The Appeal

by John Grisham

At last, I've finished reading The Appeal by John Grisham... And I must say that it is the most dreadfully depressing and downright disappointing modern legal thriller novel I've ever read but that it is such a way for a specific reason. Grisham has proved once more that he knows how the system works, especially because for many years he had practiced as a lawyer himself.

He created a brilliant fictional concept that reminded me all too well of cases like Love Canal and PG&E, and he managed to do so in a brutally honest and realistic way instead of giving his reader the "you know what's going to happen" routine. For that, I have tremendous respect for him as a writer and for this novel, as it raises valid questions.

Are we mocking our political system, or are we being true to the office? And who is truly at fault in cases of personal injury? Are we denying accountability to the companies that manufacture these products that injure us, or are we solely responsible for our injury when using said products? Also, who decides, ultimately, who liable, and what makes them qualified? This book was excellent for such questions.

However, at the same time, I must be fair to the text. And this is the first time I have ever looked at Amazon customer book reviews, but I have to agree with them.. Speaking as someone who has a vivid recollection of reading Grisham's first novel A Time to Kill, stylistically, you can definitely tell that Grisham seems to be shedding his style and over-focusing on the content itself. There were characters that, I felt, could have been major additions to the overall outcome of the plot, yet Grisham has them in for a chapter or two and then discards them. That alone made it slightly difficult to follow at points due to the fact that there were so many different key players in the novel already.

In my creative writing workshops, we used to refer to this as overcrowding. Meaning, simply, that the writer has too many characters within the book that it not only loses focus, it also confuses the reader who they should root for (and not in a good way). There were also phrases and diction which read rather colloquial and (no offense to him) plastic. Although colloquialisms and conversational diction can sometimes enhance the story being told, Grisham makes the mistake in believing that this serious tale of political and environmental questions would benefit from it. This is a mistake because it does a disservice to the point.

The end result of these flaws make the resolution fall flat when it could have hit ten times harder. I would say that I highly recommend this novel based on the value of its implications; yet I would offer forewarning to anyone who would assume that this newer novel would be on the same level, stylistically, as his earlier works. I would recommend this is novel to be read by those who are looking for a good thought-adventure.