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The Firm (Mass Market Paperback) (Paperback)
by John Grisham
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Firm, Fiction |
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Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Dell
Pub. in: January, 1992
ISBN: 044021145X
Pages: 512
Measurements: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00669
Other information: Reissue edition
ISBN-13: 978-0440211457
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- Awards & Credential -
#1 New York Times Bestseller |
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- MSL Picks -
When John Grisham published his first novel in 1989 the results were mixed. Now with this book everything changed for him. The book became an instant hit earning excellent reviews across the board. At the centre of the story is a young Harvard Graduate Mitch Mcdeere who has chosen to sign with a prosperous firm known as Landini Lambert and Locke. They lease him a new car, buy him a very expensive home and hire an interior decorator to help Mitch and wife Abby with the decorating of the home. It all seems to good to be true. It is. An FBI agent who claims that they have evidence of corruption and murder within the ranks of the firm and unless he helps them out he will go down with the rest of them contacts Mitch. They agree to help shorten Mitch's brother Ray's prison time in Tennessee where he is serving a fifteen-year sentence. Now Mitch is torn between a rock and a hard place and whatever choice he makes will forever change his life. The Firm is a brisk thriller that starts good and ends with a rowdy finale. The supporting characters are all really good as is the pacing of the story.
A superb read.
Target readers:
General readers
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Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby-writing his first novel.
Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.
One day at the Dessoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.
That might have put an end to Grisham's hobby. However, he had already begun his next book, and it would quickly turn that hobby into a new full-time career-and spark one of publishing's greatest success stories. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a hotshot young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared. When he sold the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.
The successes of The Pelican Brief, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Client, which debuted at number one, confirmed Grisham's reputation as the master of the legal thriller. Grisham's success even renewed interest in A Time to Kill, which was republished in hardcover by Doubleday and then in paperback by Dell. This time around, it was a bestseller.
Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, and The Broker) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 225 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man (October 2006) marks his first foray into non-fiction.
Grisham lives with his wife Renee and their two children Ty and Shea. The family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm in Mississippi and a plantation near Charlottesville, VA.
Grisham took time off from writing for several months in 1996 to return, after a five-year hiatus, to the courtroom. He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer: representing the family of a railroad brakeman killed when he was pinned between two cars. Preparing his case with the same passion and dedication as his books' protagonists, Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of $683,500-the biggest verdict of his career.
When he's not writing, Grisham devotes time to charitable causes, including most recently his Rebuild The Coast Fund, which raised 8.8 million dollars for Gulf Coast relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He also keeps up with his greatest passion: baseball. The man who dreamed of being a professional baseball player now serves as the local Little League commissioner. The six ballfields he built on his property have played host to over 350 kids on 26 Little League teams.
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At the top of his class at Harvard Law, he had his choice of the best in America. He made a deadly mistake. When Mitch McDeere signed on with Bendini, Lambert & Locke of Memphis, he thought he and his beautiful wife, Abby, were on their way. The firm leased him a BMW, paid off his school loans, arranged a mortgage and hired him a decorator. Mitch McDeere should have remembered what his brother Ray - doing fifteen years in a Tennessee jail - already knew. You never get nothing for nothing. Now the FBI has the lowdown on Mitch's firm and needs his help. Mitch is caught between a rock and a hard place, with no choice - if he wants to live.
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THE SENIOR PARTNER studied the résumé for the hundredth time and again found nothing he disliked about Mitchell Y. McDeere, at least not on paper. He had the brains, the ambition, the good looks. And he was hungry; with his background, he had to be. He was married, and that was mandatory. The firm had never hired an unmarried lawyer, and it frowned heavily on divorce, as well as womanizing and drinking. Drug testing was in the contract. He had a degree in accounting, passed the CPA exam the first time he took it and wanted to be a tax lawyer, which of course was a requirement with a tax firm. He was white, and the firm had never hired a black. They managed this by being secretive and clubbish and never soliciting job applications. Other firms solicited, and hired blacks. This firm recruited, and remained lily white. Plus, the firm was in Memphis, of all places, and the top blacks wanted New York or Washington or Chicago. McDeere was a male, and there were no women in the firm. That mistake had b
een made in the mid-seventies when they recruited the number one grad from Harvard, who happened to be a she and a wizard at taxation. She lasted four turbulent years and was killed in a car wreck.
He looked good, on paper. He was their top choice. In fact, for this year there were no other prospects. The list was very short. It was McDeere or no one.
The managing partner, Royce McKnight, studied a dossier labeled "Mitchell Y. McDeere--Harvard." An inch thick with small print and a few photographs, it had been prepared by some ex-CIA agents in a private intelligence outfit in Bethesda. They were clients of the firm and each year did the investigating for no fee. It was easy work, they said, checking out unsuspecting law students. They learned, for instance, that he preferred to leave the Northeast, that he was holding three job offers, two in New York and one in Chicago, and that the highest offer was $76,000 and the lowest was $68,000. He was in demand. He had been given the opportunity to cheat on a securities exam during his second year. He declined, and made the highest grade in the class. Two months ago he had been offered cocaine at a law school party. He said no and left when everyone began snorting. He drank an occasional beer, but drinking was expensive and he had no money. He owed close to $23,000 in student loans. He was hungry.
Royce McKnight flipped through the dossier and smiled. McDeere was their man.
Lamar Quin was thirty-two and not yet a partner. He had been brought along to look young and act young and project a youthful image for Bendini, Lambert & Locke, which in fact was a young firm, since most of the partners retired in their late forties or early fifties with money to burn. He would make partner in this firm. With a six-figure income guaranteed for the rest of his life, Lamar could enjoy the twelve-hundred-dollar tailored suits that hung so comfortably from his tall, athletic frame. He strolled nonchalantly across the thousand-dollar-a-day suite and poured another cup of decaf. He checked his watch. He glanced at the two partners sitting at the small conference table near the windows.
Precisely at two-thirty someone knocked on the door. Lamar looked at the partners, who slid the résumé and dossier into an open briefcase. All three reached for their jackets. Lamar buttoned his top button and opened the door.
"Mitchell McDeere?" he asked with a huge smile and a hand thrust forward.
"Yes." They shook hands violently.
"Nice to meet you, Mitchell. I'm Lamar Quin."
"My pleasure. Please call me Mitch." He stepped inside and quickly surveyed the spacious room.
"Sure, Mitch." Lamar grabbed his shoulder and led him across the suite, where the partners introduced themselves. They were exceedingly warm and cordial. They offered him coffee, then water. They sat around a shiny mahogany conference table and exchanged pleasantries. McDeere unbuttoned his coat and crossed his legs. He was now a seasoned veteran in the search of employment, and he knew they wanted him. He relaxed. With three job offers from three of the most prestigious firms in the country, he did not need this interview, this firm. He could afford to be a little overconfident now. He was there out of curiosity. And he longed for warmer weather.
Oliver Lambert, the senior partner, leaned forward on his elbows and took control of the preliminary chitchat. He was glib and engaging with a mellow, almost professional baritone. At sixty-one, he was the grandfather of the firm and spent most of his time administering and balancing the enormous egos of some of the richest lawyers in the country. He was the counselor, the one the younger associates went to with their troubles. Mr. Lambert also handled the recruiting, and it was his mission to sign Mitchell Y. McDeere.
"Are you tired of interviewing?" asked Oliver Lambert.
"Not really. It's part of it."
Yes, yes, they all agreed. Seemed like yesterday they were interviewing and submitting résumés and scared to death they wouldn't find a job and three years of sweat and torture would be down the drain. They knew what he was going through, all right.
"May I ask a question?" Mitch asked.
"Certainly."
"Sure."
"Anything."
"Why are we interviewing in this hotel room? The other firms interview on campus through the placement office."
"Good question." They all nodded and looked at each other and agreed it was a good question.
"Perhaps I can answer that, Mitch," said Royce McKnight, the managing partner. "You must understand our firm. We are different, and we take pride in that. We have forty-one lawyers, so we are small compared with other firms. We don't hire too many people; about one every other year. We offer the highest salary and fringes in the country, and I'm not exaggerating. So we are very selective. We selected you. The letter you received last month was sent after we screened over two thousand third-year law students at the best schools. Only one letter was sent. We don't advertise openings and we don't solicit applications. We keep a low profile, and we do things differently. That's our explanation."
"Fair enough. What kind of firm is it?"
"Tax. Some securities, real estate and banking, but eighty percent is tax work. That's why we wanted to meet you, Mitch. You have an incredibly strong tax background."
"Why'd you go to Western Kentucky?" asked Oliver Lambert.
"Simple. They offered me a full scholarship to play football. Had it not been for that, college would've been impossible."
"Tell us about your family."
"Why is that important?"
"It's very important to us, Mitch," Royce McKnight said warmly.
They all say that, thought McDeere. "Okay, my father was killed in the coal mines when I was seven years old. My mother remarried and lives in Florida. I had two brothers. Rusty was killed in Vietnam. I have a brother named Ray McDeere."
"Where is he?"
"I'm afraid that's none of your business." He stared at Royce McKnight and exposed a mammoth chip on his shoulder. The dossier said little about Ray.
"I'm sorry," the managing partner said softly.
"Mitch, our firm is in Memphis," Lamar said. "Does that bother you?"
"Not at all. I'm not fond of cold weather."
"Have you ever been to Memphis?"
"No."
"We'll have you down soon. You'll love it."
Mitch smiled and nodded and played along. Were these guys serious? How could he consider such a small firm in such a small town when Wall Street was waiting?
"How are you ranked in your class?" Mr. Lambert asked.
"Top five." Not top five percent, but top five. That was enough of an answer for all of them. Top five out of three hundred. He could have said number three, a fraction away from number two, and within striking distance of number one. But he didn't. They came from inferior schools--Chicago, Columbia and Vanderbilt, as he recalled from a cursory examination of Martindale-Hubbell's Legal Directory. He knew they would not dwell on academics.
"Why did you select Harvard?"
"Actually, Harvard selected me. I applied at several schools and was accepted everywhere. Harvard offered more financial assistance. I thought it was the best school. Still do."
"You've done quite well here, Mitch," Mr. Lambert said, admiring the résumé. The dossier was in the briefcase, under the table.
"Thank you. I've worked hard."
"You made extremely high grades in your tax and securities courses."
"That's where my interest lies."
"We've reviewed your writing sample, and it's quite impressive."
"Thank you. I enjoy research."
They nodded and acknowledged this obvious lie. It was part of the ritual. No law student or lawyer in his right mind enjoyed research, yet, without fail, every prospective associate professed a deep love for the library.
"Tell us about your wife," Royce McKnight said, almost meekly. They braced for another reprimand. But it was a standard, nonsacred area explored by every firm.
"Her name is Abby. She has a degree in elementary education from Western Kentucky. We graduated one week and got married the next. For the past three years she's taught at a private kindergarten near Boston College."
"And is the marriage--"
"We're very happy. We've known each other since high school."
"What position did you play?" asked Lamar, in the direction of less sensitive matters.
"Quarterback. I was heavily recru...
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Wall Street Journal (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-05 00:00>
Keeps the reader hooked... From the creepy first chapters... to the vise-tightening midsection and on to the take-the money-and-run finale. |
Peter Prescott (Newsweek) (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-05 00:00>
Irresistible... seizes the reader on the opening page and propels him through 400 more. |
Susie Morris (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-05 00:00>
The Firm was the first John Grisham novel that I read. The storyline is fast paced and full of edge-of-your-seat action.
This tale follows the life of Mitch McDeere a lawyer right out of Harvard who goes to work for a large firm in Memphis, Tennessee. The prestigious firm turns out to have numerous skeletons in the closet, which leads Mitch to learn that many of his colleagues are dying in strange circumstances. Then along comes the FBI poking around asking a lot of questions about Mafia connections, among other things.
The characters are powerful and well developed; the storyline is filled with lots of detail and the sub-plots are interesting and lead to the overall excellence of this book.
Another positive was when I heard that this book was going to be made into a movie. I rushed right out to see it and was very disappointed. The movie would have been excellent if it had not deviated so drastically from the book. The deviation made the movie seem far-fetched and, in my opinion, was not an accolade for Grisham. I also feel this movie may deter some from reading the more realistic book.
The Firm is very well written (as is Grisham's norm) and gives the reader an insight into the various pitfalls a lawyer can face. The book is much better than the movie, and I suggest that it be added to your list of books to read!
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Daniel Jolley (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-05 00:00>
The Firm was published in 1991, and almost overnight John Grisham became a household name and a force to be reckoned with in the realm of fiction. There must be something in the water down in Oxford, Mississippi; while Grisham is certainly no Faulkner, he is a man who knows how to make a novel come alive and ensnare any reader who comes along. I really do not care for lawyer-type novels as a general rule, and the fact that Grisham makes such stories so gripping and fascinating has me quite in awe of his talents. Mitch McDeere (whom many may still envision as Tom Cruise, since he played in the role in the movie based on this novel) is a highly intelligent yet monetarily challenged law student finishing up his degree with high honors at Harvard. Holding serious offers from prestigious Chicago and Wall Street law firms for his services, he decides to go ahead and hear the pitch from a smaller law firm in Memphis. What he hears is an offer he cannot believe and cannot refuse. A starting salary significantly higher than he would make elsewhere, promises of large bonuses for passing the bar exam and succeeding on the job, an ascension to partner 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, wanting happy marriages with several children, to a degree that has Abby a little suspicious. Mitch passes the bar exam, and life is great, despite the fact he is working eighty hours or more a week. Then an FBI agent comes to see him, dropping hints of nefarious dealings at the law firm, asking him for help. Thus begins a journey in which Mitch must first decide whether to risk the lives of himself and his wife to violate his legal oaths and sell out the Mafia-controlled law firm, or take his chances, make his millions, and hope the feds don't find enough evidence to eventually land him and all of his coworkers in prison. It is really an exciting story, as the McDeeres have to deal with and evade both the feds and the Mafia in their efforts to somehow bring down the firm without sacrificing their own lives.
I found the schemes Mitch employed on his behalf were quite inventive and plausible, but as the novel progressed in the later stages I found myself wondering how the Mafia could really be incompetent enough in their surveillance to keep losing track of Mitch at crucial times. I can understand the feds having a little trouble staying a step behind him, but you would think that the Mafia could have put an end to all of these games (and to Mitch) long before he got into a position to bring them down. Also, Abby's transition from a housewife who wishes her husband wasn't spending all of his time at work to a wily assistant to her scared and scheming husband is a little abrupt. I also had a hard time completely liking the protagonist after a certain indiscretion on his part early on. I'm not complaining, though, because the tension of the novel ratchets up nicely in the final stages and kept me turning the pages with bated breath. I haven't read Grisham's more recent novels, so I can't say whether or not the quality of his writing has gone down over the years. What I can say, having read both A Time to Kill and The Firm, Grisham's first two novels, is that the man really and truly had it at the start of his career. The action never ebbs, the story never bogs down, and the reader finds himself hanging on for dear life and loving every minute of it as he/she follows the course of whatever events Grisham chooses to relate.
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