Has anyone read it, by John Grisham? Wow, what a lovely page turner. I was left wanting more. I love, love love, John Grisham’s books!
The book’s plot is on modern day American corruption in the judicial circles. Fiction yes, but at the very end of the novel, John Grisham puts a diclaimer whereby he points out that much of the ills potrayed in the book are things that actually happen. And I don’t doubt an inch.
Reading it has left me very skeptical of western ‘democracy’ . There is no better definition of corruption than what is depicted in ‘The Appeal’. John Grisham, himself once-a-practising-lawyer, points out in the disclaimer that the court cases mentioned in the book bare similarities in real lawsuits that happened.
In light of the prevailing world stocks markets, one thing about this novel that I found very captivating was the dramatic rise and fall of stocks of a rich tycoon, one of the main characters in the novel. In one day alone, he lost USD 1 billion, as stocks fell after the court passed a negative verdict against his company. What follows is a well planned appeal, (hence the name of the book), that will see the verdict overturned.
In a way, I was left very discouraged of government systems. It is a man-eat-man society that we live in, and poor you if you are poor, pun unintended. The stinking rich will stop at nothing to protect themselves, to ensure they keep getting richer.
Another disturbing angle is this novel is the infiltration of corruption in church circles. Why disturbing? For me, church represents refuge. A place regardless of our status in life, we come together and acknowledge our inadequacy, and therefore our dependence on a higher being, God. In this novel, that trust in the Church systems is severely broken. (I know, I am painfully naive, but I label myself an optimist…that there is still some good in this World)
The story has a sad twist at the end, akin to ……a thief has only 40 days…. The saddest part is that the ‘thief’ in this case was actually an innocent , 39 year old, clean-record-family-man, whose son suffers a horrible accident and may end up with a damaged brain. His sin? He was touted by the rich clout as a candidate for a Supreme court Judge, money was poured in his campaign and he wins. Then he is made to do the dirty work to protect this group. He only discovers much later that he was used.
Sigh.
…I struggle with legal jargon, therefore pardon any mixup…when a judge says overruled, I find that I have to think twice what he means…just so you know.
