It was the eyes, the cold black eyes with layers of black wrinkles around them. Great eyes. Unforgettable eyes. His hair was white and thin on top with thickets around the ears, and the whiteness contrasted sharply with the rest of his face. When he spoke, the eyes narrowed and the black pupils glowed fiercely. Sinister eyes. Knowing eyes.
― John Grisham, The FirmYou have only two choices, Mitch. Join us, or die.
― John Grisham, The Firm
CBR17 Bingo: Borrow (Bingo from Arts to White)
Several of my friends are John Grisham fans. After reading and enjoying Grisham’s “The Broker” earlier this year, I asked one of my friends for a recommendation. They suggested reading “The Firm” as it is one of the most popular and arguably one of his best novels. I borrowed “The Firm” sometime earlier this summer. Over a five month period, I picked it up about once a month and made my way through a chapter or two. But nothing about it gripped me. In fact, most of it turned me off.
Mitch McDeere emerged from his Ivy League law school at the top of his class. With student loan debt to pay, he accepts the offer from an elite and highly selective law firm in Memphis. The offer seems to good to be true. After growing up poor in West Virginia, Mitch and his wife Abby are eager to start their new lives in the most advantageous financial situation possible.
Mitch is told repeatedly that the firm will take care of him, but that the methods of its partners are not to be questioned. He is also told by multiple people that no one leaves the firm. During his first week of work, two attorneys are killed in a mysterious diving accident while vacationing at one of the firm’s luxury properties in the Cayman Islands. There is some sort of cover up, but at this point I was too bored to find out what it was.
The firm was written in the eighties, so the stereotypes of firms with only male attorneys and only female secretaries and stenographers was not shocking. However, the language used to describe the women in this book was too much for me to handle. I can’t recall the last time I made so many disgusted or annoyed faces while reading a book.
I made it about ten chapters in before I gave up. Maybe I’m missing out but I don’t think so. I included the quotes above because, to me, the writing is just bad. Like boring bad. Oh, so the guy had cold black eyes? How cold were they? Oh, they were sinister and knowing?
Join us or die? Really. Really?
I cannot thoroughly express how much this book bored me. I assume the characters got more interesting eventually, or at least I hope they did.