Sublime

grok

like J. D. Salinger or the Unabomber.

And – here’s the good part – this is a world impossible not to believe. Grisham has been there, spied out the land and the enemy positions, and brought back a full report. He told the truth of what he knew, and for that if nothing else, he deserves every buck The Firm made.

Grisham’s make-believe tale is solidly based in a reality he knows, has personally experienced, and which he wrote about with total (almost naive) honesty. The result is a book which is – cardboard characters or no, we could argue about that – both brave and uniquely satisfying. You as a beginning writer would do well not to imitate the lawyers-in-