08 February 2009

Books: The Appeal by John Grisham


In the hyper-reality world that John Grisham usually portrays in his legal thrillers, most (if not all) lawyers are crooked, evil and only care about money. Even in his Author’s Note in The Appeal, Grisham defends his home state of Mississippi, but does say there is a “lot of truth” in his story about how to rig an election. The blow-by-blow account sounds sadly way to real, and could make someone like me further question politics on both sides of coin.

And while, in typical Grisham fashion, his characters are all stick figures, his talents lay in creating a plausible story of corruption at the heart of the American judicial system. He lays out how easily, it seems, Americans can be duped into supporting candidates without really understanding -or even caring - what they truly stand for. All it takes, it seems is just throw out a few fear inducing ideology Easter eggs like gay marriage, gun control and the death penalty (which Grisham writes is ironic that the ones on the Right, who fight abortion, will also be the first to support the death penalty) and people ignore that maybe, just maybe, their candidates rise to power has nothing to do with up holding the Constitution, but to be in the pockets of people who have way too much money and time on their hands.

The Appeal is Grishman’s best book in years and gets the sour taste left out of my ,mouth by the atrocious Playing for Pizza.

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