1Reviews and everything / The Firm book report
.docAlex Kvartalny @ flamedragon27.blogspot.com
Group 501
Behind Every Big Fortune There Is a Crime (a Report Based on the Book The Firm by John Grisham)
On February 8th, 1955 in the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas, a child was born who, if you fast forward events, would grow into an avid reader, dream of becoming a professional baseball player, fail to become one, then receive a degree in accounting, later graduate from law school and go on practicing law specializing in criminal defence and personal injury litigation. Elected as a Democrat at 28, he would marry and have two children. His name was John Grisham and there was nothing uncommon about his life. In fact it was as perfectly normal as one could wish for. Until one day in 1984 when Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim. Though his job kept him quite busy, he had time to kill imagining and writing. A year before the author of this book report was born he had managed to finish his Time To Kill only later (the very next day in fact) to start writing a story of a young attorney "lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared." – The Firm. Who would have thought back in the 80s that by 2009 his legal thrillers and crime fiction books would have sold 250 million worldwide? It can’t have been the many publishers that had rejected his first manuscript.
Why have his books have become so popular? Take The Firm, for instance, and you will see that besides being enthralling and though-provoking it touches upon so many themes, like money and career, money and love, money and family life, money and morals, which is basically about the eternal battle between the material and the spiritual. Anyone can find there a message or two that although it can be formed in many different ways, the message is simply ‘the spiritual is far more important’.
The protagonist Mitch McDeere is a very bright yet financially challenged law student graduating from Harvard with honours. He is offered jobs by the prestigious Chicago and Wall Street law firms, but he decides to go ahead and work for a smaller law firm in Memphis. He is offered something he can neither believe nor refuse. A starting salary significantly higher than he would make elsewhere, promises of large bonuses for passing the bar exam and for efficiently doing his job, having a share in the firm in as short a time as a decade, a new house with a miniscule mortgage rate, a brand new BMW, and other perks soon have Mitch and his wife Abby settling down in Memphis to enjoy a life of luxury (albeit with hard work on his part). The firm really seems to care about Mitch and his family, encouraging a happy marriage with children, to such degree that Abby becomes a little suspicious. Mitch does great on the bar exam, he has everything he can wish for, but for the time to be with his wife since he is working eighty hours or more a week.
Eventually Mitch learns that his law firm turns out to be owned by the Morolto crime family in Chicago. The Morolto family or gang - controls at least three hundred and fifty companies chartered in the Caymans, at least forty U. S. corporations owned by Cayman corporations owned by the Moroltos. The employees of the Morolto family are expected to work hard, spend the money they get and not to talk about it much. So far no lawyer has been able to quit working for the firm and be alive at the same time, as the recent deaths of Mitch’s two colleagues in a scuba diving accident in the Cayman Islands showed.
An FBI agent, Wayne Tarrance, comes to see McDeere, dropping hints of dishonest dealings at the law firm, asking him for help. Mitch learns that his house, office and car are bugged. Desperate to find a way out and stay alive in the process, Mitch makes a deal with the FBI, in which he gets two million dollars and the release of his brother, if he collects enough evidence to indict the firm. In order to do so, however, the protagonist must disclose information about his clients, and thus end his career as a lawyer. At the end, having escaped both from the FBI and the Mafia and stolen approximately 10 million dollars from bank accounts belonging to the firm, Mitch manages to escape to the Caribbean with his brother Ray who escaped from jail, and his wife.
The characters in the story seem very real. One can say that although Mitch doesn't kill anyone, he has much the same values as the bad guys in the story. He judges people by their physical attractiveness just as the book's villainous lawyers do, and values money above all things. He only considers helping the government out in catching the bad guys for pay, and has no sense of civic duty. He willingly cheats on his wife, and then seems only interested in whether he can get away with it. Add to that that he is a typical yuppie in all things - and so morally sleazy, that he forms one seamless portrait of moral corruption in our society. But I have a different opinion. I understand Mitch’s wish to be rich. Poverty breeds strife and empty stalls make biting horses, they say. At the beginning of the novel he is guided more by financial success, which is only natural. He believes he deserves the money offered by the firm (and so do I), that is why he accepts the offer. However when Mitch realises that money take away so much of him, he changes and thinks more about the people who are dear to him – his wife and his brother whom he helps. I also admire his sang-froid, the ability to rely solely on himself and his intelligence of course. It is a positive character and I am happy about his transformation.
If Mitch represents the material side, his wife is for spiritual. Abby is the one who tells him about his brother and reminds him of the fact that they do not need all that luxury the firm has offered. It is better to be poor, drink beer and look at the stars at night than be slaves to the money Mitch earns. Abby is appalled by her husband cheating on her but is strong enough to forgive him and give him a helping hand before she finds out that the cheating was actually set up by the firm. She loves her husband unconditionally and can forgive him because of that love.
Ray McDeere undergoes a transformation as well. Convicted of killing a man, he starts appreciating simple things more after spending time in prison. The very first thing he wants to see is the sky, which is so common to non-prisoners though we hardly find time to look at it.
To me the book clearly shows that money, though significant, is not the most important thing in career. It is worth having a career that allows you to do what you really enjoy doing and helps you grow spiritually. Many think it is impossible to have a career like that and earn a lot of money (when in fact most of us really need enough, not a lot). My attitude is that when you have a career that you enjoy, a lot of money is inevitable even though money will not be your primary goal. One more thing – you DO NOT have to work hard to earn a lot of money, you must simply enjoy what you’re doing. As for money and love, the novel shows that you can’t buy real love – it is simply priceless. Having no money makes family life somewhat problematic, and it is not worth risking your family for a lot of money because it is your family that brings security and happiness into your life.
The language of the book is opulent, it gives a thorough view of what a lawyer’s life can be. I like the way the novel is written and I am happy to have learned many useful expressions like “on such late notice”, “a rough draft”, “hear it from one’s mouth”, “to line up for the buffet”, “the rooms were paid for through noon”, “obstruction of justice”, “to run at full throttle”, “to berate smb”, “to be tanned and well rested” and many more. I am also looking forward to reading more novels by John Grisham.