The unchallenged ace of the crime and legal thrillers, John Grisham was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1955. He was the second of five kin. His family, headed by his father who was a development laborer and a cotton rancher, moved much of the time until 1967. The family then settled in Southaven which is a small community in De Soto County, Mississippi.
Youthful John cherished baseball and grew up with dreams of an expert profession. Supported by his parents, he turned into an ardent reader. He was particularly impacted by John Steinbeck whose lucidity he respected. In the long run, he understood that genius ball wasn’t likely so he put forth a concentrated effort to scholastics. Toward this end, he went to Mississippi State University where he studied bookkeeping.
During his studies, Grisham started keeping a diary and hence built up the composing propensity. He continued to get a law degree in 1981 and proceeded to rehearse small community general law in Southaven for almost 10 years, with this practice he gained practical experience in criminal resistance and individual injury suits. In time, he got exhausted with criminal law and became successful at common law.
He published his first and second books and became a bestseller since then. Other than being exceptionally well known with readers, Grisham’s books have delighted in unrivaled accomplishment as films. Among those that have prevailed in the film are ‘’The Firm’’, ‘’The Pelican Brief’’, ‘’The Client’’, ‘’A Time to Kill’’, ‘’The Rainmaker’’, and ‘’the Chamber’’.
Grisham lives with his family including his wife and two kids. They split their time between their Victorian home in Mississippi and an estate close Charlottesville, VA.
A Short Biography of John Grisham
John Ray Grisham Junior was born on 8th February 1955. His birth took place in Jonesboro, Arkansas. His father was Wanda and John Ray Grisham. He had four siblings and he was on the second number in five children of the couple. His mother was a homemaker. His father was a cotton farmer and constructor worker. His family moved to Southaven, Mississippi, and got settled there when Grisham was only four years old.
His childhood aim was to become a baseball player. He had played baseball till the age of 18. He then left playing baseball because an opponent player tried to strike him with a ball and give him a serious blow.
Grisham was converted to Christianity when he was 8 years old. He discussed this issue as the most important occasion of his life. He then pursued law education. When he left the school of law he went for some missionary work in Brazil. This was done under the First Baptist Church of Oxford.
When he was a teenager, he worked in a plant nursery where he would be paid 1 dollar per hour. He was then shifted to the crew of the fence where he would get 1.50 dollars per hour. But he was not interested in those jobs. At the age of 17, he got a job in Mississippi on a highway asphalt crew.
One day, there arose a fight between the workers and resulted in some gunfire. The workers had to save him in different places. Grisham saved himself in a restroom. Later on, he ran home and started thinking about pursuing education in college. His parents had not acquired formal education but they encouraged Grisham for a college education.
After this job, he started working in a department store where he was a sales clerk in the men’s underwear section. He described the job as humiliating. Till this time, he had started his college and wanted to become a tax lawyer. But then he decided to become a trial lawyer and return to his hometown.
His college was Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia. Later on, he joined Delta State University in Cleveland. He had a sort of drift in his nature and because of this, he had to change his college thrice before getting his degree. In 1977, he graduated from Mississippi State University. He received a B.S. degree in accounting. Afterwards, he got enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law. He wanted to pursue law but his mind shifted to civil litigation. He received a degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D) in 1981.
The same year, he got married to Renee Jones. They have two children Shea and Ty. Ty played baseball for the University of Virginia.
Grisham practiced law for almost ten years. He then won an election as a democrat and became a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. He served the office from 1984 to 1990. For this service he received an annual salary of 8000 dollars. Grisham during his tenure of the House of Representative represented the seventh district that included DeSoto County.
He served as the vice-chairman of the Appointment and Elections Committee during his second term as the state legislature in Mississippi. He also remained a member of various other committees.
When he published his second work The Firm, he got success and had to retire from his law career. But he returned to law to fight for a railroad worker who got killed during his job time.
One day, while in court, he overheard a story of a 12-year-old girl who was narrating her rape and beating story to the jury. Grisham was very much moved with the story. When the girl ended the story, the jury was crying too. He got his inspiration from the story and completed a full length in three years. The title was “A Time to Kill.” Almost 28 publishers rejected the idea of publishing a book. In 1989, Wynwood Press decided to publish the book with only 5000 copies.
After the publication of his first book, he started composing his second book, The Firm. When this book got published, it remained on The New York Times best-seller for forty-seven weeks. It also became the 7th best-selling novel of 1991. He published his third book The Pelican Brief in 1993 and The Client in 1994. In 2001, he published The Summons and it was a best-seller too.
John Grisham has won several awards. These include
Golden Plate Award by the American Academy of Achievement in 1993
Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award by the Tulsa Library Trust in 2005
Galaxy British Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007
Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction in 2009
The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction Award in 2011
Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction in 2014
John Grisham’s Writing Style
Point of View
Most of the novels written by John Grisham are from a third-person perspective. The tales are told from the point of view of an omniscient storyteller, in third individual utilizing past tense. This is the most agreeable perspective for the audience. This point of view is basic for two significant reasons. To start with, just an omniscient storyteller can give the audience access to all the warring components, and there are many.
Second, none of the principle characters could give a solid, impartial report of the novel’s occasions. All things considered, it is important that a great part of the story’s activity is separated through the psyche of Jack Brigance in A Time to Kill. For instance, when Jake’s home catches fire, the peruser sees the occasion more from Jake’s vantage point than from that of the Klan or law implementation. Readers come to know Ellen Roark and Carla Brigance more from the way Jake sees them than from a real target position.
Tone of his Novels
Most of his novels are legal thrillers and they are carried out by the happening of action so the general tone of the majority of his novels is sad and tragic.
Genre
John Grisham mostly writes Legal thrillers and this is one of his most favorite genres for writing. These thrillers are marked by the suspense he creates in the pages to attract and hold the readers. The readers are then compelled to continue reading the book until the end to come to a conclusion that is always hair-raising for the readers.
For example, The Firm is a suspense thriller finishing in a hair-raising pursuit with the hero and his partners being sought after by two incredible and risky powers. As a normal case of this class, The Firm isn’t excessively troubled with subject or importance, since its basic role is clearly to hold the consideration of the audience.
The tale is, in the well-known speech, a “page-turner,” and in this way, it isn’t important or even attractive for the writer to trouble the readers’ psyche with philosophical or moral contemplations. Surely, the activities of the hero have substantial moral ramifications; however, what a definitive moral articulation of the novel is proposed to be is hard to state.
On the off chance that Mitchell and his partners had only crushed the Mafia and got away from their lethal plans, an unmistakable good articulation would have been clear in the novel. However, they likewise outmaneuver the FBI and get away with a lot of money, in this manner profiting in a roundabout way from the unlawful demonstrations they should uncover. As an outcome, the significance to be drawn from the novel is obfuscated.
Foreshadowing
In almost all of his novels, John Grisham has used Foreshadowing. Many of the incidents at the start of the novels foreshadow the later events and the conclusion of the novels.
For example in A Time to Kill, Tonya`s rape foreshadows her meaningless life in the future. She cannot bear children because of the torture she has endured. This also implies that she cannot have a good sort of relationship and trust in the opposite sex because the torture has mentally captured her.
Imagery
John Grisham uses imagery in most of his novels to consolidate the perspectives of the actions he is writing about. He wants the readers to be indulged in the scenes and extract the real meanings of the text because he allegorically tries to explain many things in his writings.
For example in his first novel, A Time to Kill, in which a darker looking young lady, who was assaulted, is ten years old. When Tonya is discovered, she lies on her elbows, which are stuck and bound along with yellow nylon rope. Her legs are spread with the right foot attached tight to an oak sapling and the left to a decaying, inclining post of a since a long time ago ignored fence.
The rope has cut into her lower legs and the blood runs down her legs. Her face is swollen. The picture of the assaulted young lady gives an impression about the world, which is brimming with unfeeling and appalling individuals.
Major Themes
One of the major themes in John Grisham’s novels is racism. He deals with the subject of racism in many of his writings. He has spent a lot of time in courts and has witnessed many cases of racism. He has then drawn his inspiration from these cases of racism.
For example, in A Time to Kill, Rednecks abhorred the blacks, and the blacks had a similar inclination toward the rednecks. This made an issue in the jury and the case in general. Every attorney needed a jury of either blacks or whites (Jake needing the dark members of the jury), in spite of the fact that the jury ought to be chosen relying upon reliable individuals who are known to judge appropriately without prejudice.
This demonstrates bigotry is all over. It causes us to notice the need to join together and care about the main problem and the individuals who were included and hurt as opposed to their shading or race. The prejudice got so awful that near the story’s end, numerous individuals were murdered in light of the fact that they upheld a specific gathering and a major battle happened between the blacks and the Ku Klux Klan.
Irony
Irony is another special device that John Grisham uses in his novels. He is talking about the legal issues in his novels. He sometimes criticizes the legal frameworks of his own country where the blacks suffer due to the issues of racism. For this very reason, he resorts to use irony. In this way, he achieves his purpose and at the same time avoids any sort of criticism as well.
For example in his first novel, he writes that Carl Lee Hailey incidentally shoots a cop, Looney, who accompanies Tonya’s attackers to the court. Hailey’s legal advisor Jake says that Carl doesn’t plan to execute a cop. Jake promptly inquires as to whether Looney is alright. Lucien sincerely answers that “Looney is fine. Simply short a leg.” It sounds amusing, in light of the fact that it is exceptionally dubious that Looney is cheerful without his leg.
Use of Symbols
John Grisham writes legal thrillers and these thrillers are filled with a number of symbols to convey the meanings of the writers. John Grisham uses a number of symbols in his novels and makes the readers understand what he wants to say in between the lines of the text.
For example, in A Time to Kill, he uses a machine gun as a symbol for revenge and retribution. Retribution is the most horrible deed. Carl chooses to submit a horrendous deed – to render retribution on two barbaric men for having beaten and assaulted his little and honest girl. Carl rapidly discovers an M-16 automatic rifle and decimates the irrelevant existence of two attackers. Carl murders them and his vengeance is to satisfy his psyche. M-16 isn’t only a weapon. It is an image of retribution and passing.