The Street Lawyer

The Street Lawyer

First edition cover
Author John Grisham
Country United States
Language English
Genre Legal thriller
Publisher Belfry Holdings Inc.
Publication date
 1998
Published in English
 1998
Media type Hardcover, paperback
Pages 347
ISBN 0-440-22570-1

The Street Lawyer is a legal thriller novel by John Grisham. It was Grisham's ninth novel. The book was released in the United States on 1 January 1998, published by Bantam Books,[1] and on 30 March 1998 in the UK, published by Century.[2]

It shares with other Grisham novels ("The Associate","The Litigators") the major plot element of a lawyer getting fed up with the life of a giant law firm, employing hundreds of lawyers and solely concerned with the making of money. In all three novels, the protagonist ends up breaking away and taking up a job which is incomparably less well-paid - but which is still far more satisfying (morally as well as professionally). Grisham's partisanship on this issue is evident, and he clearly approves wholeheartedly such choices made by his characters.

Plot

A homeless man, identifying himself only as "Mister", enters the offices of the Washington DC law firm Drake & Sweeney and takes many of the lawyers hostage. Although he is eventually shot by a police sniper and the hostages freed, one of the hostages, an antitrust lawyer named Michael Brock, is concerned by what he has learned and feels compelled to investigate further.

He finds his way to the 14th Street Legal Clinic, where he meets Mordecai Green, an advocate for the homeless, who asks him to help one night at a homeless shelter. As Brock's investigation deepens, he finds that his own employer was complicit in an illegal eviction, which eventually resulted in the death of a young homeless family. He takes a confidential file, intending to copy it, but is quickly suspected of its theft.

Shocked by what he has found, Brock leaves his firm to take a poorly paid position with the 14th Street Legal Clinic, which works to protect the rights of the homeless. This leads to his wife divorcing him. He admits one of his clients, Ruby, to a therapy class for drug-addicted women, and in the process meets Megan. As Drake & Sweeney comes after Brock with theft and malpractice allegations, the Clinic launches a lawsuit against the law firm and its business partners. Terrified of the certain bad publicity, the matter is settled by mediation and the clinic receives a large payout to be shared with the victims of the eviction.

Drake & Sweeney's head partner, deeply troubled by the events, offers to make pro bonus staff available to assist the work of the Clinic in fighting for the rights of homeless people. The book ends with Brock taking a short vacation with Megan and Ruby, and them reflecting on their lives.

Characters

Reception

The novel received generally positive reviews. Charles Spencer wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that "no one does it better than Grisham" and that the book is "as unputdownable as ever".[4] Mat Coward wrote in his review in The Independent that the novel is "fluent and fascinating" and mentioned "Few writers have so much to say, the skills to make reading what they say an irresistible pleasure - and the clout to be able to be able to say it to an audience of millions".[5]

Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times gave the novel a negative review, stating "Grisham is too busy charging ahead to bother fleshing out any of these developments" and describing the novel as "a brand-name novel with an unlikable hero, a slapdash plot and some truly awful prose."[6] It reached #1 on the New York Times bestsellers chart, maintaining the position for several weeks.[7][8][9][10]

Unsold television pilot

In 2003, plans were announced, and a television pilot filmed, for a proposed small screen adaptation of the novel. Produced by Touchstone Television, the show was to star Eddie Cibrian as Brock, KaDee Strickland, Mario Van Peebles and Hal Holbrook. Paris Barclay directed the pilot, which was scripted by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. For reasons that were never made public, the show was never given a full season pick-up.[11]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UX7DRA
  2. ↑ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0712678212
  3. ↑ Grisham, John (1998). The Street Lawyer. p. 348.
  4. ↑ "The Street Lawyer". Nadpriemer.
  5. ↑ "Thursday's Book". London: Mat Coward. 26 March 1998.
  6. ↑ Kakutani, Michiko (10 February 1998). "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; A Lawyer Converts To Virtue". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ "BEST SELLERS: February 22, 1998". The New York Times. 22 February 1998. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  8. ↑ "BEST SELLERS: March 1, 1998". The New York Times. 1 March 1998. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  9. ↑ "BEST SELLERS: March 29, 1998". The New York Times. 29 March 1998. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  10. ↑ "BEST SELLERS: April 12, 1998". The New York Times. 12 April 1998. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  11. ↑ Street Lawyer, The (ABC). The Futon Critic.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.