Book Reviews
The Firm – John Grisham (421 pages)
Summary: Mitch McDeere, fresh out of Harvard Law School and resplendent to the “T” with his spit-polished wingtips, three-piece suit, braces and slicked-back hair, loads up the car and heads to Memphis with his wife. He is full of vim, vigor, and ambition. He has landed a job with the esteemed Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke and becomes a typical first-year associate: logging long, long hours and slogging day and into the night in order to impress “the partners” and get ahead. Little does he know (at first) that “the law” is not necessarily what his firm practices. First he is suspicious and then the full realization of the dangerous situation in which he has found himself dawns on him … and his wife. It will take every bit of what McDeere has learned in Cambridge, Massachusetts and will learn taking the Tennessee bar exam to help him figure a way out of his predicament and come out on either the right or wrong side of The Firm … or the FBI.
Locale: Primarily Memphis, Tennessee; Grand Cayman Island
Characters: Mitchell Y.McDeere (Mitch); Abby McDeere; the senior partners at Bendini, Locke & Lambert; Wayne Tarrance, Special Agent – FBI
Author Bio: John Grisham, at the time The Firm was published in 1991, was himself an attorney in Mississippi. He has since written up to thirty-seven consecutive Number One fiction bestsellers. He now resides in Albemarle County, Virginia.
Screenplay? Yes. Made in 1993, the film was directed by Sydney Pollack, and starred Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorne, Gene Hackman, and Ed Harris.
Salient Quote: “Mitch, I am a man of very few words. And what I’m about to tell you will certainly shock you. You will be horrified. You may not believe me. But I assure you it’s all true, and with your help we can save your life.” – Wayne Tarrance. (Grisham 198).
Chance-That-I-Actually-Read-The-Whole-Book-O-Meter (ranking 1 out of 10): 10
Credit: Grisham, John. The Firm. Doubleday, 1991.
A Man In Full – Tom Wolfe (742 pages)
Summary: Charlie Croker: Former football star at Georgia Tech and now CEO of a commercial real estate development company. Larger than life, he finds himself with “saddlebags” in corporate boardroom meetings and seemingly saddled with debt over the course of a rollicking, flat-out, wildly successful career. His second wife is half his age and he can match her vitality even though he has a banged-up body from playing college ball. Despite his high-profile stature as a businessman and socialite, he finds himself mired in wildly extenuating circumstances with people of every other social realm: workers in his Croker Global Foods conglomerate, more recent famous Tech football players, and others with whom he becomes inextricably involved.
Locale: Atlanta, Georgia
Characters: Charlie Croker; Conrad Hensley; Fareek The Cannon” Fannon; Roger White II
Author Bio: Tom Wolfe (1930-2018), known among other things for his trademark white suits and hats, was a native of Richmond, Virginia and a famous son of St. Christopher’s School. He wrote dozens of best-selling books such as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, Bonfire of the Vanities, and I Am Charlotte Simmons among others.
Screenplay? Yes. Drama mini-series made in 2024 on Netflix starring Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane.
Salient Quote: “There was a song about him, which some of the old folks knew by heart. “Charlie Croker was a man in full. He had a back like a Jersey bull. Didn’t like okra, didn’t like pears. He liked a gal that had no hairs. Charlie Croker! Charlie Croker! Charlie Croker!” (Wolfe 6).
Chance-That-I-Actually-Read-The-Whole-Book-O-Meter (ranking 1 out of 10): 10
Credit: Wolfe, Tom. A Man In Full. Farrar, Straus And Giroux, 1998.
The Perfect Storm – Sebastian Junger (227 pages)
Summary: The true story and harrowing event of six fisherman on the the Andrea Gail out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. In a day or working trip in the life of these fishermen, it was like most, except for this storm and its 100-foot waves in October of 1991 made it “the storm of the century.” For Captain Billy Tyne and the other six on his crew, trips like these are their livelihood, and as such, they go for as long and as far as they have to, whatever the conditions, in order to bring back the swordfish catch of a lifetime. Except this time, Tyne and his mates just might go for too long and too far before they run into what could be their most potentially fatal trip of all.
Locale: Gloucester, Massachusetts; Atlantic Ocean (The Grand Banks)
Characters: Captain Billy Tyne; David Sullivan; Alfred Pierre; Bobby Shatford; Murph Murphy; Michael Moran; freinds and loved ones back at port in Gloucester
Author Bio: Sebastian Junger started as freelance journalist and editor for such magazines at Outside and Men’s Journal and is today and author of many other books as well as a filmmaker.
Screenplay? Yes. Biographical disaster drama film directed by Wolfgang Peterson in 2000 and starring George Clooney, Diane Lane, Mark Wahlberg, John Hawkes, and William Fichtner.
Salient Quote: “She’s comin’ on boys, and she’s comin’ on strong!” Captain Billy Tyne of the Andrea Gail
Chance-That-I-Actually-Read-The-Whole-Book-O-Meter (ranking 1 out of 10): 10
Credit: Junger, Sebastian. The Perfect Storm. W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Under The Banner Of Heaven – Jon Krakauer (339 pages)
Summary: Covering the isolated Mormon communities of the American West (“Mormon Country”), this is also a deep-dive into the double murders committed in 1984 by brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, Mormon Fundamentalists. Krakauer examines the fast growing religion of Mormonism and uncovers more of the one thing most people associate with the religion: polygamy.
Locale: “Mormon Country.” The American West: Utah, Nevada, Arizona.
Characters: Dan and Ed Lafferty; Mormon Fundamentalists of the Mormon Church.
Author Bio: Bestselling author John Krakauer has made a name for himself in the literary world uncovering the extremes and wildness of the outdoors in such books as Into Thin Air, Eiger Dreams, and Into The Wild.
Screenplay? Adapted on television (FX on Hulu) in 2022 and redeveloped as a limited series. Directed by David Mackenzie and starring Andrew Garfield, Gil Birmingham, and Daisy Edgar-Jones.
Salient Quote: “Although the far territory of the extreme can exert an intoxicating pull on susceptible individuals of all bents, extremism seems to be especially prevalent among those inclined by temperament or upbringing toward religious pursuits.” (Krakauer, Prologue XXIII).
Chance-That-I-Actually-Read-The-Whole-Book-O-Meter (ranking 1 out of 10): 8-9
Credit: Krakauer, Jon, Under The Banner Of Heaven. Doubleday, 2003.