rights to the book have
already been sold to Disney’s animation division.
The greater constraint operating on Grisham, however, is his
bottom line. Every book he writes has to be a best seller and has
to be good material for a movie. Contrived drama, lawyer-bashing,
happy endings and the like sell books and movie tickets. They will
never make for a memorable piece of literature.
Unfortunately, because the message gets in the way of the story
line, "The Street Lawyer" isn’t even all that great as a piece of
pulp fiction. "The Firm" had no pretensions about what it was and
it was a more entertaining book for it. Too bad the same can’t be
said for "The Street Lawyer."