John Grisham's 6th Novel example essay topic

With his fast-paced novels The Rainmaker and The Partner, full of well-rounded, dynamic characters, compelling use of dialogue, and his southern roots shown in the dialect and setting, John Grisham has become the epitome of a legal drama author. The Rainmaker and The Partner are very different in their story plots, but they both show off the talent and skill of lawyers. John Grisham's background in the law field provides him with the experience needed to write thrilling, realistic, and accurate novels that show the lawyers side of the story. John Grisham was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas on February 8, 1955. He was born and raised in the south, living in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. "Whenever his family moved to a new town, his mother saw that the children received library cards as soon as possible, because... his mother encouraged reading over watching television" (Harris 1418).

In an interview Grisham stated: There were a couple of things that were very important in my childhood. Number one, my mother did not believe in television. We just didn't watch much of it. She just thought it was bad, and that was 30 years ago...

And we spent our time reading, reading to each other. And my mother spent a lot of time reading to us. I've always had a love for books and a love for literature and a love for reading. Oddly, I never thought about writing until late in life" (Academy of Achievement).

Grisham thinks his writing ability grew from his family who was full of readers and storytellers. His family settled down while he attended high school in Southaven, Mississippi outside of Memphis (Harris 1418). Grisham's favorite writer while he was in high school was John Steinbeck (Academy of Achievement). While growing up, Grisham dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player.

After deciding that he was not good enough, he decided to major in accounting at Mississippi State University (John Grisham | The Official Web Site). Grisham attended three different colleges during his first two years to find where he wanted to stay. He started at Northwest Junior College in Senatobia, Mississippi, then transferred to Delta State. When he finally decided to go to Mississippi State University, he started out in Forestry. Again, Grisham made another change to Economics and then to Accounting. If things had not worked out at Mississippi State he had already planned to attend Appalachian State (Hosie).

He finally graduated from Mississippi State in 1977 with a bachelor's degree. He then went on to graduate from law school at the University of Mississippi in 1981 (Harris 1418). He then decided to study tax law and become a tax lawyer. During law school his interest changed again from tax law to criminal law and litigation, which was the type of law that he ended up practicing professionally (Academy of Achievement). After graduating from law school he married Renee Jones in 1981 (Harris 1418).

They live together with their two children, Ty and Shea, at their Victorian home on a farm in Mississippi and their plantation near Charlottesville, Virginia (John Grisham | The Official Web Site). Grisham now coaches his son's little-league baseball team for the six months of the year that he does not write. Grisham practiced law in Southaven from 1981 to 1991. During some of that time, from 1984 to 1990, he served in the Mississippi House of Representatives (Harris). In 1996 he went back to court to honor a commitment to represent the family of a railroad brakeman who was killed on the job. He won the verdict of $683,500 - the biggest victory of his legal career.

"One day at the Des soto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants" (John Grisham | The Official Web Site). This was the basis for A Time to Kill. A Time To Kill took three years to write. It was finished in 1987 and was initially rejected by many publishers (Harris; John Grisham | The Official Web Site). It was eventually bought by Winwood Press and 5,000 copies were printed in June 1988 (John Grisham | The Official Web Site). Grisham sold nearly 1,000 of those to friends and acquaintances in Mississippi (Hosie).

The day after he finished A Time To Kill he started writing his second novel, The Firm (John Grisham | The Official Web Site). However, that was only the beginning of what John Grisham's career as an author. Grisham has written the following novels: A Time To Kill (1989), The Firm (1991), The Pelican Brief (1992), The Client (1992), The Chamber (1994), The Rainmaker (1995), The Runaway Jury (1996), The Partner (1997), The Street Lawyer (1998), The Testament (1999), The Brethren (2000), A Painted House (2001), Skipping Christmas (2001), The Summons (2002), and The King Of Torts (2003). He sold the book rights for The Firm to Doubleday Publishing after selling the film rights to Paramount for $600,000. Six of his novels have been turned into films - The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time To Kill, The Rainmaker, and The Chamber (John Grisham | The Official Web Site). There was a short-running television show called The Client based on the book and the movie.

Also, The Gingerbread Man was an original screenplay by John Grisham, and another titled Mickey is forthcoming (MWP: John Grisham... ). John Grisham has had his books translated into twenty-nine different languages. There are currently about 60 million of his books in print. His success even caused a republishing of his first novel A Time To Kill. The Firm spent forty-seven weeks on The New York Times best-seller list.

It was the number one best-selling novel of 1991. The Pelican Brief peaked at number one on The New York Times best-seller list. When The Client debuted at number one, it "confirmed Grisham's reputation as the master of the legal thriller" (John Grisham | The Official Web Site). "Grisham is one of a small group of American novelists whose books are termed 'block-buster' novels; so popular is his fiction that his books are almost guaranteed to lead the best-seller lists from the moment they are published. Publishers Weekly called Grisham the 'best-selling novelist of the 1990's' " (Harris).

In John Grisham's 6th novel, The Rainmaker, the lead story is about a young lawyer and his troubles around graduation time from law school. His name is Rudy Baylor, a student at law school working to become a lawyer. One of his classes, Legal Problems of the Elderly, involved going to give advice to senior citizens. When they went to the Senior Citizens' Building he met Dot and Buddy Black, whose son, Donny Ray, had leukemia. Their insurance company refused to pay for Donny Ray's bone-marrow transplant from his matching brother. Their grounds for dismissal of the case were that it was a pre-existing condition, it was not covered, and several other wrongful reasons.

Eventually, they sent her a letter that said she was "stupid, stupid, stupid". Then, Rudy sues the insurance company for ten million dollars, in his first case ever before he is even a full-fledged lawyer (Grisham, John - The Rainmaker). The Rainmaker was a great story with several twists and turns in the plots. The main character Rudy Baylor had many different parts. He was a very developed dynamic character. Grisham displayed his character's thoughts and feeling so well that his actions could be anticipated correctly before he made them.

On the other hand, Rudy Baylor's friend, Booker Kane, was not very detailed. Few facts were told about him and what his relationship with Rudy was like. Though he was not a main part of the story, he was there through the whole novel and was mentioned quite often. John Grisham can make exciting and well-developed characters and he can also make flat and dull characters (Biring; Grisham, John - The Rainmaker). When asked about his characters development in his novels, Grisham said: "I begin with flawed people, some more so than others, and I do this because we " re all flawed; none of us are above temptation. I get them in even more trouble, make them make choices, watch them screw up or work themselves free...

". (Amazon. com: Grisham Inside). Grisham's 8th book, The Partner, is another story about a lawyer in trouble. This time Patrick La nigan faked his own death, stole 90 million dollars from his old law firm, changed his name to Danilo Silva, and hid in Ponta Por~a, Brazil. Eventually he is caught and tortured, for which he blames and sues the FBI. He then has to go to court for divorce, and on charges of murder and grand theft.

The Partner starts out faster than The Rainmaker and grabs your attention better. This novel strays toward other characters and relationships outside of the law profession. Also, it changes the court room settings that his earlier books mostly used. The Partner is a new direction for John Grisham and his style of writing. This book took him from a good legal-drama writer to a good overall writer (Grisham, John - The Partner). When The Partner stepped out of the southern United States into another country this showed Grisham's growth as a writer to explore places he is not familiar with.

Instead of the southern dialect he commonly uses, he brings in Portuguese words for the Brazilian characters. He decided to use other types of settings and dialect to show that he can write in more that just one style. Grisham still brings the story back into the United States and uses the southern dialect he is familiar with. This dialect is shown through the dialogue that he uses. Some examples from his writing: "Helluva time... Lemme think about it...

She oughta be worried... Couple mill... Fifty grand... Safe my ass" (Grisham, John - The Partner). Along with the dialect, he uses his dialogue to give details about the plot, speed up the story, and express characters' individual attitudes and feelings.

Grisham's use of dialogue is a major reason that he is one of the greatest writers of current times. When asked whether he considered himself a 'southern-writer' Grisham replied: "Southern writers are handicapped by place and history, and I do not feel so confined. Nor do I want to be. I plan to write many more stories out of Ford County, but only because it's where I grew up. If I'd been born in Minnesota, I suppose my fiction would be set there" (Amazon. com: Grisham Inside). John Grisham is a very talented writer and has his own unique style in his writing.

Many important factors go into making his novels as great as they are. His childhood, his life in the south, his college and law school studies, and his experience as a writer gives him the ideas and perspectives that makes his writing the best in the legal-drama genre. John Grisham is a very articulate and genuine writer who puts feeling into everything he does to make it the best that it can be. Academy of Achievement - John Grisham. Academy of Achievement.

Interview - 2 June 1995, updated 16 April 1997.28 April 2003... Amazon. com. 28 April 2003... Biring, Amar jot.

John Grisham Online. 7 December 2001.31 March 2003... Grisham, John. The Partner. First Edition. New York, New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., March 1997.

- - -. The Rainmaker. New York, New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1995. Harris, June. "John Grisham". Critical Survey of Long Fiction.

Ed. Carl Rolly son. Second Revised Edition, Volume 3. Hackensack, New Jersey: Salem Press, Inc., 2000. John Grisham | The Official Web Site. Random House, Inc.

20 March 2003. MWP: John Grisham (1955-). May 1998, updated January 2003. University of Mississippi. 31 March 2003.