I’ve been reading Mr. Grisham’s propaganda, err...novels recently and noticed a disturbing trend. He seems to be on the left side of the spectrum, but like Michael Moore, prefers to hide his allegiance to Moscow in clever, well-written stories with a surplus of drama and suspense. Recall that Comrade Lenin was also a young idealistic lawyer. By now I have digested the majority of his work and all the most famous stories. Here are brief summaries of his enlightenment:
A Time To Kill. Our valiant oppressed minority hero is unfairly oppressed by the corrupt capitalist justice system after rightfully executing two degenerate criminals who raped his 10 year old daughter. Another hero, the small town people’s lawyer, steps up to the plate, so to speak, and liberates Comrade OMH from ultimate persecution.
The Firm. A young, idealistic lawyer is seduced by the dark side of an Evil Capitalist Law Firm. He realizes, eventually, that any rich, successful corporation, including a law firm, must be doing something illegal and/or unethical – and his own firm is no exception.
The Pelican Brief. A young, idealistic law student uncovers plot by an Evil Capitalist in Louisiana to secure favorable Supreme Court appointments to protect his anti-pelican exploitation.
The Client. A young boy witnesses a crime and must be protected from various capitalists who wish to kill him. Comrade Sarandon, well known for her progressive roles and politics, plays his lawyer in the movie. Dull and not enough explosions and deaths of capitalists.
The Chamber. The evil in America’s justice system, in the form of capital punishment, is really just a mirror of the prior evil of America’s southern culture. A young, idealistic lawyer defends his grandfather, a Klansman on trial for blowing up a civil rights lawyer in the 60s. He finds pictures of lynch parties in that town in the 30s, and his grandfather is in the pictures smiling as a young boy. Grisham makes the dubious argument that somehow even this racist oppressor should be given mercy.
The Rainmaker. Young idealistic lawyer takes on Evil Capitalist Insurance Company, which wrongfully denied a valid health insurance claim, as a result of which the policyholder did not get his leukemia treatment and died (“Eight times you have filed this claim, and eight times we have refused it. You must be STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!”); the insurance company determined that it would save more money by denying claims than it would lose in litigation.
The Runaway Jury. An idealistic juror and his paramour hijack the jury in a trial against an Evil Capitalist Tobacco Company (in the movie, it’s an Evil Capitalist Gun Manufacturer), despite the nastiest tricks ECTC’s litigation consultant can throw at them. Gene Hackman returns to portray the consultant just as it he did the Klansman in “The Chamber”. Despite the odds stacked against them by the corrupt capitalist justice system in America, justice prevails.
The Partner. Not quite so young, but still idealistic lawyer is captured by evil capitalist agents in Brazil after hiding out for years. It seems he stole the ill-gotten gains of his firm’s client, an Evil Capitalist Defense Contractor. How he out-maneuvers his ex-wife and her lover, the FBI, local oppressors in Mississippi, and Evil Insurance Companies, with the assistance of Beautiful Third World Woman, is the charm of this adventure. Lesson: those Davids who would defeat the corporate Goliaths should only do so for the sake of social justice, not personal gain.
The Street Lawyer. Older, jaded lawyer decides to take up the cause of oppressed minorities in DC. A street person’s ruthless execution by jackbooted Fascist thugs (aka SWAT) eventually reveals the role of the lawyer’s firm in an unlawful eviction (of which said street person was a victim). Yet again we see that large law firms in the US are invariably involved in illegal and unethical activity and consistently assist their bourgeois clients in oppressing minorities. Jaded Lawyer experiences satisfaction of helping urban proletariat and leaving his corrupt, decadent lifestyle behind.
The Testament. Eccentric, misanthropic elderly capitalist dies, and cheats his corrupt, greedy heirs in favor of a daughter no one – even his own lawyer – knew existed. The sole beneficiary is working deep in the jungles of Brazil, helping the oppressed indigenous peoples. Comrade Grisham appears to be much enamored of Brazil, despite its military dictatorship from 1964-85, the aforementioned oppression, and the deforesting of the Amazon rainforest.
The Brethren. Three corrupt capitalist judges – like the witches in MacBeth – conspire to do evil deeds. More clear examples of the depravity of American culture and society.
The Summons. Brothers are summoned back by last will of their estranged father. Very dull, as with The Client, too little revolutionary justice. Sometimes Comrade Grisham forgets himself and is self-indulgent, or in The Chamber shows inappropriate mercy to obvious class enemies.
The King of Torts. As with The Partner, sympathetic lawyer hero discovers that virtue (here shown by class actions to attack Evil Capitalist Corporations) should be its own reward.
The Broker. Sympathetic quasi-capitalist hero is injected into Italy and becomes part of an elaborate capitalist conspiracy which threatens his life.
The Last Juror. Comrade Traynor takes over the local paper and now enlightens 1970-79-era fictional Mississippi town of Clanton with his wisdom, including his opposition to the US aggression against the people of Vietnam and later his opposition to Evil Capitalist Supermarket Chain. Regrettably, the local population proves stubbornly reactionary and resistant to class consciousness. The particular tragedy here is the rape and murder of a young woman before her own children, and the near-victory of the murderer, a scion of decadent rural capitalist criminals, over the criminal justice system. Traynor also finds, and describes in great detail in his Pravda, the extraordinary story of a Minority Family, all but one of whose children have PhDs and whose mother speaks 18 languages and invented cold fusion.
The Painted House. Comrade Grisham strays from his tried and true comfort zone of legal thrillers and successfully cures insomnia. Story involves peasants in Arkansas, lumpen proletariat hillbillies, and glorious Mexicans. Evil capitalist flood ruins farm, mom & dad run to industrialist North with boy who dreams of playing baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals (his name is not Mark McGwire).
Bleachers. Another snoozefest. American reactionaries return to small town to reminisce about football after their legendary coach passes away.
Playing for Pizza. The least boring of the non-legal epics: a former NFL quarterback, disgraced after being thrown to the lions in the AFC Championship game between the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos – as the third string quarterback – winds up in Parma, Italy, playing for their local American football team. He experiences Europe for the first time and particularly enjoys Italian cuisine. There is little revolutionary fervor here and more self-indulgence.
Ford County Stories. This is a collection of short stories set in fictional Ford County, Mississippi. Grisham hits the usual targets of reactionary rednecks, albeit fairly haphazardly and leisurely, with no drama or suspense, much as life in these small American towns is alleged to be.
The Associate. A promising young third year law student is blackmailed into joining a major NYC law firm in order to provide confidential information to his blackmailers – they eventually escape and their true agenda is never revealed. The true point of the story is to demonstrate how oppressive and unpleasant the top law firms are and to encourage similarly promising law students to forgo said firms in favor of small town firms which cater to proletarian clients.
The Confession. A minority defendant faces the death penalty while the true killer, a white man with terminal cancer and a long history of crime and prisons, finally decides to come clean to save an innocent life. Unfortunately for the MD, the Texas capital punishment system, from the police, prosecutors, judges, appellate courts, all the way up to the governor, have zero interest in justice and are adamantly committed to executing this poor boy they managed to pin the crime on – despite last minute appeals and ample timely provided evidence of the condemned boy’s innocence.
The Litigators. Comrade Associate, burnt out from a major Chicago law firm, drops into a petty bourgeois law firm specializing in chasing ambulances. While the junior partner shyster attempts to win the jackpot by taking on a major pharmaceutical company - only sympathetically portrayed here because their anti-cholesterol drug actually ISN'T harmful - the CA finds solace in representing a small family with a child irreversibly brain damaged by a cheap vampire teeth toy (lead poisoning).
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