Book Review: "The Appeal" by John Grisham

Tweet

Mississippi attorney turned best selling author John Grisham has enjoy great commercial success while not exactly wowing literary critics. Grisham will never be confused with fellow Oxford, Mississippi writer William Faulkner whom he has easily outsold but his novels are entertaining. They do not strain the brain and do provide some insight into the legal profession and life in his home state. His 20th novel is “The Appeal” (2008, Doubleday, 358 pages) which ranks among his better efforts as the story was quite poignant during the recent era of economic crisis. Portraying bis business and government officials is an old cliche, however, greed, mismanagement and corruption are at the heart of what ails the country. “The Appeal” centers on a $41 million judgement in favor of Jeannette Baker against Krane Chemical, a company controlled by Manhattan based billionaire Carl Trudeau. Krane Chemical was the primary employer in Cary County, Mississippi and for decades illegally dumped toxic waste that eventually saturated the ground and contaminated local water supplies. Cary County is now known as Cancer County USA because the cancer rate is 15 times the national average. Caught, Krane Chemical shut down the facility leaving an economically devastated and literally dying county. Baker’s husband and son died within months of each other and small town lawyers Wes and Mary Grace Payton bankrupt themselves in fighting against Krane’s battery of expensive lawyers. Despite a favorable verdict, the Payton’s are cautious about ever collecting a cent in recognizing the dangers of the appeal system and that is the primary theme of “The Appeal” which is the corruption of state supreme courts by corporations to get decisions reversed in their favor. Krane stock tumbles in the stock market causing Trudeau to lose a billion dollars on paper in a single day leaving him with a mere two billion. His reaction is a fury directed at those worthless little hick people and vows to get back every cent and then some. Through a crooked connection, Trudeau retains the services of a firm specializing in wining elections. The Mississippi Supreme Court usually rules 5-4 in favor of plaintiffs and the timing is right. Moderate Justice Sheila McCarthy is up for re-election and can be replaced with a sympathetic to big business judge just in time for the ruling on the Krane case. Grisham meticulously details the process of pushing through such a candidate from selecting squeaky clean Ron Fisk to the financial aspects and campaign strategies. It is all so logical and plausible as to be frightening that this could be and is probably happening in reality. Beyond overwhelming and outspending the opposition, there is the art of manipulating voter emotions and distorting facts not mention pretty image packaging. It would be simple to dismiss Trudeau as a caricature of an evil big businessman but Grisham’s portrait all consuming greed rings true. Wealthy beyond imagination, Trudeau is smiling and generous but beneath this facade is a man caring only for his ranking in the Fortune 400 and making more money. It is not farfetched to believe there are those sabotaging their own companies for stock market manipulation. We know such actions are happening. “The Appeal” lingers in mind for depicting blatant government, judicial and corporate corruption.