A Time to Kill (Mass Market Paperback)

by John Grisham (Author) "Billy Ray Cobb was the younger and smaller of the two rendnecks..." (more)
Key Phrases: call your next witness, Carl Lee, Harry Rex, Ford County (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
This addictive tale of a young lawyer defending a black Vietnam war hero who kills the white druggies who raped his child in tiny Clanton, Mississippi, is John Grisham's first novel, and his favorite of his first six. He polished it for three years and every detail shines like pebbles at the bottom of a swift, sunlit stream. Grisham is a born legal storyteller and his dialogue is pitch perfect.

The plot turns with jeweled precision. Carl Lee Hailey gets an M-16 from the Chicago hoodlum he'd saved at Da Nang, wastes the rapists on the courthouse steps, then turns to attorney Jake Brigance, who needs a conspicuous win to boost his career. Folks want to give Carl Lee a second medal, but how can they ignore premeditated execution? The town is split, revealing its social structure. Blacks note that a white man shooting a black rapist would be acquitted; the KKK starts a new Clanton chapter; the NAACP, the ambitious local reverend, a snobby, Harvard-infested big local firm, and others try to outmaneuver Jake and his brilliant, disbarred drunk of an ex-law partner. Jake hits the books and the bottle himself. Crosses burn, people die, crowds chant "Free Carl Lee!" and "Fry Carl Lee!" in the antiphony of America's classical tragedy. Because he's lived in Oxford, Mississippi, Grisham gets compared to Faulkner, but he's really got the lean style and fierce folk moralism of John Steinbeck. --Tim Appelo

From Library Journal
In this lively novel, Grisham explores the uneasy relationship of blacks and whites in the rural South. His treatment is balanced and humane, if not particularly profound, slighting neither blacks nor whites. Life becomes complicated in the backwoods town of Clanton, Mississippi, when a black worker is brought to trial for the murder of the two whites who raped and tortured his young daughter. Everyone gets involved, from Klan to NAACP. Grisham's pleasure in relating the byzantine complexities of Clanton politics is contagious, and he tells a good story. There are touches of humor in the dialogue; the characters are salty and down-to-earth. An enjoyable book, which displays a respect for Mississippi ways and for the contrary people who live there. Recommended.
- David Keymer, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Utica
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 515 pages
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Company (June 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440211727
• ISBN-13: 978-0440211723
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (362 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #222,084 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Its about Time!, July 25, 1996

By A Customer

Finally, A Time to Kill, John Grisham's first novel, is a feature length movie. I just read this book, but I knew it was realeased in 1989. I'm only thirteen, and this was my first Grisham book. In this story, Grisham hits us with a subject that most might not like to discuss: child rape. Ten-year old Tonya Hailey is brutally raped and almost killed by two drunken rednecks; perhaps the saddest and hardest part to get through with the addition of little Tonya's dream of her father running to get her. After this horrid crime is committed, Tonya's father, Carl Lee exacts vengeance on the two rednecks, and kills them. He is put on trial, and lawyer Jake Brigance is introduced to us. He takes Carl Lee's case and must face his hated enemy, Rufus Buckley, in court. The days leading to the trial are filled with KKK threats, riots between blacks and the KKK, and several other chills and spills. Finally, the trial comes and the small town of Clanton, where the trial is held, is occupated by journalists, soldiers, KKK members, and thousands of blacks, as they all wait for the verdict on the edge of their seats..

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fast and entertaining read, August 17, 2000

By	Danaë (Owchie Cactus, South Carolina) - See all my reviews

"A Time to Kill" is John Grisham's first novel, but unless you read the foreword, it's not readily apparent. His fluid, detailed storytelling is unlike the choppy first attempts of many modern authors. (At times it may seem he pays *too* much attention to details, but after all, he *is* a lawyer.)

In a small town in the Deep South, two redneck hooligans rape and maim a ten-year-old black girl. Enraged, the girl's father, Carl Lee Hailey, takes justice into his own hands, killing the two rapists in a courthouse shooting. He seeks the help of defense lawyer Jake Brigance to save him from the gas chamber. Brigance, a young but sharp lawyer, has to find a way to win an impossible case: a black man is on trial for killing two white men, and his case is being heard by an all-white jury. Adding to the mix are violence between the Ku Klux Klan and the black community, and the fact that, during the shooting, Carl Lee had injured a sheriff's deputy (who later had to have part of his leg amputated).

Throughout the book, the odds stack against Brigance and his client, and the novel will definitely keep you turning the pages. No matter what your personal opinions on the death penalty or vigilante justice are, you won't be disappointed. As Jake's mentor, disbarred lawyer Lucien Wilbanks, says, "If you win this case, justice will prevail, but if you lose it, justice will also prevail."

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Superficial Portrayal Leaves Something to be Desired, June 3, 1997

By A Customer

In the hands of a greater author, or perhaps if Grisham had paid as much attention to some aspects of the book as to others, this could have been a truly powerful piece of work. The subject itself is fascinating: a black man takes the lives of his little daughter's rapists in the heart of the Deep South, where justice is still tainted by color. After reading the book, however, I couldn't help but feel that Grisham missed the mark somewhere.

I was amused when I saw that this book was required reading for an introductory Afro-American history class at my college. First of all, this book is not about a black father avenging his daughter. The book is about a white lawyer who braves the dangers and hatred of his peers to defend that father. In essence, the book ends up being a far weaker, more contemporary version of To Kill a Mockingbird. Anyone who expects otherwise will be disappointed. The black characters in the novel are secondary and painted in very broad strokes: Carl Lee Hailey at times appears to be a slow-witted oaf, his wife Gwen is a subservient black woman, and the black preachers are all stereotyped. Tonya Hailey is perhaps the strongest black character, and well-so. The opening scene of her rape is vivid and heart-rending, and Grisham portrays her later suffering throughout the book in a manner that is poignantly real.

Still, the white characters end up being decidedly stronger than the black. Jake Brigance, the lawyer, is the noble white knight who risks all to save the black man from the Klan, rednecks, and the closet racists of Clanton, Mississippi. His wife is quiet, proud, and believable in her concern for her husband. Ellen Roark, the law student who aids Brigance in his defense of Hailey, is brilliant and vibrant. After the initial rape and murder of the two rednecks, the focus shifts mainly on the whites and the blacks are reduced to cameo roles.

My biggest gripe about the book is the glib manner in which Grisham handles his subject. At times the novel seems to be almost frivolous in content. Harry Rex Vonner, Lucien Wilbanks, Rufus Buckley, and even Judge Noose are all cartoonish and rarely exhibit human depth. The word 'nigger' is used constantly and, at times, unnecessarily, particularly among the more liberal white characters in the novel. There is almost too much humor for a subject of this importance, especially in some of the dialogue. Comic relief is understandably needed in a novel this intense, but Grisham overdoes it.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad book at all. Grisham's breezy writing style makes for a comfortable read, and it is admittedly a page-turner. When he takes his subject matter seriously, he shines. The reader can feel Tonya's pain and sympathize with Carl Lee's justifiable wrath. The trials that Jake Brigance undergoes to defend Carl Lee are vivid and well-told, and his closing argument is perhaps the high point of the entire story. The diverging sentiments of the residents of Clanton both for and against Carl Lee are also well-described. Still, these moments are too few and far between. This is one instance when I can definitely say I thought the movie was more powerful than the book. The black characters and white characters are presented more on an even level and it makes a stronger statement about race and justice in this country. The book, while showing a lot of promise, ends up falling short of what it could have been. Like many other contemporary novels it fails to achieve any real depth, and the characters fail to linger with you after you've put it down. Still, if you are looking for an entertaining read, don't hesitate to pick up this book. Just don't expect it to make you think overlong about real race issues facing this country.