About this title: In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town's water supply, causing the worst "cancer cluster" in history, in this powerful, timely, and shocking story of political and legal intrigue.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Very Good. 0385342926 Great condition Soft Cover book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, light edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780440243816ISBN:0440243815
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Good to Very Good condition. Very light spine creasing and cover wear. Still a nice looking copy. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 484 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"The story is ok, but the political statement is quite prescient. Big corporations must engage in extremely hazardous activities in the ordinary course of business. Often it is expensive and disruptive to follow rules and basic common sense. Sometimes ordinary people get in the way and happen to die of nasty things like leukemia. When this happens they sue. Big law firms drag these cases out for many years, spend many millions, and avail themselves of many procedural tools to delay, obfuscate and appeal. That's all fine. That's the game. However, this sometimes isn't enough.
So what needs to be done? Laws must be rewritten to eliminate punitive damages. Judges must be elected who will preserve good American values and end jackpot justice.
God forbid the parents of a child killed by a defective crane or a negligent chemical spill get help paying medical bills. We need to protect the shareholders and the management teams of these fine companies.
The antagonists in Grisham's book understand this and embark on elaborate efforts to assure that victims are left without recourse and big business is not smothered by crazy liberal lawyers. They have no bounds.
This stuff really goes on and no one cares. Hopefully Grisham's many readers will see just what tort reform really is and what the Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Cheney crowd want to do to the civil court system in America."
"What I learned from this book is that supreme court justices should be appointed not elected like politicians because then they get bought out by big businesses and the one with the most money wins and this is BAD, BAD, BAD. (point made, Mr. Grisham) This book is lacking a storyline, character development, excitement of any kind, and all other desireable elements of a novel. I usually like John Grisham but this book is BORING, BORING, BORING. In Grisham's honor I will recommend The Innocent Man, A Painted House, and The Pelican Brief."
"I have read numerous John Grisham books and have continued to pick them up because I have enjoyed them. I have always found his books to a be an entertaining and easy read. Once I pick up the book, I usually have to keep reading until the end. With this book, I was bored by page two. The book is about the big bad company that poisons the water of the unsuspecting small town. The company is bad, bad, bad, and the small town villagers are good, good, good. The lawyers for the company are BAD and the lawyers for the small town are GOOD. Grisham does show how there are good lawyers and bad lawyers and demonstrates how important the legal system is for the regular person. He goes into politics and I think that his message was too slanted and over the top. Of course he can write a book that shows his point of view, but come on already. We get it, big company = evil. Voting for judges = bad. Us poor unsuspecting little people are easily manipulated by big bad politicians (who happened to be conservatives). After forcing myself to finish the book, I had to think, is this book just so much more over the top and obvious than the others or have I just changed. I've probably just changed. In Grisham's defense, there some good parts and also some good points to his book. I'm sure he meant to say that there is corruption on both sides of the political spectrum (not just the right). That it important for all judges to look at each case indiviually (not just the conservative ones) and that all political figures can be influenced by those who finance their campaigns. And I'm sure he meant to say that yes some doctors/ companies etc do make mistakes and should be held accountable, but there are also some punitive awards that are excessive. Balance and moderation should be the goal instead of extremes from either side."
"I admit, I like a lot of Grisham's novels; I especially like them when spending long hours on an airplane, as I did recently. I found this book to be very disturbing; it has definitely affected the way I will view future election campaigns for judges. I also liked how his Christian characters were reflective of the current Christian culture, even though they bothered me at times because of that. The ending surprised me, as it took some surprising turns the last 60 or so pages."
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