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Sycamore Row - spoilers - final comments
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Ann
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Feb 20, 2014 09:02PM
When you have finished the book Sycamore Row, spoiler comments welcome - what did you think?
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This is the kind of book Grisham excels at writing. There are good guys, there are bad guys, and there are many in between. Even some fairly good guys you still would not cry for if they fell down an open manhole.
And a legal thriller with all the requisite ups and downs, slapdowns of the opposition, dirty dealings, but at the end our hero prevails.
Still stunned by the "bad" lawyers. I guess that is one of the many reasons they always have such a bad reputation. Great writing, great good vs. evil. Grisham at his best.
You could tell it was fiction because there were good lawyers. ;)I am amazed that Connelly makes us like Mickey Haller, in spite of what a sleaze he is.
I agree that Grisham excels at this type of book. In addition to Jake of course, I loved several of the characters and applauded the actions of others. Harry Rex was a favorite, even Judge Atlee grew on me again after I lost some faith in him midway. Portia was a delight and Lettie was to be admired for her grace under the circumstances. Good point about the tendency for all lawyers to come across as sleazes. Several times Grisham reminds us that it isn't about justice or fairness, it is about winning. The pretrial disclosures, discovery rules and other guidelines that are supposed to even the playing field only serve to provide selected lawyers with more opportunities to pull fast ones. They are all about gaming the system to gain the edge for their clients, and if they don't, the other guy will. That is clear from this conclusion.
Reading back over a new reponse in Chapter 16-20, I note that my prediction that the paroled arsonist would reappear did not pan out, although Sistrunk did return, if only to help the effort in getting Lucien out of jail in Memphis. I was surprised that Ozzie kept in touch with him. Oh well, there's always the sequel to Sycamore Row!
I think a picnic was implied in the last scene of the reunion. And Hershel was there which I found interesting.
Last night I watched the movie A Time To Kill and I wish I had been smart enough to watch it before I started Sycamore Row. There were a lot of similarities between both books, but I pictured a few of the characters a little differently than the movie, and in some cases would have like to have the"fleshier" memory to refer back to while I read SR. Matthew McConaughy was a great Jake as I remember him from the first time I watched the movie, and Oliver Platt was a great as Harry Rex, although in SR I thought of him as older. Daniel Surherland was great as Lucien, but I hated Ashley Judd as Carla.
Liz: Great idea to watch A Time to Kill. I think I will do that soon too. Carol: There were several characters or tidbits that I expected to resurface later in the book. The paroled arsonist was one, and I thought getting Roxy to threaten to quit and then taking her up on it was going to come back and bite Jake.
Barry: And Connelly really does make us like Mickey. I found myself comparing Jake to Mickey Haller several times, and then considering Mickey compared to Lanier.The idea that clients are mainly viewed as just paydays and cash, instead of focusing on justice and fairness was disheartening.
Barry wrote: "You could tell it was fiction because there were good lawyers. ;)
I am amazed that Connelly makes us like Mickey Haller, in spite of what a sleaze he is."
I did too, Ann, and commented on both. This is something I would ask Grisham about if I ever cornered him at a cocktail party (yeah, right) or attended a reading (yeah, right). I wonder if he toyed with the idea and decided not to go down that route. They were such obvious plot points.Ann wrote: "Carol: There were several characters or tidbits that I expected to resurface later in the book. The paroled arsonist was one, and I thought getting Roxy to threaten to quit and then taking her up on it was going to come back and bite Jake. ..."
Liz, ditto on the great idea to rewatch A Time to Kill. I thought very briefly about rereading it, but I rarely re-read stuff. I think once we knew of a web site where they do detailed summaries on novels; does anyone remember this? I think they were more classics, though. I will want to look this up when the sequel to The Passage comes out, LOL.
Ann wrote: "I think a picnic was implied in the last scene of the reunion. And Hershel was there which I found interesting."Went back and reread and they were having a picnic. Last line of the book. What an odd place for it.
More ruminations tonight, the sign of a good book is one that I can't stop thinking about. Often for me, thoughts about the author's intent and motivations consume my post book thoughts. Those do abound, but I am also thinking about the intent and mind set of the man we barely meet, Seth Hubbard, and of the people of the community. I have been thinking about the year Seth and Ancil Hubbard witnessed the lynching and that it wasn't that long ago (sadly for the victims of the terrible tragedy)
Me too, Ann. My thoughts have been going in a slightly different direction, as they do when I read any book that highlights the events of the recent and not-so-recent past regarding slavery and its aftermath. I think about the present-day south, and how those actions influence how people think, feel, and lives their lives. I do think that the racism and its subsequent oppression and violence impacts race relations of today in many, many ways. I have never spent any time in the south and as a northerner (whose area had its own twist on post-slavery racism and oppression) I do wonder what it must be like to live there and deal with those important issues. Some of the novels of Greg Iles (particularly the ones with Penn Cage as protagonist) also have me ruminating on this topic. And of course wondering if we will every be truly free of the negative aspects of our sordid past.Ann wrote: "More ruminations tonight, the sign of a good book is one that I can't stop thinking about. Often for me, thoughts about the author's intent and motivations consume my post book thoughts. Those do a..."
Last night I kept thinking about the book and tried to figure out why I liked it better than A Time to Kill (which I also enjoyed). I think a part of it was that so much was familiar from ATTK. So many of the characters, Jake, Harry Rex, Dell, and Lucien that I didn't have to get to know. Even the setting was familiar and comfortable. I already knew what the square, the courthouse and even Jake's office looked like so I didn't have to create them in my mind. (I haven't seen the movie, that might change some visuals.)Also I liked the case in this one better. While I certainly empathized with Carl Lee, he did get away with murder. In this case Jake was defending something that was completely legal.
The only thing I didn't care for was the ending. I liked the part where Atlee suggested the settlement. We now know what will happen and we don't have to worry about retrials and appeals. I suppose that is why Hershel was at the picnic so that we know they did settle. It was the picnic scene I didn't like and not just because of the location. It just didn't seem to go with the rest of the book. It seemed tacked on.
Cathy: I can't remember how the book ATTK ended, but in the movie it ended with them at a picnic at Carl Lee's. Interesting similarity.
I didn't mind the ending, I think because I was so moved when we read that Ancil was taken back to the place where Lettie's grandfather was murdered and his entire family's lives were ruined as they were forced to give up their homes and possessions and flee. It was in comparison a small thing that Ancil's and Seth's lives changed dramatically that day too, but the way the place moved him was a powerful image.
I think the healing started at the end of chapter 30 with the forgiveness message delivered by Jeff Roston after the drunk driving incident where Simeon killed his two teenage sons; and with Lettie's almost serene ability to take what comes and make the best of it during the trial; but Ancil's seeing the place for the first time in so many years was the closing of a circle. The families were not fighting over the land, they were sharing it and celebrating life.
Oh, you are right, LizH! I had forgotten about that. LizH wrote: "Cathy: I can't remember how the book ATTK ended, but in the movie it ended with them at a picnic at Carl Lee's. Interesting similarity."
DonnaJo brought up Charlie from the funeral home scheme in chapters 26-30 and we now know that firing Roxy doesn't come back to bite Jake, at least in this book. I think Roxy was moved out of the way to make room for Portia to be there when Jeff Roston came with his forgiveness message for Lettie. Charlie appears to represent the schemes and dreams Lettie is faced with, probably hundreds of them, and in the process reveals more clues of the extent of the Rinds family, and clues to Lettie's past. I don't mind Charlie's role so much, but Jake's attitude towards Roxy and her predecessors wasn't very supportive, with a mindset towards women that is, to put it mildly, that they were expendable and less than capable. I found it annoying as I read.
Some characters exist to move the story along, and these two two-dimensional characters seem to exist to do that.
You make some good points about secondary characters who come and go, and also about Jake and his former secretaries. I would also have liked to see some of Lettie's freeloading relatives given the heave-ho, but maybe that was one plot point too many. The important ones to dispatch, were (lawyer, husband).
Ann wrote: "DonnaJo brought up Charlie from the funeral home scheme in chapters 26-30 and we now know that firing Roxy doesn't come back to bite Jake, at least in this book. I think Roxy was moved out of the w..."
Ann wrote: "I think a picnic was implied in the last scene of the reunion. And Hershel was there which I found interesting."I got a kick out of that.
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "I did too, Ann, and commented on both. This is something I would ask Grisham about if I ever cornered him at a cocktail party (yeah, right) or attended a reading (yeah, right). I wonder if he toy..."I think I went to a grisham signing way back when. but can't remember which book it was for. one of these days will have to double check to see which one I have signed. if I read it it's in my storage if not it's it's on the bookcase unread or in the pile with other signed books. my guess is I read it already
Way back when I read a time to kill with everyone else in the family reading the book at the same time as me I remember liking it. it was the first one I did off the romance gene. or at least what I considered the 1st. now a days I'm not into the courtroom drama type stories as much. or at least they take me longer and drage out for me. I did find my copy of lincoln lawyer and maybe at some point I'll read it.
For the most part I'm glad I read this book. still thinking what I'll rate this one. I'm glad I read it with the group as usual I got more out of it then I would have if it was just me.
While the book was not exceptional, i enjoyed the group read since the population I actually get to discuss books with is pretty small. I'm looking forward to Justin Cronin finishing his trilogy.
Barry: I am looking forward to the next Cronin book too! The last two were a treat to discuss with this group. DonnaJo: the group discussion motivated me to finish the book in record time like you did today, once the trial really gets underway; you just have to know how it turns out. The Ancil story line really grabbed me.
Barry wrote: "While the book was not exceptional, i enjoyed the group read since the population I actually get to discuss books with is pretty small. I'm looking forward to Justin Cronin finishing his trilogy."
