Title
Grisham's legal thriller offers a warning, but little depth.
Review
The story behind The Appeal involves a multimillion dollar lawsuit against a blue-chip chemical firm who has been accused of knowingly dumping hazardous waste, thus causing numerous cancer-related deaths. The story begins at the end of this lawsuit, where the trial has just been lost. With the trial lost they attempt to subvert the upcoming appeal in their favour.
What is initially apparent is that Grisham chooses to focus on the plot rather than the characters - with great detriment. They have no depth whatsoever, and any characterisation is based on every cliché in the book - the evil corporation magnate, his vapid, spoilt wife, shadowy governmental fixers and corrupt senators - with little sign of any attempt to flesh out these stereotypes.
Now, thinking about this I wondered if is purely because of the format of this story. After all, Grisham wants to talk about the US legal system, not bog himself down with weighty characters who will dilute his message. If you choose to put this aside, and accept the novel on its merits and for what it is, what you ultimately end up with is a very downbeat piece of work, and as much as you feel Grisham would want this to be an allegory of sorts, where those who are evil have righteous justice served and the good are rewarded, instead he reflects a legal world which is as easily infiltrated and corrupted by those with power as every other medium.
Despite this, and with the novel's interesting ending (to go into any more detail would be a disservice to those who have not read it), and a rushed sense of incompleteness, I can't help but think Grisham has finished with this story. And yet I can't think of this as a story, more as a stark warning - you feel Grisham is speaking from a heightened perspective. This work may be fiction, but you sense there is more than an element of truth within its pages.
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