I hadn’t read a book this year before I started and finished The King of Torts by John Grisham inside two days. Reading Grisham was a good reintroduction to the habit.
This book is different compared with others by the same author and similar. Let me explain.
The similarity is that a small lawyer takes on corporate America. Clay Carter struggles against the odds. He represents little people against big companies.
The twist in the tail this time is that Clay isn’t the good guy. In other Grisham novels the battling lawyer is good against evil and the good guy always wins.
Carter is portrayed sympathetically, but he has some fundamental character flaws. He’s greedy, corrupt and immoral for starters.
He becomes rich after being bribed by a pharmaceutical company to launch a class action against one of its rivals. His victory gives rise to a reputation as the “king of torts”.
Carter blows his money through mismanagement and greed. At times he hates himself for what he has become. That’s reflected through the undisguised contempt he has for other tort lawyers. He can’t help getting himself a jet though.
The next twist in the “tale” is that Carter becomes a victim of his own greed. A second class action victory turns sour when some of the the participants start dying after their cases are settled. The lawyers themselves are sued and stand to lose all their millions.
Two other cases initiated by Carter are also lost, one against a cement company directly as a result of his avarice.
Grisham’s descriptions of small-town America are sure to offend many of the people who live there. I enjoyed reading them, but as a regional resident on the other side of the world I wondered if the negative stereotype was true.
This book leaves a couple of loose ends. A chastened Carter sails off into the sunset with his first love, who divorced her lawyer husband to be reunited with Clay.
What happened to Ridley, the beautiful “bimbo” who Carter bedded to look good? How did the class action against the lawyers finish up?
The novel isn’t inspiring, as others by Grisham are, but it’s a great read.
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