After reading the two reviews posted here I was forced to hit the keyboard. I won’t disagree entirely with two authors but then it would be extremely unfair to John by declaring the book crap. Its certainly more than that. The book was a let down for all those who were looking forward to another court room drama from Grisham.
The popularity of Grisham has grown many folds over the years and has turned itself in to a cult. But then there is a limit an author can repeat himself and the limit is decided by his own artistic satisfaction. Just one look on the last few books written by him and one would realize that author is trying to create a balance between his typical self and his real self. Books like a painted house, skipping christmas, bleachers and now the last juror are all written in an attempt to create something different. His book ’a painted house’ was the first to showcase this trend and was immensely successful but then wasnt appreciated by typical Grisham fan.
This was an autobiographical novel and was of high standard - probably a thicker version of to kill a mocking bird. Moreover-as Grisham himself has pointed out that by writing ’the last juror’ he is simply trying to keep up his oath that he had taken somewhere along this journey authorship - to write novels on Ford county. And as he considers Ford county his home there should be nothing surprizing if he chooses a plot like this to write more about country life and its people. But, of course Grisham could have done better.
The plot tends to grow weaker with the passing pages and reader is left wondering about the climax. The end of the novel is anticlimax as reader was expecting something unexpected after going through all the melodrama in between.
Grisham has certainly wandered too much around a few characters. But in hindsight it all seems to be done in an attempt to reveal more about the country life and Grisham seems under the spell of nostalgia. He tried to cover too much like the black’s struggle and in the process deviated from the main plot a tad too much. In nut shell-the book is an easy read and a reader savours middle pages more than the last few.The book takes a beating because of expectations from Grisham, forget it for a while and you would find yourself enjoying the book.