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“I’d love to write great literature. I’d love to be a great writer. I’d love to write really good, serious books. And I’d want them to sell”. (John Grisham) The author of these words, the international phenomenon, that is John Grisham, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on February 8, 1955. He took up residence in Southaven, Mississippi, in 1967 and received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University in 1977. Then he attended law school at the University of Mississippi, where he earned a law degree in 1981. John Grisham established a law practice in Southaven, where he practised both criminal and civil law. In 1983, he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, and in 1989 he published his first novel - “A Time to Kill”. The book received some good reviews but was sold only moderately well. His next book, however, would be a different story. Completed in 1988, “The Firm” was his break-out hit. In 1990, before the novel was published, Paramount Pictures purchased the film rights for $600,000. That same year, John Grisham left the House of Representatives and bought a farm near Oxford, Mississippi. Since then, John Grisham has gone on to be recognised as one of the world’s best-selling novelists, the lord of legal thrillers. In addition to “A Time to Kill” and “The Firm” his titles include “The Pelican Brief”, “The Client”, “The Chamber” and “The Rainmaker”, each of which has been made into immensely successful film versions. His recent novels are “The Partner” and “The Runaway Jury” (1997), “The Street Lawyer” (1998), “The Testament” (1999) and “The Brethren” (2000). With his legal thrillers John Grisham has won a huge following of readers and set a standard few contributions the genre can match. Because of the success of his novels, the legal thriller is the most popular genre in American fiction today. John Grisham’s legal thriller evolved from the thriller tradition and borrowed from the heroic romance novel, gothic novel, crime novel, and detective fiction. His novels examine contemporary social and legal problems that do not have simple solutions - ecology, ethic relations, capital punishment, corporate greed, health insurance - and how he depicts both the legal system and lawyers in their best and worst lights. “The Client” is a marvellous, absorbing, compelling, richly textured, cunningly crafted and poignant, solidly plotted and masterfully suspenseful legal thriller, the action of which is set in Memphis, then moves to New Orleans, but both backgrounds are sketchy. John Grisham uses his insider legal knowledge of the law to advantage, smoothly mixing his skills and heart-pounding cat-and-mouse chases, that make his story even more complex than most crime adventures. Everything in this book rings true, from the authentic milieu and vividly portrayed supporting cast to the behind-the-scenes view of the criminal justice system; it shows an engrossing fictional look at the American legal system at work, for better or worse. The main hero - an eleven-year-old boy Mark Sway - is unforgettable, his character is more than incredible and enchanting. In this novel the world is seen through the eyes of a little boy, Mark has to fight his fear, to suffer the consequences of his impulsive step, and the desire to find out what will happen next to this child keeps the reader turning the pages: Mark Sway and Ricky, three years his junior brother, are sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer Jerome Clifford leaves Mark knowing a bloody secret: the whereabouts of the most sought-after dead body in America, the body of the senator Boyd Boyette, killed by the gangster of New Orleans Barry the Blade Muldanno. Mark’s life has never been easy, but it will become even harder, it will change irreversibly, menacing alterations and enormous danger are waiting for him. Life is always a big surprise. MARK WAS ELEVEN AND HAD BEEN SMOKING OFF AND ON for two years, never trying to quit but being careful not to get hooked. He preferred Kools, his ex-father’s brand, but his mother smoked Virginia Slims at the rate of two packs a day, and he could in an average week pilfer ten or twelve from her. She was a busy woman with many problems, perhaps a little naive when it came to her boys, and she never dreamed her eldest would be smoking at the age of eleven. (pg. 1) With such an exposition John Grisham starts his enthralling novel - “The Client”. It opens with a neat hook into the reader’s jaw - and the tension never weavers - as the author strives for a knockout suspenser with echoes of Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson - or at least the reader can not help weighing what he is reading against the darker plots that enmesh Huck Finn and Jim Hawkins. Instead of pirates Mark Sway is thrown among lawyers and murderers. Already the first paragraphs of the book hit the reader hard and make him anticipate for something staggering, abrupt, maybe even dreadful to happen. Mark Sway who appears to be an ordinary street child full of vices is far away from being a boy who knows only smoking, drugs and alcohol in the life. The first lines of the novel are very delusive: on the contrary - Mark is a decent, kind-hearted, spiritually rich and extraordinary boy, drugs and alcohol are the biggest vices for him and he is determined to avoid them: “Their ex-father was an alcoholic who’d beaten both boys and their mother, and the beatings always followed the nasty bouts with beer. Mark had seen and felt the effects of alcohol. He was also afraid of drugs.” (pg. 2) This little boy, smoking in solitude is more than the son of his mother, Dianne Sway, he is her defender, her intercessor, her only prop; she has sought refuge and advice from her eldest son when the whole family was suffering from the attacks of the despot father. Mark is more mature than any kid of his age, and it would be more than complicated to find a child who, being only seven, could hit drunk father, abusing his mother, with a baseball bat. He is the head of the family, an eleven-year-old father who must take care of his younger brother Ricky: “He’d taught him to throw a football and ride a bike. He’d explained what he knew about sex. He’d warned him about drugs, and protected him from bullies. And he felt terrible about this introduction to vice. But it was just a cigarette. It could be much worse.” (pg. 2) Mark is responsible for his eight-year-old brother, he is responsible for his life, his well-being, his future (at least he thinks so), Mark is the only Ricky’s example, Ricky imitates him, because he has no other model to follow. There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in, and Mark is there to help his little brother to open these doors, he himself has already opened them, he has already made his first steps towards manhood. Mark Sway is a very mellow child, he explains everything in the tone of an adult, of a little wise man. Here is an example how he explains the process of smoking to his brother: “ ‘Don’t try to swallow the smoke. You are not ready for that yet. Just suck a little then blow the smoke out. Are you ready?’ ” (pg. 4) Mark and Ricky are sharing a forbidden fruit (a cigarette) in a weedy lot on the outskirts of Memphis and they notice a shiny Lincoln pull up to the curb: The engine quit, and the car just sat there in the weeds for a minute. Then the door opened, and the driver stepped into the weeds and looked around. <...> He stumbled to the rear of the car, fumbled with the keys, and finally opened the trunk. He removed a water hose, stuck one end into the exhaust pipe, and ran the other end through a crack in the left rear window. He closed the trunk, looked around again as if he were expecting to be watched, then disappeared into the car. The engine started. (pg. 7) Yes, the engine starts again, but the car is not about to move. All this scene is a deliberate plan of a drunken Mafia lawyer to commit suicide, and it does not take a long time for Mark to fathom what is being perpetrated. He suspects the man’s secret aspiration to commit suicide, to raise his own hand against himself. But how can a little boy of eleven so swiftly conceive the quintessence of such a complicated matter? It proves that Mark is a remarkable child, and he not only comprehends everything, but he even makes every endeavour possible to stop the man from this vicious act, to hamper his crime against himself by creating impediments. What a brave and tenacious boy! Mark Sway is a compassionate little man, a street child with the heart of a hero, to his mind it is inhuman to commit suicide, and it is even more inhuman to watch the person killing himself and do nothing about it. Mark gives credence to the fact that there is always another way out from critical situations, and he is right in a way. One feeling stays with a person till his last day - hope. You can mock and laugh at it, but it will wander docilely in the maze of your mind. Mark considers it to be his duty to stop that man from making a crucial step in his life, Mark’s little heart is full of hope and humanism, despite the fact that this feature of his puts him into immense peril, imminent danger, but Mark risks. He does not want to feel guilty for the rest of his life for not having stopped the man from committing suicide. Little persons, i.e. children, can do a lot of noble deeds or just attempt to do them. Young age is not an obstacle for being courageous. Mark dares at least to try to help Jerome Clifford to abandon the idea of death: “I’m trying to save his life, okay? Maybe, just maybe, he’ll see that this is not working, and maybe he’ll decide he should wait or something.” (pg. 10) This courage and kind-heartedness will cost him a lot of sleepless nights and unsafe days, when danger lurks in every shadow... Yes, it is appalling to commit suicide - that inconceivable act of violence against the unknown, the act which in some aspect kills a person’s soul, but it is the only way out for that man, Jerome Clifford, his hope has died, it has taken the wrong turn and lost its way in the complicated maze of sub-consciousness. This man is a lawyer, but a cunning and corrupt one, completely willing to buy people who can be bought: “He drank with judges and slept with their girlfriends. He bribed the cops and threatened the jurors (...). Jerome Clifford was as crooked and sleazy as his clients, and if they got blood on them he wanted to see it.” (pg. 35). A man faces many cross-roads in lifetime, one path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other - to total extinction. Unfortunately, Jerome Clifford did not have enough wisdom to make the right choice and eventually it led him to death, to the worst form of death - suicide. But how can the person be so mean and callous as to put the child, who tried to save his life, into peril, to wish him die together while the Cadillac they are sitting in fills up with carbon monoxide? The fact that he was drunk and crazy about the idea of killing himself does not justify him. It is virtually true that the law is a bottomless well, it drowns person’s benevolence. Even more, such man’s inhumanity towards a fellow-man makes the reader shudder and gives a cause for reflection on what the world is coming to, whether there is something sacred left or not. Nevertheless, this little brave man, Mark Sway, is a child of great fortitude, the feeling that his life is hanging by a thread does not abate his tenacity. Fair mixed with curiosity about the man’s, the lawyer’s, behaviour inspires Mark to help him again even in the presence of death, however, all Mark’s efforts are futile, even his attempt to affect the drunk and disillusioned lawyer psychologically brings no results. Mark does not succeed in saving Jerome Clifford’s life: “He (Jerome Clifford) opened his lips and bit the barrel with his big, dirty teeth. He closed his eyes, and pulled the trigger with his right thumb.” (pg. 27) Two boys watch this scene in muted horror. How can little children react after having witnessed such a hideous scene - a man blowing off his brains by his own will? Such moments can change everything, Oscar Wilde was right saying that a moment can ruin your life, especially if a person does not feel when to recede, when to close his eyes. Mark is strong, but his brother Ricky can not bear the effects of this event: consequently, he goes into shock and his health deteriorates with every minute. Mark manages to escape death, to save his own life, but, unfortunately, he ruins his future. After this encounter he will have to carry a heavy burden of somebody else’s confession, the bloody secret, too heavy even for such a mature child as Mark. While sitting in the car, the self-murderer confides a secret, the reason of his suicide to Mark - where the dead body of the senator Boyd Boyette is hidden. To divulge it is the only intent of the FBI and police, and to disguise it is the only aim of the Mafia. Only few people knew that deadly secret - the Mafia and their lawyer Jerome Clifford, and now there is one little person who should have never discovered it. Since this moment Mark Sway has been caught between a legal system gone mad and a mob killer desperate to conceal his crime. In the world where vices dominate and impious people reign, it is better to be good and benign imperceptibly, but Mark can not watch the man killing himself without endeavouring to stop him, and naturally he is not as callous as to leave the dead body desperately lying in the woods without calling 911, aware that in such a way he will give himself away. Mark meddles into a huge web of truth and lie, crime and justice, reality and life previously seen only in films. Scared to death, without any clue what to do next, especially after having told a lie to the police (Mark said that when they found the body, the man had already been dead) the child is at a loss. And as soon as a single imprudent word is said, a person is suspected to be a liar, an obstruction to justice. Mark has to suffer a lot, to suffer because of his lies. The truth is cruel, but lies oppress even more, the truth can be loved, lies - never. The truth makes free those who have loved it, and lies are deadly traps: it is easy to get entangled in them and very difficult to escape. The consequences of lies never leave the person’s mind or dreams. One philosopher once said that not only lies can offend the truth, silence can defile it as well, but Mark’s case is different, he does not tell a soul about his secret because he is scared, as the safety of all his family is at stake. It is really amazing how lies grow. A person may start with a small one that seems easy to cover up, then he gets boxed in and tells another one, then one more. And after that he just wishes he has told the truth. It is always the best policy to tell the truth, it makes no sense to lie - unless, of course, it is dangerous to tell the truth (this is Mark’s case). In such moments it is difficult to be candid, and young people are rarely capable of it.
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