The Firm
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What I liked: Despite my whinging in the notes, I actually enjoyed this novel until the halfway point. Grisham's descriptions are his strength, and the two main settings - a law firm in the 90s and Mitch's lovely new house - were well evoked. The scene in the Caymans also had a believable beach-retreat feel to it. Mitch's slow uncovering of the conspiracy felt a bit much, but the 'poor, intelligent boy coming into money' dynamic was played well despite its being unrealistic that a Harvard What I liked: Despite my whinging in the notes, I actually enjoyed this novel until the halfway point. Grisham's descriptions are his strength, and the two main settings - a law firm in the 90s and Mitch's lovely new house - were well evoked. The scene in the Caymans also had a believable beach-retreat feel to it. Mitch's slow uncovering of the conspiracy felt a bit much, but the 'poor, intelligent boy coming into money' dynamic was played well despite its being unrealistic that a Harvard graduate who came third in his class would settle for an obscure law firm in suburban Michigan. I loved the law premise idea, even though it's pretty unrealistic that a firm would actually hire anyone who wasn't from the actual criminal underworld. They should really have threatened his wife straight away rather than waiting for months. What's to be gained by making someone work 20 hours a day before you rope them in? At best, wouldn't you get reported to Fair Work/the Ombudsman (US equivalent) and isn't that a risk for you?The narrator, Scott Brick, did a wonderful job of the voices and the accents.What I didn't like:
1) Plenty of sexism: gratuitous description of female characters' bums, lips, breasts and legs. The narration made it a point to emphasise the secretary's weight and her lack of a social life. At one point, Grisham spends a long time describing a minor female character smoking a cigarette in titillating and cringeworthy detail, complete with description of "her sticky lips". Later, there's an unnecessarily detailed description of signing a lease, interspersed with (as is par for the course) paeans on her legs. A few sentences are spent on describing a character's stockings, her toenails and her nailpolish. One gets the impression that this was an excuse to elaborate about this character's legs. Here it is for you, in full colour:A shapely platinum blond with a constricting leather shirt and matching black boots asked for his name… [Tammy] thrust [the cigarette] between her sticky lips. When the flame disappeared, the lips instinctively compacted and tightened around the tiny protrusion and the entire body began to inhale…. She coughed, a hacking, irritated cough which reddened her face and gyrated her full breasts until they bounced dangerously close to the typewriter keys...
There was more hacking and wheezing behind him. Just when he began to feel dizzy, the typing and smoking stopped. She was now sitting on the edge of her desk, legs crossed, with the black leather skirt well above her knees… he admired her legs, which for the moment were positioned just so and demanded to be admired.” She then stops her work, starts flirting and making small talk with him. “Mitch then studied leather boots, the legs, the skirt, and the tight sweater around the large breasts, and tried to think of something cute to say.”
Can you imagine if I were to write a similar description of a male clerk smoking? "The cigar clutched between his thick fingers, he pulled it slowly in and out of his mouth. The muscles under his Armani shirt rippled as he bent to retrieve a file." And so on, and so phallic. But do we ever see descriptions of men like this in crime novels? No. This is a random secretary, not a main character.As if that wasn't enough, literally every single random woman these characters come across wants to jump their bones. Unless the woman is specifically described as unattractive. He even sleeps with one of the Cayman Islanders because she hits on him (and, incidentally, her clothing is so scanty that "almost everything was showing". Women are also described as 'string bikinis'.John Grisham, you do realise women are real people? By all means write poorly conceived sexual fantasies, but for God’s sake keep it in your desk drawer. None of the rest of us need to see it. I don't know if Grisham himself is this sleazy or whether he thought this was some sort of fanservice, but it hasn't aged well. And no, 'It was the 90s' is not an excuse. There’s some racism as well, but not as much.2) Abby is never developed beyond the 'typical, generic female character'. Almost every time she's mentioned, it's either in the context of a domestic issue (e.g. 'thinking about babies') or with reference to her beauty. Now, I have nothing against female characters being feminine or wanting children, but combined with the above, it's clear Grisham doesn't (or didn't) know how to write female characters. 3) The dialogue was rather stilted at times, and conversations often went into far too much minute detail. There was some repetition of material.Why I abandoned it: I found it too hard to suspend my disbelief that a) the FBI would spend seven years keeping track of his family, were fairly certain it was a front for the Mafia, and still didn't act and b) an FBI agent would spend hours on a bus negotiating with a guy who is, in effect, innocent, and not only that, but would indirectly threaten him with arrest if he failed to comply. Why couldn't they put in an undercover agent, as a secretary or a gardener or something? I mean... it's the FBI, not your local police station.