The Firm by John Grisham

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:

Print: COPYRIGHT ©: 2/1/1991; ISBN: 978-0385416344; PUBLISHER: Doubleday (Random House); First Printing edition; PAGES: 432; UNABRIDGED
Digital: Available

*Audio: COPYRIGHT ©: 7/3/2007; ISBN: 978-1415945346; PUBLISHER: Books on Tape; DURATION: 17:10:24; PARTS: 14; File Size: 495013 KB; Unabridged; (Overdrive: LAPL)

Feature Film or tv: Yes

SERIES: No

MAIN CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive, and spelling could be wrong)
Mitch McDeere – Law school recent graduate, new hire at the law firm
Abbie McDeere (sp?) – Wife of Mitch, school teacher
Ray – Half-brother of Mitch
Avery Tollis – Mitch’s mentor, a partner at the law firm
Lambert – Employer at the law firm
Dasher – Security at the law firm
Nathan Lock – Lawyer – Partner at the law firm
Lamar Quinn – Lawyer – Associate at the law firm

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
How I picked it. It was next in line of my John Grisham reads.
What it was about: A recent law school graduate in the top five of his class who expects to interview with firms on Wall Street, but decides the offer from the one he’s just interviewed with that’s based in Memphis is too generous to pass up. But then, there’s a reason they’re so generous, and it’s not a good one.
What I thought: I’d seen the movie decades ago, and then once or twice since then, so I’d never been inclined to read the book, but now that I’ve decided to read (listen to) all of Grisham’s novels, I’m very glad I did. The movie was, what? Two hours? The book was 17 . If you’ve only ever seen the movie—not read/listened-to the book, think how much you have missed. Like all of his books, it’s well worth the read (listen).

AUTHOR:
John Grisham:
From Wikipedia:
“Grisham, the second of five children, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda (née Skidmore) and John Ray Grisham.[6] His father was a construction worker and a cotton farmer, and his mother was a homemaker.[9] When Grisham was four years old, his family settled in Southaven, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee.[6]
As a child, he wanted to be a baseball player.[8] As noted in the foreword to Calico Joe, Grisham gave up playing baseball at the age of 18, after a game in which a pitcher aimed a beanball at him, and narrowly missed doing the young Grisham grave harm.
Although Grisham's parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and prepare for college.[1] He drew on his childhood experiences for his novel A Painted House.[6] Grisham started working for a plant nursery as a teenager, watering bushes for $1.00 an hour. He was soon promoted to a fence crew for $1.50 an hour. He wrote about the job: "there was no future in it". At 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor but says he "never drew inspiration from that miserable work".[10]
Through one of his father's contacts, he managed to find work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at age 17. It was during this time that an unfortunate incident got him "serious" about college. A fight with gunfire broke out among the crew causing Grisham to run to a nearby restroom to find safety. He did not come out until after the police had detained the perpetrators. He hitchhiked home and started thinking about college. His next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store men's underwear section, which he described as "humiliating". By this time, Grisham was halfway through college. Planning to become a tax lawyer, he was soon overcome by "the complexity and lunacy" of it. He decided to return to his hometown as a trial lawyer.[11]
He attended the Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Mississippi and later attended Delta State University in Cleveland.[6] Grisham changed colleges three times before completing a degree.[1] He eventually graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977, receiving a B.S. degree in accounting. He later enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law to become a tax lawyer, but his interest shifted to general civil litigation. He graduated in 1981 with a J.D. degree.[6]
After leaving law school, he participated in some missionary work in Brazil, under the First Baptist Church of Oxford.[12]”

NARRATOR:
Scott Brick -
From Wikipedia:
“Scott Brick (born January 30, 1966 in Santa Barbara, California) is an American actor, writer and award-winning narrator of over 800 audiobooks, including popular titles such as Washington: A Life, Moneyball, Cloud Atlas, A Princess of Mars, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Atlas Shrugged, Sideways, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (filmed as Blade Runner), I, Robot, Mystic River, Helter Skelter, Patriot Games, Bid Time Return (filmed as Somewhere in Time), In Cold Blood, the Dune series, Ender's Game, and Fahrenheit 451. He has narrated works for a number of high-profile authors, including Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Michael Crichton, John Grisham, Clive Cussler, Stephen J. Cannell, William Faulkner, Nelson DeMille, Brad Meltzer, Harlan Coben, Gregg Hurwitz, David Baldacci, Orson Scott Card, Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Joseph Finder, Tom De Haven, Stephen R. Donaldson, Nathaniel Philbrick, Terry Brooks, Steve Berry, Gene Wilder, Philip K. Dick, Dennis Lehane, Douglas J. Preston, Lincoln Child, Ayn Rand, Justin Cronin, Carl Hiaasen, Erik Larson, and Isaac Asimov, among others.”

*Scott is one of the best!

GENRE:
Fiction; Suspense; Thriller; Literature

TIME FRAME:
Contemporary (circa 1991)

LOCATION(S):
Memphis, Tennessee; Grand Cayman Island

SUBJECTS:
Tax law; Partners; Law Firms; Crime

DEDICATION:
“To Renee”

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1,
“The senior partner studied the resume' for the hundredth time and again found nothing he disliked about Mitchell Y. McDeere, at least not on paper. He had the brains, the ambition, the good looks. And he was hungry; with his background, he had to be. He was married, and that was mandatory. The firm had never hired an unmarried lawyer, and it frowned heavily on divorce, as well as womanizing and drinking. Drug testing was in the contract. He had a degree in accounting, passed the CPA exam the first time he took it and wanted to be a tax lawyer, which of course was a requirement with at tax firm. He was white, and the firm had never hired a black. They managed this by being secretive and clubbish and never soliciting job applications. Other firms solicited, and hired blacks. This firm recruited, and remained lily white. Plus, the firm was in Memphis, of all places, and top blacks wanted New York or Washington or Chicago. McDeere was a male, and there were no women in the firm. That mistake had been made in the mid-seventies when they recruited the number one grad from Harvard, who happened to be a she and a wizard at taxation. She lasted four turbulent years and was killed in a car wreck.”

RATING:.
5

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
2-18-2023 to 3-5-2023 ( )

Mitch McDeere is just graduating from Harvard Law School when this book begins. He graduates 3rd in his class and has received offers from several law firms in New York. He visits a 40-lawyer law firm in Memphis. There he is made a vastly more lucrative offer which assists with studying for the bar exam, shortens the time to partner, provides a BMW, and help with locating and purchasing a house. He and his wife, Abby, decide to take that offer. The day he begins, two of the firm's lawyers are killed in a diving accident. The law firm does primary tax law, which is Mitch's interest also. When he begins, he works on Avery Tolar's, one of the partners, client load and immediately turns in many billable hours. He works from 5:30 am until very late at night. Wife Abby is not happy with this. She gets a job as a teacher at a private school in Memphis. The firm is very controlling, bugging his home, his telephones, his office and phones, and even his car. One lunchtime he is approached by Wayne Tarrance, an FBI man, telling him to be careful because they are listening to everything he says and does. Tarrance wants him to help bring down a crime family from Chicago, the Morolto family, who are the real owners of The Firm in Memphis. He is befriended by Lamar Quinn, another lawyer at the firm. He and Abby become friends with the Quinn family. When Mitch begins to suspect that no one leaves this firm without dying and suspects the multiple deaths were not accidents or suicide, he starts investigating. Unfortunately, the investigator, Eddie Lomax, he hires is killed, but he hires Tammy Hemphill, the investigator's secretary, to help collect the evidence needed for the FBI to bring down this crime family. He makes a deal for 2 million dollars and the freedom of his brother, Ray McDeers, who has 7 years left on a term for murder. The rest of the book tells about how Mitch and Abby collect the evidence and run for their lives. ( )

Loved the plot loved the writing. But had to take a star away for the pace. There were just too many chapters that seemed to drag out between Mitch and Abby. ( )

I had read this novel way back in the mid-1990s, much before I was on Goodreads. The release of the sequel prompted me to pick it up again (paired with the audiobook this time). One of my favorites from John Grisham, I enjoyed it this time as much as I did over twenty-five years ago. The only difference is that this time, I could visualize the setting having visited Memphis, The Peabody (loved those ducks!) and The Rendezvous (the food is delicious!). It was fun to be able to relate to those experiences!

Mitch McDeere, fresh out of Harvard Law School passes up the opportunity to work on Wall Street for a small firm in Memphis, Bendini, Lambert & Locke, with an enviable salary, benefits, and ample opportunity for growth. Mitch promptly packs up and moves to Memphis with his wife Abby. Little did he know then that The Firm was being covertly investigated by the FBI for financial crimes and links to the mob and he would be right in the middle of it all, endangering his career and his life. The narrative follows Mitch as he looks for a way out before it is too late.

The Firm by John Grisham is surely one of his best works and one that has stood the test of time. Despite this being a second reading, I was immersed in the story until the very end. Well-thought-out characters, consistent pacing, a gripping plot, and Grisham’s masterful storytelling – what more could we ask for? Could not recommend this novel enough!

I paired my reading with the audio narration by Scott Brick which made for an entertaining immersion reading experience! ( )

The legal firm in this book is a horrible place. I only wanted the lead character to find a way out, but it took too long to be very enjoyable. This is one of the volumes that made me suspicious of any long book. ( )