Review of The Appeal by John Grisham, The Washington Post Book World, January 29, 2008
With “The Broker” and now “The Appeal,” John Grisham seems to be enlarging his fictional niche, focusing on hard-hitting, reality-based courtroom melodramas in which the message takes center stage. Despite cardboard characters and broad sweeps of malevolent action from Big Business, an affecting moral comes through in “The Appeal.” It reads like a long, engaging and sad fable.
The book opens with the tension-filled moments before a Mississippi jury delivers its verdict in the case of Jeannette Baker v. Krane. The woman lost her husband and son to chemical poisoning and is suing the corporation responsible for flooding the river in the small town of Bowmore with toxic amounts of bichloronylene.
In the courtroom, we meet Jeannette’s “mom-and-pop” legal team, Wes and Mary Grace Payton, who have risked everything to fight against the pollution in Bowmore. We also meet Jared Kurtin, Krane’s counsel.
