There are some books that make you feel as if you are watching somebody’s life..as a third person..you just see whats happening in the characters’ lives and after you finish the book you forget all about them.
Then there are some books that make you feel as if you are reading about yourself and the people around you..you just see yourself as a part of the character.
Then there are other books where you want to be like the characters. You hero-worship the central character and wish at some point you were like him/her.
Finally, there are books that evoke strong emotions in you...at every turn of the page you understand what the characters in the book are going through..they may not have any semblance with your personality or your life but you feel the pain, the anguish, the happiness and joy, you rejoice at their success and feel the sorrow of their defeat.
John Grisham’s A Time to Kill falls in the last category. This is Grisham’s first novel and one cant help but marvel at his amazing ability to take you through a roller coaster ride of emotions.
The Story..
The story starts off when an innocent, ten year old girl Tonya Hailey gets brutally raped, and beaten by two drunken, remorseless maniacs named Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard. They get arrested. The father of the little girl, Carl Lee shocked and outraged, kills them both.Carl Lee Hailey is a black man in the town of Clanton(Mississippi) which is mainly a white dominated area. In normal circumstances, the father would have got away, but he being a black man provides a new twist. Enters Jake Brigance, a white lawyer who decides to take up the case and defend his friend. The rest of the book deals with the reactions of various sects of people on the case, be it the black minority or the white robed KK Klansmen who are determined to punish anybody who supports the ‘nigger’. The ups and downs of Jake Brigance as he handles the most important case of his career is brought out beautifully.
My Thoughts..
The first four pages fills you with anger, disgust and shock as the little child is brutally assaulted and raped. You feel the pain the father and mother go through as they come to terms with their daughter’s plight. When Carl Lee kills the rogues, you feel like thumping him on the back for giving them what they deserve.
The emotion is amazingly reflected in the following paragraph.
Carl Lee thought of the two boys, somewhere out there, dead and buried, their flesh rotting by now, their souls burning in hell. Before they died, they met his little girl, only briefly and within two hours wrecked her little body and ruined her mind. So brutal was their attack that she could not have children; so violent the encounter that she now saw them hiding for her, waiting in closets. Could she ever forget about it, block it out, erase it from her mind, so her life would be normal? Would other children allow her to be normal?
As the focus shifts to the lawyer, Jake Brigance, you identify with the character. The publicity stunts by Jake and the defence attorney Buckley Rufus irks you. The eccentric judge Noose(I just love his name!) makes you smile. The efficiency of Ellen Roark, Jake’s law clerk makes you admire her. You salute the loyalty of Ozzie, the local Sherriff. You identify with the lawyer’s insecurities and failures. You have butterflies in your stomach as the trial comes closer. And you are left waiting anxiously as the jury takes ages to declare the verdict.
As I started reading the book, I wondered what the reaction would be if this happened in India. But as I read through I realized that the book is not about Americans or Indians, or blacks or whites but at the end of the day its about how one heinous, ruthless crime can change the life of a little girl and her family. It is about lawyers and reporters. It is about a father who loved his little girl dearly.And yes, it is about life with its dark streak.