Alive in Retrospect: The Firm by John Grisham

John Grisham’s second novel had been idly piled in my books-that-are-not-read-yet list for a year now, gathering dust it didn’t deserve. I have, believe me, been wanting to read it for the longest time but it was not only until this summer break that I had allowed myself the luxury of time to read it.

The Firm’s in depth and seemingly accurate info about the law world is supported by the author’s strong and credible background in law. John Grisham himself was a Law graduate and ran his own law firm for 9 nine years. According to his brief biography in his book “Pelican Brief”, he gave up his practice to become a full-time novelist.

PLOT

Smart, ambitious and success-hungry Mitchell McDeere is the perfect newest associate for the Bendini, Lambert and Locke law firm, at least for the eyes of the careful and picky lawyers who hired him. Bendini, Lambert and Locke only hires the best and the brightest lawyers in the country and promises them a life of luxury and prestige, but not of peace.

With a poor family and financial background, a wife and a dream of becoming the best in his field, the 25 year-old Mitch eagerly signed up to become a part of the prestigious but low-profile law firm which, with all its reasons, was based in Memphis. Mitch and his wife Abby experienced the grand of a shiny BMW, new house and lot. But the comforts of a new life have its own price to pay – demanding work hours in the office, the threat of an early, rocky marriage, plus an unexpected mess that would cost him his life.

Turns out that the law firm Mitch is working for – the one that boasts to generate millions of dollars from its clients and has zero turnover among its employees – is run by an organized crime family. Once you become a firm partner, they will expose to you their real face and there’s no getting out. Those who tried to defy the law firm’s ways always ended up dead. The suspicious deaths of the then-lawyers triggered Mitch to find out things by himself, and the more he digs, the uglier the truth seems to get.

Judgment

For 3 days I sat with the novel, journeyed with the protagonist in the dilemmas and revelations that came upon him, and decided it’s one helluva good read. Blimey, I found myself breathless as the characters crossed from one state to another, trying to hide from spying eyes, and my 7pm deadline for reading each night extended to 11pm. It’s that crazy.

I personally love Mitch’s character. At first he seemed too perfect a gem – an intelligent lawyer who topped the bar exam at 25, an athlete with extraordinary working stamina, and a good looking lad with a pretty wife. Boring character, that is. But things got pretty interesting when truth slowly unfolds before him through an FBI agent named Wayne Tarrance, and he learned to play the game by his own rules, though he knew it would cost him a deadly mouse-and-cat chase with both the Fibbies and the Mafia.

He first took orders from Tarrance, but eventually his smart-ass pants showed off: he hired people he knew he could trust, demanded requests that will benefit him and his loved ones, and orchestrated escape schemes that are dead risky but effective. The once submissive and scared noob lawyer becomes the “Mr. In-control” in his own game plan - authoritative, but still dead scared.

Also significant in the story is Tammy, secretary of the fallen Eddie Lomax who became Mitch’s primary accomplice to all things purposefully wicked and underground. I love her wit and the sarcastic things that run through her mind every time she’s asked a question she deems ridiculous.

As a fan of crime thrillers (mostly TV series), I found some scenes in the book fairly predictable. That Abbys’ visit to Mitch’s bugged office and her supposed leaving was a ruse to lure the people on the fifth floor into believing he has a troubled marriage; that the phone calls from telephone booths made by members of the Mafia was a way to mislead the FBI’s from catching Mitch in Florida; that Mitch intentionally had his wired BMW stolen; and all the jazz where one character is a step or two ahead of the other or someone screws someone’s plan. Boy, that’s sinfully delicious!

Yes, I’ve seen them nasty moves and ugly truths – in the faces of TV series I've grown watching - but considering that The Firm was published in 1991, let’s give the book enough credit for its ingenious.

This may be my first foray into legal thrillers in terms of literature, and I say John Grisham has left an impressive profile in my memory. In fact, I’ve purchased two books of his on Book Sale, with wildly staggering prices of cherrreeen P40-45 each. Now, isn’t that one lucky find?