作者：JohnGrisham
出版社：DellPublishingCompany
出版年：2003-5-31
页数：528
定价：GBP4.65
装帧：MassMarketPaperback
ISBN：9780440211723
内容简介
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Book Description
In this searing courtroom drama, best-selling author John Grisham probes the savage depths of racial violence… as he delivers a compelling tale of uncertain justice in a small southern town…
Clanton, Mississippi. The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young man. The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. Until her black father acquires an assault rifle — and takes justice into his own outraged hands.
For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his client’s life… and then his own…
Amazon.com
This addictive tale of a young lawyer defending a black Vietnam war hero who kills the white druggies who raped his child in tiny Clanton, Mississippi, is John Grisham’s first novel, and his favorite of his first six. He polished it for three years and every detail shines like pebbles at the bottom of a swift, sunlit stream. Grisham is a born legal storyteller and his dialogue is pitch perfect.
The plot turns with jeweled precision. Carl Lee Hailey gets an M-16 from the Chicago hoodlum he’d saved at Da Nang, wastes the rapists on the courthouse steps, then turns to attorney Jake Brigance, who needs a conspicuous win to boost his career. Folks want to give Carl Lee a second medal, but how can they ignore premeditated execution? The town is split, revealing its social structure. Blacks note that a white man shooting a black rapist would be acquitted; the KKK starts a new Clanton chapter; the NAACP, the ambitious local reverend, a snobby, Harvard-infested big local firm, and others try to outmaneuver Jake and his brilliant, disbarred drunk of an ex-law partner. Jake hits the books and the bottle himself. Crosses burn, people die, crowds chant “Free Carl Lee!” and “Fry Carl Lee!” in the antiphony of America’s classical tragedy. Because he’s lived in Oxford, Mississippi, Grisham gets compared to Faulkner, but he’s really got the lean style and fierce folk moralism of John Steinbeck.
–Tim Appelo
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
With a chillingly calm, even delivery, Michael Beck, a regular Grisham reader (The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury), turns the narrative of this disturbing tale of racism, ignorance, and brutality into an almost visceral experience. “Cobb strung a length of quarter inch ski rope over a limb … he grabbed her and put the noose around her head.” The story is frighteningly believable and expertly crafted around a horrible crime and the tragic consequences that follow. At times, Beck’s character voices can be distracting, but his efforts are generally applied to good effect, adding another level of tension to this already suspenseful look at a small Mississippi town’s struggle for justice. (Running time: 17 hours, 12 cassettes)
–George Laney
From Library Journal
In this lively novel, Grisham explores the uneasy relationship of blacks and whites in the rural South. His treatment is balanced and humane, if not particularly profound, slighting neither blacks nor whites. Life becomes complicated in the backwoods town of Clanton, Mississippi, when a black worker is brought to trial for the murder of the two whites who raped and tortured his young daughter. Everyone gets involved, from Klan to NAACP. Grisham’s pleasure in relating the byzantine complexities of Clanton politics is contagious, and he tells a good story. There are touches of humor in the dialogue; the characters are salty and down-to-earth. An enjoyable book, which displays a respect for Mississippi ways and for the contrary people who live there. Recommended.
- David Keymer, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Utica
Book Dimension
length: (cm)17.9 width:(cm)10.5
评论 ······
关于种族歧视，关于性侵幼女，关于复仇，关于美帝的司法系统。书后半部分有疲软的嫌疑，场面故事走向有失控，结局轻了。人渣们是需要被捅成蜜蜂窝的，无须置疑。
司法系統是否只是為利益既得者而設？是否每個人不論身份地位得到的對待都是公正的？這本書沒有言盡，但讓人沉思
写得太长了，太繁复了
挺吸引人的一本legal thriller。尤其喜欢里面对jury和教会捐款的暗箱操作的描写，不管是白人还是黑人，都有正义及黑暗的一面。
不过整个看下来，还是觉得男主Jake对Carl Lee的辩护更多是出于作为一个律师的私心（渴望大案要案以及随之而来的名声）而不是希望带给黑人族群一个deserved justice。这在很大程度上也许也更接近实际。
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