Occasionally I have the opportunity to return to previous books I had read earlier.  And this seemed to be the case with several of those as written by John Grisham.  Possibly the favorable impression I had received from re-reading both THE CLIENT LIST and THE PELICAN BRIEF was due to the fact that this time in re-reading the books, I paid more attention to the facts in the story, rather than the plot.

Both of these books had been turned into movies; and I am uncertain as to which provided the most impact.  Possibly THE PELICAN BRIEF as I could identify more with the heroine, a 2nd year law student at Tulane, who decided she would research the unexplained and sudden deaths of two Supreme Court Justices.  Grisham not only brings into play plenty of law in the book but also the underlying workings of both the FBI and the CIA.  Additionally, he does not hesitate to show his leanings towards the ecological  impact in the drilling for oil in Louisiana.  A much better book to read the second time around.

THE CLIENT LIST is more a study of characters than plot; the prime character is a young boy of 11 yrs of age who somehow witnesses the suicide of a man in a hidden area near the mobile home park where he lives with his mother and younger brother.  As the suicide is a very prominent attorney representing a member of the Mob, our young man becomes the object of a hunt because of spoken knowledge from the victim.  The young boy then hires a family law attorney to represent him while facing not only the local state attorneys but the FBI as well.  You admire the character of the young man; he seems somehow to be so much older than 11.  Fun to read and a very well handled movie too.

On another subject is a book entitled THE NANNY DIARIES which leaves you with a semi bad taste in your mouth.  Unfortunately, as written by 2 former nannies, the book details the hiring of a young college student to care for a child in Manhattan by a wealthy and on-the-go socially active mother.  And this becomes not a job for a few hours a day; the Nanny then finds herself as the sole care giver for a young boy who then constantly wonders about the welfare of his mother.  Complicated in this story is a father with more than a wandering eye, and the boy then finds himself becoming constantly shuttled from person to person.  Well written, the knowledge that this has become a common occurrence among the wealthier families in New York City and other areas leaves the reader with a great deal of sadness.

“When an old person dies, a Library burns down.” -Karin Gillespie

Books For Sale

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