Week five of my book challenge is over after reading another book from John Grisham. This time it is The Last Juror.
It’s a story about a young guy called Willie Traynor who finished collage (to be precise he dropped out) and moved to Clanton to start a career as a journalist. He bought The Ford County Times for 50 000 $ which he got from his aunt BeeBee (twice divorced). The subscribers for the Times were declining and he was determined to make some changes. His young mind was always searching for some new sensations which would lure people to read the newspaper.
One day a young mother, Rhoda Kassellaw, of two children was murdered by Danny Padgitt. The Padgitt family was a big pack of corupt people who were selling alcohol and drugs, gave a lot of money to some politicians so that they could do what they want. Right before Rhoda died she was able to run the her neighbours house and tell them that Danny killed her. After some time Danny was tried. What happened at the trial is something you will have to find out for yourself. I was a bit surprised that this murder wasn’t the key part of the story. This isn’t a classic legal battle but more the story of Willie and his life as a journalist in a small town which was changing through the 9 years he was there.
This book is a portrait of a, somewhat, racist society which moved through changes both in government (3 elections during the stay of Willie in Clanton), size (a new mall was built in Clanton), and life (black and white kids were in the same schools). Many people are mentioned in this book, mostly through the stories of Callie Ruffin, a black woman who also served as the juror in the Padgitt case.
At some points it felt like the story was going into to many directions to follow but right before you start wondering what this all is about you are brought back right into the action because a new series of crimes hit Clanton.
When I started reading the book I was expecting a legal battle between two sides but got a story of a city and it’s people. The thing I really like about it is the fact that you can relate to the city if you read A Time To Kill and many people who appear in it just started out their careers in The Last Juror (DA Buckley, judge Noose) and you will meet Lucien Wilbanks (Danny’s attorney and the bad guy in this story, but a colorful guy in A Time To Kill).
All in all, I would give this book an 8/10 just because it didn’t really meet my expectations but was still a very nice book.
This week I started out Mark Z. Danielewski’s book House of Leaves which seems to be one of those books people will claim to be the Mount Everest of literature. I will write a bit more about the book during the week and say why it is so special.
Until then, don’t forget to be awesome