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 enlarge | Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy Used: $2.93
You Save: $25.02 (90%)
New (102) Collectible (16) from $8.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  408 reviews
Sales Rank: 310
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0385515049
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385515047
ASIN: 0385515049
Publication Date: January 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: GOOD with average wear to cover and pages. May contain minimal highlighting, inscriptions or notations. We ship quickly and work hard to earn your confidence. Orders are generally shipped no later than next business day. We offer a no hassle guarantee
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| Customer Reviews:
 My Toughest Verdict February 17, 2008
21 out of 26 found this review helpful
I've followed Grisham's career for years, enjoying everything from his legal thrillers to his novellas. Sure, some of his more recent legal outings have faltered ("The Brethren" was awful, for example), but I've hung in there. Recently, he released "Playing for Pizza," and I thought this might be his attempt at regaining a second wind by doing something offbeat. Offbeat, indeed. I cannot recommend that particular book to anyone, based on the milquetoast lead character and his refusal to learn, change, mature, or give a decent story.
With the arrival of "The Appeal," I once again let my hopes soar. I heard some good feedback from a bookstore owner. I bought the book, and--to my thorough amazement--breezed through the first hundred pages in one sitting. The old Grisham was back, I told myself. This might be one of his best in years. All the pieces were in place for a great story.
Although "The Appeal" is nothing original, I was hooked by Grisham's portrayal of David and Goliath characters. The giant: Carl Trudeau, owner of a company that has illegally dumped chemicals into Mississippi waters and earth, resulting in cancer, leukemia, and the lost lives of many local townspeople. The midget: Payton & Payton, a law team of husband and wife who have risked everything to bring about justice. Grisham paints both protagonists and his antagonist with skill and empathy. Trudeau and his shallow trophy-wife were the villains you love to hate. I kept turning the pages.
As usual, Grisham takes issue with something in our legal system and makes a moral or political point. Here, he mixes familiar ingredients from "The Firm" (manipulation), rants from "The Chamber" (capital punishment), and bits from "The King of Torts" (huge settlements). Where he falters is in his shifting of focus from David and Goliath to a host of other participants in the drama. What starts as great fiction turns into a mishmash of thinly veiled non-fiction. After page 120, I could've sworn I was wading through portions of "The Innoce nt Man" (a decent non-fiction title, by the way). I wanted a novel, though. Sure, I had expected a "message" from Grisham, but I'd also hoped to follow strong characters from first to last page.
My verdict, like the supreme court in this book, hung in the balance to the very end. Maybe the climax (never a Grisham strength) would redeem the faltering storytelling. Maybe I'd be swayed back to the fondness I felt for the first third of the story. Instead, Trudeau, the love-to-hate villain, turns into a cartoonish character ("he laughed and rubbed his hands together"...an actual quote). Then, Grisham throws in an uncharacteristic deus ex machina to tease, then trick, the reader.
I have to give the book two stars for pointing out huge flaws in the election system, regarding campaign funds and the ability, in essence, to purchase a judge--a fact that still remains in over thirty states. All of this makes readable non-fiction. And for many pages, I thought that's what I was sifting through, because it had strayed so far from the norms of good fiction.
Will I get my hopes up again? No. Will I buy the next Grisham? I think not. He apparently has forgotten how to care about his characters for more than half a book. In so doing, he has left me feeling the same.
 The Real Golden Rule - whoever has the gold rules February 17, 2008
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I was waiting for the new Grisham book and I am not disappointed. I looked forward to every chapter as he weaved a tale of injustice, greed and politics. Unfortunately, we have had virtual experience of corruption during this administration. But if I wonderered for the last seven years, why doesn't someone do something or why can't someone do anything,this novel gave me some answers.
Two honest defense attorneys mortgage everything they have to help a victim of a national chemical company who is responsible for dumping waste into the water and thus causing cancer and death of a woman's husband and son. Two young lives snuffed out. There are other real victims in this small town who, unfortunately, can only sit back and wonder why their government does not protect them. A jury convicts the company, Krane, and thus starts the appeal process. Carl Trudeau, head of the company, will go to any extreme to buy a reversal of the trial's outcome and he does.
The Mississippi Supreme Court is the target. They are not appointed but elected in this state so Mr. Trudeau hires an expert who can buy a campaign and a seat on the Court. Ron Fisk is their right wing conservative choice and Sheila McCarthy is the incumbent. I wonderered if Mr. Grisham chose the name McCarthy (Eugene McCarthy?) even though she was not a pure liberal but instead she did her job and interpreted the law and the usage of the laws.
Well, the money folk, used every right wing radical they could muster up to send money and set up scenarios to make Judge McCarthy seem like a flaming liberal. No trial lawyer can withstand the power of this campaign. Mr. Fisk does question the ethics at times but he does not have enough integrity to give up his possible judgeship. He never had experience at a trial or published any famous cases. Sound like Roberts? Anyway, as things turn out, I kept switching the Attorney General Office and the present US Supreme Court for the cast of characters.
Not one of the pro-business, pro-insurance company judges seemed to have experienced any horror in their lives; they had no sorrow. But somethings do happen to the favored and they change. We can recall Nancy Reagan's interest in stem cell resarch only when it could have helped her afflicted husband. Rush Limbaugh thought all drug users and pushers should go to prison - except for him, of course.
Mr. Fisk experiences every parent's worst nightmare but we still do not have a happy ending. He does not want to "change" his stance; he continues to defend the bad guys and it is for his own end. So this story seems very timely to me: this administration supports big oil via a
dastardly war and big money wins with the excuse that these appointed and elected officials are religious men.
Mr. Grisham fleshed out his characters, particularly Carl Trudeau who needs more billions and the defense team who appear to be the real righteous and defenders of our Constitution.
 Interesting February 16, 2008
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
Written to the quality of his previous novels, but its not one I want to read over and over again. I started reading it just before finals and found that the stress of life and the stress of the book did not mix very well. If you are looking for a book to sit back and relax with or to distract yourself with, this isn't it.
I want my time back February 16, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have read nearly every one of Grisham's books, except for the schmalzy Christmas one. And I have been a loyal fan, even as the quality seemed to be diminishing. This book did me in. From the very beginning, I felt like I had read it before. The plot was so familiar, when really it was the tone and the plodding narrative that was familiar even though the book was new. I was always under the impression that a good story has a climax. This book never did. And even when there was a decisive point, it passed by so quickly that I began to wonder if "that's all there is." The characters were shallowly developed, and new story lines thrown in to send the plot in a different direction. Without revealing the ending, I will have to say I was extremely disappointed. The end could have been the same result but developed differently--with at least some degree of logic. Instead, Grisham chose to artificially develop a story line at the end that led the reader to one conclusion, then threw you in a whole different direction with no logical explanation. I would really like to have the time back I spent reading this book, and unless something radically changes, I won't be helping Grisham continue getting richer by purchasing future books.
The Appeal February 16, 2008
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
When you have very strong emotions at a novel's end and at what happens to the good guys and the bad - you have to say it was a great story - and that's what The Appeal is.
As background to the characters is the process of electing judges and influencing the appeal of a judicial decision. The issues raised by Grisham and how lives are affected will get you angry and force you to become involved and take sides. In some manner his issues are more central to the story than the individuals. Also, the need to have "friendly" judges should remind you of The Pelican Brief.
It is a great, fast read and highly recommended.
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