John Grisham's Career Turning Point: From Law to Fiction

Introduction

John Grisham is an extremely popular author in the modern legal and criminal mystery fiction genre. His books and films have been translated into thirty-one languages and have earned a gross amount of several billion dollars. At the end of 1997, it is estimated that the total number of printings of his works amounted to 20,000,000 hardcover and 67,000,000 paperbacks (Robinson). Before becoming a world-renowned author, Grisham was a lawyer with a comparatively successful career in criminal law. The writing of his first novel, A Time to Kill, can be considered a turning point in both his life and career.

Understanding the career and literary turning point in the life of John Grisham is, on the surface, a relatively simple affair. As the autobiography on his official website states, the initial motivation to write occurred during a court case:

"One day at the DeSoto 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." (John Grisham: The Official Site)

While his first work was initially rejected by numerous publishers, he persevered and sent it to various other publishing houses. It was finally accepted by Wynwood Press, with a relatively small print run of five thousand copies, and was published in June 1988 (John Grisham: The Official Site). Coupled with this event are other factors that coalesced during this period of his life to bring about radical changes in his career and lifestyle.

In the first instance, Grisham was never entirely enthusiastic about his choice of a career in law. This dissatisfaction added to his desire to find an avenue that was more interesting and personally relevant. It is possible that the DeSoto County case he observed was an event that led him to question his career choice and motivated him toward a writing career.

However, if we look more deeply into his life — and particularly the events and occurrences surrounding the beginnings of his writing career — a number of questions arise. Why did he persevere and write the now-famous novel The Firm even though his first book was not a success and was seen as a minor regional novel? This seems to indicate a much deeper level of commitment and intensity of feeling than is suggested by many references to his career change as starting as a mere "hobby."

These questions become even more pronounced when we consider his expressed views about his own writing. For example, what was it in the trial of the young girl who was raped in 1984 that was forceful enough to make Grisham rise at five in the morning and write according to a grueling schedule, while still maintaining a very full legal career? As one explores the available data, interviews, and articles on his life and work, one cannot help but stumble upon incidents, passages, and statements from various sources that intimate that there is more to this change — from law to fiction writing — than at first meets the eye.

There are various articles and interviews that add texture and depth to this turning point in his life and which suggest that there is possibly something more to this period than is officially provided in many biographies and articles on the author. The central aim of this paper is therefore to explore these possibilities and to analyze the suggestion that there may be a "mystery" at the heart of the turning point in John Grisham's life. The paper will attempt to establish the real reasons and the underlying motivations for his career change and the variables that may have precipitated this decision.

The Impetus Towards Writing

Grisham makes clear in many articles and interviews that he had no real interest in writing before witnessing the events of the 1984 rape trial. This would place that particular event at the center of the reasons for his career change. Besides being an avid reader, Grisham did not engage in any writing or even harbor aspirations with regard to writing before he observed that trial.

In 1984, he watched the events of the rape trial and was obviously appalled by the details of the horrendous assault of a young girl, and he began thinking about the revenge a father might take on the assailants for the crime. The legal battle and its consequent impact on the community and the law were to form the basis of the first novel. In brief, the fictional story centers on a white lawyer fresh out of law school who is struggling to pay his bills and becomes counsel for Carl Lee, the father of a young girl named Tonya, who was sexually assaulted, raped, beaten, and left for dead. Carl Lee decides to take the law into his own hands and eradicate the two white criminals who will most likely escape serious punishment (John Grisham's Books).

One reason that can be given for Grisham's intense interest in the case, as well as his desire to write a novel based on these events, is that the incident had awakened a sense of extreme moral indignation in the author. In addition, what he observed in the courtroom revealed the inability of the legal system to protect the innocent — a concern that would become a central thematic strand in many of his works. In one interview, Grisham stated that the creation of his books rests on a central precept: "You throw an innocent person in there, get 'em caught up in a conspiracy and you get 'em out" (Robinson).

As this discussion suggests, we can trace the author's desire to write about certain aspects of crime and law to changes in his view of the legal system. This concern can also be related to his shift toward criminal law in his career. It would tend to suggest that at least part of the reason for the turning point in his life was a result of his awareness of the moral inadequacies in the arena of criminal law and the way that the law dealt with tragic events such as the 1984 rape trial. As one commentator states, he changed course and turned his attention to criminal law; in 1981 he earned his law degree and soon after opened a law practice in Southaven. As a criminal lawyer he had the opportunity to experience the drama and pathos of the courtroom and also saw lawyers and judges at their best and worst (The John Grisham Room).

We can therefore assume that it was while John Grisham was practicing as both an attorney and a legislator, deeply involved in the machinations of the criminal process, that he witnessed a trial he would later describe as "gut-wrenching" — one so moving that it motivated him to rise at five in the morning to write (For Posterity: The John Grisham Papers).

It is also important to note that in this first novel the social implications of the criminal events form an important component of the story, as the town of Clanton, Mississippi, is "rocked" by the trial. Grisham's concern for social injustice is an aspect that merits further examination. In interviews, Grisham has referred to the original impetus for this first novel as follows: "I've always been intrigued with the question of what a jury in a small Mississippi town would do with a father who took the law into his own hands for the rape of his daughter" (For Posterity: The John Grisham Papers).

However, one tends to question whether a single trial — however harrowing — would, on its own, have been enough to cause a seasoned lawyer to write a novel under such difficult circumstances. Grisham was deeply involved in both criminal practice and the judiciary, leaving very little time for novel writing. What makes the situation even more interesting is that when he began writing both his first and second novels, he was fully aware that there were very few real prospects of publication.

Therefore, one of the questions that arises from these speculations is this: was it a sense of moral indignation and a desire to help others that was the real impetus toward writing? In other words, did Grisham begin writing in order to reveal the innate ambiguities and machinations of the legal system, or were there other, less recognized factors at play that led to this turning point in his life?

These questions become even more pronounced when we take into account his expressed views about his own writing. In many interviews, Grisham tends to assert that his literary work is not of a very serious or profound nature and that, rather than harboring deeper social intentions, his writings are essentially meant to entertain. As he states in one interview: "I'm not sure where that line goes between literature and popular fiction... I can assure you I don't take myself seriously enough to think I'm writing literary fiction and stuff that's going to be remembered in 50 years. I'm not going to be here in 50 years; I don't care if I'm remembered or not. It's pure entertainment." (John Grisham Has No Illusions About Writing)

This view of his work tends to reduce his books to a sophisticated form of pulp fiction. Whether or not that may be the case, this view does not seem to concur with the original reasons for his writing, which were motivated by an extreme sense of indignation at the act of rape and its consequences for the innocent people involved. Many commentators are therefore of the opinion that, "Sometimes he wraps a serious issue around a plot — the death penalty in The Chamber, insurance reform in The Rainmaker, homelessness in The Street Lawyer." (John Grisham Has No Illusions About Writing)

Is it possible, therefore, that while Grisham's work is now categorized as popular entertainment and light fiction, this was not the original intention of the author, and that he was more concerned with writing novels that would be taken seriously? In this light, it is important to note what Grisham says about the original impetus toward writing: "My motives were pure. I was not dreaming of best-seller lists and big fat royalty checks." (Interview: John Grisham, Author)

This impression of a morally concerned young lawyer is also reflected in many commentaries on his life and work. As one source states regarding the rape trial and the profound effect it had on him: "The seed of A Time to Kill was a brutal rape of a young girl near Grisham's home in Mississippi. He visualized how he would kill the rapist if he had been the father of the girl, and he became obsessed with the question of what a jury of ordinary people would do to such a father. He guessed that there would naturally be great sympathy for the father, but he did not know if that would be enough for an acquittal. This question provided enough material for a novel, and so he started to write the first chapter." (A Time to Kill by John Grisham)

It is also significant that Grisham returns to the same general thematic concerns and motifs in many of his other works that echo aspects of the DeSoto courtroom drama that initiated his writing career. His plots usually center on protagonists who are young and in some way vulnerable and who "find themselves fighting against overwhelming odds in situations in which they should not be able to prevail. Ultimately they may win out over antagonists of apparently superior strength: the U.S. government, the Mafia, giant insurance companies." (Notable American Novelists, Revised: John Grisham)

Another factor that also has to be taken into account is his personal dissatisfaction with his career in law. Having graduated and passed the bar exam in 1981, he began practicing law in Southaven but quickly realized he did not care for his chosen profession. "Although he won his first case by claiming self-defense — a client had shot his wife's lover point-blank in the head six times — he wasn't comfortable with the victory." (Pringle, 1997, p. 2/3)

This indicates a number of important points. The first is his lack of any great enthusiasm for his career, and the second is his realization that the law was in many cases inadequate to administer true justice or, as was the case with the 1984 rape trial, to provide full protection for the innocent. This again seems to emphasize that the prevailing "mystery" underlying the turning point in his life was not only a desire to write, but also a desire to grapple with and describe to others these elements of fallacy and tragedy in the legal system and in human society.

Conclusion

What one can derive from an exploration of the interviews and articles on Grisham is that the "mystery" that lies at the heart of the turning point in the life of John Grisham is linked to an intense sense of morality. Furthermore, it rests on the foundations of a sharp sense of social justice and the concomitant fight against injustice and inequality on many levels. This view seems to contradict the perception that the novels are conceived of as nothing more than simple entertainment. It is quite possible that critics may be correct in their views, but that argument is outside the ambit of the present topic.

What is suggested is that the turning point in Grisham's life took place because of his moral and ethical concern for the plight of others and his expression of that concern through writing. For example, one can see this concern in the way Grisham was acutely aware that the legal system often makes mistakes. This aspect comes to the fore in his references to the problem of eyewitness reports and wrongful convictions:

"Wrongful convictions happen every week in every state in this country. And they happen for all the same reasons. Sloppy police work. Eyewitness identification is the worst type almost. Because it's wrong about half the time. Think about that." (John Grisham, Criminal Justice Reform, and the New Baptist Covenant)

While there is no evidence of murder, crime, or scandal in Grisham's own life and career, the mystery that can be uncovered is that the turning point of his life was the result of deeply held conviction about the state of society and the human condition. The fact that a busy and active lawyer decided to spend so much time and energy writing a novel that had no guarantee of success is in itself something of a mystery. It raises the larger question of why we take chances and risks in life. One of the reasons explored in this paper is that Grisham took these chances and devoted himself to writing in order to seek personal fulfillment and to make others more aware of the problems and fault lines in the legal and criminal system as well as in society at large.

While John Grisham may not be considered a major writer in a literary or philosophical sense, his popular fiction is perhaps an indication that at the heart of many good people is the mysterious desire to help others and improve the society in which they live.