Written by The King of Torts by John Grisham
I closed my eyes and imagined what it would be like. I had a mansion, that private jet, and enough money to get anything I wanted. These are the feelings I felt during this reading.
The King of Torts is your standard legal thriller by John Grisham. It’s not one of his best works that will stand the test of time, but it is good for what it is. I had an itch to read a book from the legal thriller genre and this what I landed on.
The story was almost a little too cliche for me. I am going to go into spoilers now so I hope I don’t ruin it for anybody!
“In one week the fifth anniversary of his employment there would come and go, without celebration, and, hopefully, without anyone knowing it. Clay was burned out at the age of thirty-one, stuck in an office he was ashamed to show his friends, looking for an exit with no place to go, and now saddled with another senseless murder case that was growing heavier by the minute.”
Your main character has been crawling through the trenches. He went to law school and got his degree to make a tiny salary in the pit. His girlfriend has rich snobby parents that hate him and they end up breaking up. His whole life is a complete mess and it is easily relate-able. We have all been in his shoes at some point. Working too hard and getting paid too little. What doesn’t happen to us all is what happens to him next.
He gets a visit from a mysterious person out of nowhere that randomly selects him from all the other lawyers to give him his first break in the world of “mass torting”. (A mass tort is a civil action involving numerous plaintiffs against one or a few corporate defendants in state or federal court.)
He immediately gets rich off this one, painfully easy, case that he took. He opens his own law firm with the millions of dollars he just made and then he makes millions more. He starts to live a life of luxury with new cars, houses, and even a private jet. Long story short, he gets too greedy, loses the money, learns his lesson, gets the girl back, and lives happily ever after.
You can see why I said it was a little cliche.
The book was still an enjoyable read. As I said at the begenning of this post, it id kind of mess me up for a bit. I am currently in his situation right now. Without all of the luck and money. The bad situation at the opening of the book. It made me feel as if I needed to make more money and become more successful.
Maybe I just need to learn my lesson too and skip the whole rich part? Nah.
Life of Chaz 