Review: The Appeal – John Grisham

I have long been a fan of the work of John Grisham who has carved out the market of legal thrillers to be his own over the last 20 years, but in this instance he has fallen well short of his own standards. The Appeal lacks much when compared to Grisham's earlier works.

It appears that Grisham's desire to write more widely, including dramatic works such as 'Bleachers' or youth novels in his Theodore Boone series has weakened his ability to write on his original genre. This book lacks the grittiness of 'A Time to Kill', 'The Chamber', 'The Firm' or the 'King of Torts'. Though set up to have the reader ask questions about the decisions of major corporations and there effect on humanity, the story goes nowhere near hitting the mark as it skips along with surface concerns without truly opening up the true issues and character roles.

The plot is so thin has the ability to resolve itself within 200 pages yet Grisham feels the need to over-explain everything about the legal system that the story operates within which becomes tiresome as the book is pushed out to 500 pages for little return. By the time the end comes it is concluded briefly with no thought to wrapping up the questions readers have that it has gone nowhere near answering during the story. This leaves the reader feeling as though the time spent reading through the book have been a waste.

Another fault of the book is its inane desire to provide the political position of the author and explain to great detail that is just annoying. Whether you sympathise with the political position presented or not, the time spent on explaining these peripheral issues to the actual story adds to the confusion and frustration the reader feels that the book goes nowhere. Any frustration and confusion is only heightened by the 'Author's note' at its conclusion where he highlights these political issues as the core of the story.

Confusing, frustrating, and ultimately a fruitless read, this book from Grisham isn't worth investing time and money into. No Balls.

image courtesy of jgrisham.com

Review: Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard writes crime thrillers like no-one's business. It's what he does. You may not have read him, but you'd know his works: Get Shorty, Be Cool, Out of Sight, Jackie Brown and 3:10 to Yuma are all films adapted from his works. And now at 85 he hasn't eased into retirement but maintained a keen ear for the patois that sharps, shylocks, grifters and bad guys use. Riding the Rap (though published before Out of Sight) only confirms his reputation from prior works: the man can tell a story.

There are several continuities between many of his novels. It's strange a lot of his stories take place in Florida given Leonard himself is a Detroit native and bears the reputation as that city's "Dickens": as in Out of Sight, Get Shorty and Riding's predecessor Pronto, Florida features heavily in the narrative. And like many of his other works, Riding features bumbling crooks with a simple plan which gets twisted and are forced to improvise. It's been said none of Leonard's characters are ever truly "good" guys - all have dark sides - and this rings true here; but like his most famous creations Chili Palmer and Karen Sisco, the main source for good is an implacable, indomitable hero exuding control and menace without outwardly trying.

It's not formulaic, but neither does it have the charm which made Get Shorty such a readable book, nor the humour and balance which appealed in Be Cool (believe it or not, the movie didn't do justice to the novel). Character identification is tough in many of Leonard's novels as - personally speaking anyway - I don't know any US Marshalls, Puerto Rican ex-cons, psychics, Arabian Bahamians or 50-year old stoners. That doesn't matter though, because even though it's difficult to like any of the characters, they are believable and each comes with their own form of dialogue, diction and most crucially, motives. Perhaps the author's greatest ability is making readers believe that even though his characters are pastiches, real people are out there just like them - smart and fiery, cool and calculating or just plain dumb. Smart readers will have to deal with premonitions of the ending well before you reach it, but the pages keep turning nonetheless.

Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard: not his best work, but still very enjoyable, meaning it scores Tennis balls.

Image courtesy of angusrobertson.com.au

Review: Licence Renewed, by John Gardner

Licence Renewed was John Gardner's first attempt at succeeding Ian Fleming in continuing the James Bond narrative. Kingsley Amis first attempted to further the legacy with the late-sixties Colonel Sun, meaning for twelve years the only Bond the world had known was that of the movies, complete with improbable infamy and impossible gadgetry.

Published in 1981, the frontispiece announces grandiosely that "James Bond enters the 1980s" and Gardner, in his own "Author's Note" makes a big deal that all the technology his Bond uses was readily available on either the open or black market. Bond is also characterised with the hallmarks of his literary incarnation - specially blended cigarettes, housekeeper May and a three-inch scar down his right cheek.

No matter how well drawn his 007 is in theory, in practice Gardner's superspy is the same man portrayed cinematically by Roger Moore for a decade: a man of action thrown into the lair of a dangerous and megalomaniacal opponent. The dangerous opponent makes his moves in almost a chapter-by-chapter feel; with Gardner apparently feeling the need to follow the "one small battle followed by a larger one" the EON films were favouring at the time. Licence Renewed reads more like a film novelisation, complete with scenes feeling very set-piecey, rather than a slow exposition detailing Bond's efforts to stop a maniac's attempts to earn power. Whereas the early (and best) Bonds were thrillers, Licence Renewed is an action novel.

It's no coincidence the most successful Bond film in recent memory is Casino Royale. Even though most knew what was going to happen, the filmmakers were still able to engage the viewer encouraging a "What happens now?" attitude. The follow-up, Quantum of Solace, is inferior in nearly every way - continuity-heavy, action-fuelled and thin on plot. That's precisely like the comparison here between a Fleming novel and this Gardner one. It's not bad - just not Fleming.

With Fleming, James Bond had opinions and spent a lot of time thinking and reasoning his way around a problem. He had opinions (the most infamous being that homosexuals couldn't whistle!) and was a fully-coloured character in his own right. His supporting cast were filled in so the reader believed they had a life outside the pages of his works. This isn't something on which you can compliment Gardner and even Bond's opinions, you feel, are those of the author himself. The less said about the the henchmen - generically evil - and love interest(s) - vapid and stolen straight from the movies - the better.

You could do much worse than spend four hours reading Licence Renewed. But you could also do a lot worse than watching The Spy Who Loved Me. But both pale in comparison to the works which made Bond justly famous.

Golf Balls.

Image courtesy: en.wikipedia.org