John Grisham versus Rocky

Title: The Litigators

Author: John Grisham

Progress: 75%

Platform: Kindle

Amazon Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

NYT BS Hardcover List: #1 (debuted at number 1)

Book 4 out of 107

This is how The Litigators works...


It is of the "legal thriller" genre, though this book is more legal than thrilling, flirting with the comic more than the dangerous. There are a few gunshots, but they don’t amount to much.

It is not a mystery. There is nothing to figure out. The compelling questions are answered almost as soon as they are asked.

It is not about the fight for justice or for truth, where an outmatched lawyer takes on a hopeless but worthy case and wins in the end, gets an innocent man off of death row, or wins millions for a town poisoned by the local chemical company.  

This book is more about the fight. It’s a kind of like Rocky but with guys in expensive suits talking about briefs and occasionally filing motions. There is a lot of motion filing.

Let’s break this story down...

"I'm gonna file a motion to bust you up."
"Go for it, but but first please stick this motion of summary judgment up your ass."
"I object!"
"I object to your breath."

Act 1: We meet the fighters, the good guys and the bad guys, the two sides that will end up in the ring punching it out. We get to know them, understand their motivations, look over their strengths and weaknesses, and figure out if we want to root for them or not.

Act 2: Fight preparation. Challenges are issued. Battle lines are drawn. The rules of engagement become clear. Each side marshals its forces, preparing for the first contact with the enemy. By the end of Act 2, the fight has been scheduled, the trial date set, the war declared.

Act 3: Training. Our hero gets in shape, often using unconventional means. (Remember Rocky chasing that chicken around a Philadelphia alley?) During this act, the villain becomes seemingly unbeatable, growing in power, becoming as fearsome as 1989’s Mile Tyson, as opposed to the comedic actor with the face tattoo we have in 2011.

During this act, the hero, during his intense training, will often get bad news, distracting him from his task. He will also be told by someone who knows a few things: “You can’t win. You’re doomed.”

That’s as far as I’ve got with The Litigators. I’m 75% done and heading into Act 4.

Here’s the problem…Rocky is an effective story because you like Rocky as soon as he shows up on the screen. He takes care of pigeons. He likes turtles. He’s got a shitty job but he’s dreaming big. If he was a douche for 75% of the movie, you’d root for Apollo Creed to bash his head in.

Our heroes in The Litigators are not Rocky. They lie, cheat and steal. They are motivated by greed. They will happily increase a client's misery if it will increase the firm's profits. They don't really care if they have truth on their side. They just want to get rich.

The one protagonist with some redeeming qualities, David, goes along for the ride, all the while knowing what his firm is doing with their bogus lawsuit concerning a cholesterol drug that is benefiting millions of patients.

It seems like Mr. Grisham, or maybe one of his editors, knew that a sympathy problem was developing. The idea isn’t to make the reader root for the giant, evil corporation, and yet, we readers come close to doing just that.

So, right in the middle of the book, a hero-making storyline is crowbarred in between the bad people performing bad lawyering. David takes on cases representing abused workers and a poor little boy brain damaged from chewing on a lead covered toy. These cases, noble as they are, feel tacked on and out of context. Perhaps they were notes from another book that Mr. Grisham cut and pasted from. Whatever the case, there is a clear need in to improve David’s character, so we readers could actually have a character to work for.

In any case, it feels patchwork, contrived and manipulative.

On the other hand, without those subplot bandages, I wouldn’t give a flying flaming duck poop about Wally and Oscar winning their case against the giant drug company who made a good drug and is getting sued by these two wastes of court room space.

Almost despite myself, I’m intrigued by what will happen at trial. Now that we are finally at fight day, I’m ready for some action. We’ve got the seasoned, well paid professionals up against our scrappy, desperate, inexperienced journeyman who have rarely argued in front of a judge.

So bring on Act 4. Will they win, like Rocky 2? Or just go the distance, like the superior Rocky 1?

 

What have we learned? Having a big fight between two interesting combatants at the end of your story is good, and having a hero people love in one corner, a villain to hate in the other, is better.