Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385515047
ISBN: 0385515049
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2008-01-29
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: 2008-01-29
Studio: Doubleday

Politics has always been a dirty game.
Now justice is, too.


In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it.

Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided?

The chemical company is owned by a Wall Street predator named Carl Trudeau, and Mr. Trudeau is convinced the Court is not friendly enough. With judicial elections looming, he decides to try to purchase himself a seat on the Court. The cost is a few million dollars, a drop in the bucket for a billionaire like Mr. Trudeau. Through an intricate web of conspiracy and deceit, his political operatives recruit a young, unsuspecting candidate. They finance him, manipulate him, market him, and mold him into a potential Supreme Court justice. Their Supreme Court justice.

The Appeal is a powerful, timely, and shocking story of political and legal intrigue, a story that will leave readers unable to think about our electoral process or judicial system in quite the same way ever again.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Okay for die-hard Grisham fans, but you're better off re-reading an old favorite
Comment: I've read everything by Grisham, loved most of it, and re-read my many favorites several times. The Appeal is far from Grisham's best work, but it definitely has a realistic feel, like Law & Order episodes that leave you with the impression you're hearing a story you hope isn't true, but you know it probably is in some form. The premise of The Appeal is promising - the potential of a big corporation finally being brought down by the little guys and paying for the suffering of victims, but under the surface its playing politics to fix the system in its favor.

Considering the potential, I didn't care about anything or anyone in the story until the last few chapters. The story tried to cover too much. The character development was flat and it glazed over everyone's stake in the game, despite the interesting scenarios of a town dying due to water contamination, a wealthy and corrupt CEO, an innocent lawyer roped in as a corporate puppet, and a huge lawsuit pending an appeal to the Supreme Court. With the CEOs, politicians, lawyers, cancer victims, husbands & wives, etc. as players in this tale, none of the characters were engaging, sympathetic, or remotely interesting.

The only exception was Fisk, the candidate who was unknowingly handpicked to turn the corporation's appeal to the Supreme Court in its favor. The tactics used to woo Fisk into the Supreme Court justice election and the fast paced election strategy were a bright spot and what I expected from Grisham. The ending also partially redeemed this tale, even though it rushed through what's by default the most riveting part of this hurried book. The end feels realistic, the irony and choices are thought provoking.

Overall, I'd rather have spent my time re-reading an old favorite like The Firm or The Testament.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good writing but Grisham has a political agenda
Comment: This one had me engrossed from beginning until almost the end. After I'd read the whole thing it became obvious that Grisham had a political agenda here -- to tell us that big business, doctors, nursing homes, et. al. are a bunch of bottom feeders and that trial lawyers are a noble breed whose goal in life is simply to help the oppressed. His book does a good job of that -- if you're very naive.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: You. This book. A snowy afternoon. A brief bit of heaven.
Comment: A trip to Greeley, Colorado (don't ask) found me with time to kill one recent snowy afternoon. First to Walgreen's for reading glasses and a book, actually this book, then to McDonald's for coffee and a HotN'Spicy chicken sandwich off the $1 menu. Has time ever passed so pleasantly?

Alas, on returning home, the joy of reading The Appeal turned into a bit of chore. Save it for a blizzard or the airport. Or the airport in a blizzard.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Boring and too political
Comment: I read all of Grisham's books and usually like them, but this is way below standard.
The characters are too stereotypical, they are either perfectly good or perfectly bad; the story is predictable, and there is too much politics.

Spoiler:
All republicans are bad, all democrats are good. Only republicans take money from big business.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The principals get marginalized here
Comment: I am going to have to modify my automatic "buy" reflex when I see the name Grisham, I guess. This book is about a crusading husband-wife team of tort lawyers that we're supposed to believe aren't "ambulance chasers". On the other side is a chemical business magnate whose company has been dumping toxic chemicals in a Mississippi town whose personality is a cross between Daddy Warbucks and Snidely Whiplash, with a side order of Ebenezer Scrooge (maybe it's no coincidence that the paperback came out during the Holidays). This dude rails at the idea of being sued by a bunch of "rednecks" and "trailer trash". The plaintiff (who seems almost an uncredited extra here) wins the original judgement so Scrooge McDuck appeals the verdict. But what he needs to do is get rid of a liberal state Supreme Court justice before the case gets there. So he hires a combination kingmaker/ political hit squad consultant, who finds an unsuspecting conservative (why does Grisham use that adjective as a cussword?) lawyer with no judicial experience and sets out to make a judge out of him, and runs him against the liberal incumbent, who's up for reelection. At this point Grisham insults the intelligence of the reader by practically telling us "now, folks, you're supposed to hate this guy's guts--he's one of the baaaad guys". And I can't, you know. He's really a good sort. And it isn't like we know enough about the plaintiff to empathise with her other than what she's suffered as the original victim here. Grisham keeps her offstage, referring to her only in passing, now and then. And mean tycoon makes out like a bandit. It's kind of like what the Prince says in closing of "Romeo & Juliet" when he observes that nobody wins here, everybody loses, "All are punished". Which includes the reader.

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