[ENGELS] John Grisham - The Client

The Client zal niet vaak op de literatuurlijst van het vak Engels staan van 5e/6e klassers van het HAVO/VWO. Toch is het een boek dat waard is om te lezen en te begrijpen, een van de meesterstukken van John Grisham. In dit artikel vindt u een vrijwel volledig boekverslag zoals dat op de middelbare school geschreven dient te worden. Het stuk garandeert geen volledigheid, de opdrachten voor een leesverslag variëren van school tot school.

Specifications

• Title of the book: The Client
• Author: John Grisham
• Publisher: Arrow Books
• Year of publication: 1993
• Number of pages: 458
• Type of literary work: Novel
• Genre: Thriller

Summary

Mark Sway is an eleven year old boy and since he was nine he prefers to smoke a cigarette, once in a while. His parents are divorced and together with his mother and his nine year old brother he lives in a trailer near Memphis. When he takes Ricky to his secret place in the woods to learn him smoke a cigarette, a strange car arrives. A pretty confused man gets out of the car with a waterhose in his hands. He sticks one end of the hose in the exhaust pipe, the other through a crack in the left rear window. The man gets back in the car and keeps the engine running. Mark doesn’t hesitate one minute: this guy is trying to kill himself!! Several times Mark pulls out the hose succesfully, but the fourth time Jerome snaps him and takes him back into his car. There, thinking both will die soon, Jerome tells Mark the reason of his suicide. Mark gets filtered into a dark hole of secrets, unknowingly... Jerome tells Mark he represents a mobmember. The guy had confessed a murder, but still wanted Jerome to defend him. Jerome was getting scared and decided to commit suicide. When Mark finally finds a way to get out of the car, Jerome sticks the gun deep into his mouth and pulls the trigger.

Once at home, Mark calles the police. Ricky got into a shock, because of the horror he saw. Mark tells the police he saw nothing, he heard nothing and he knows nothing, but the police doesn’t believe him. Soon Mark understands he is possessing over some very valueable, but also very dangereous information. When Ricky needs to stay in the hospital, and his mother too, Mark feels all alone. Then there’s an attack from Muldanno’s guys: they burn the Sway’s trailer. Mark searches for help and finds Reggie Love, an attorney who believes his story and is willing to defend the little smart kid for one whole dollar. Mark is sued by the FBI, because he’s a witness that will not tell the (complete) truth. Because he keeps shutting up, he’s arrested. On an evening Mark imitates the shock of his brother and is transported to the hospital. He calls Reggie and together they drive to the potential place where the body should lie, by Jerome. Shockingly Mark discovers the body where it supposed to be, and he is nearly caught by Muldanno’s people.

Before Mark finally confesses that he knows where the body is (no body, no case), Reggie claims they are taking into the witness protection program, have new identities, a new home in a new county and everything they wish for in the next few years. The FBI agrees and Mark leaves a couple of days later, leaving Reggie, to his spite, alone in Memphis.

Settings

Places of actions

1. The small forest nearby Memphis. Jerome Clifford, a lawyer from New Orleans, who represents mobmember Barry ‘The Blade’ Muldanno, tries to commit suicide, while two small boys (Mark and Ricky Sway) witness.
2. The hospital St Peter’s Charity in Memphis, where Ricky is admitted.
3. Reggie’s office in Memphis.
4. The Offices of the USA for the Southern District of Louisiana, where Mark is interrogated by the FBI.
5. Reggie’s residence, she took Mark to this place a couple of times.

Indications

1. ‘Shut up!’ Mark sneered at his brother. They walked along. The weeds stopped and they were under a large tree with a rope hanging from a thick branch. A row of bushes yielded to a small clearing, and beyond it an overgrown dirt road disappeared over a hill. A highway could be heard in the distance. (page 2)
2. A doctor in a yellow jogging suit ran through the swinging doors at the end of the emergency hallway and said something to the receptionist sitting behind the dirty sliding windows. She pointed, and he approached Dianne and Mark as they stood by a Coke machine in one corner of the Adimissions lobby of St Peter’s Charity Hospital. He introduced himself to Dianne as Dr Simon Greenway and ignored Mark. He was a psychiatrist, he said, and had been called moments earlier by Dr Sage, the family’s pediatrician. She needed to come with him. They hurried away, down the narrow hallway, dodging nurses and orderlies, darting around gurneys and parked beds, and disappeared through the swinging doors. The Admissions lobby was crowded with dozens of sick and struggling patients-to-be. There were no empty chairs. Family members filled out forms. No one was in a hurry. A hidden intercom rattled nonstop somewhere above, paging a hundred doctors a minute. (Page 55)
3. He took the stairs down and explored the second floor. More lawyers. On one door he counted twenty-two bronze names. Lawyers on top of lawyers. Surely one of these guys could help him. He passed a few of them in the hall. They were too busy to notice. A security guard suddenly appeared and walked slowly toward him. Mark glanced at the next door. The words REGGIE LOVE – LAWYER were painted on it in small letters, and he casually turned the knob and stepped inside. The small reception area was quiet and empty. Not a single client was waiting. Two chairs and a sofa sat around a glass table. The magazines were arranged neatly. Soft music came from above. A pretty rug covered the hardwood floor. (Page 87)
4. He entered the offices of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Louisiana, and the secretaries sprang to life. His assigned space in the building was a vast suite of small offices connected by hallways, and the large open areas where the clerical staff performed, and smaller rooms where cubicles allowed some privacy for law clerks and paralegals. In all, forty-seven Assistant US Attorneys labored here under the commands of Reverend Roy. (Page 185)
5. ‘Everything will work out, Mark. Just trust me.’ The Mazda stopped beside a large two-story house with a porch around the front of it. Shrubs and flowers grew to the windows. Ivy covered one end of the porch. ‘Is this your house?’ he asked, almost in awe. ‘My parents bought it fifty-three years ago, the year before I was born, This is where I grew up. My daddy died when I was fifteen, but Momma Love, bless her heart, is still here.’ (Page 197).

Time

Time period of action
Pretty recent, I guess the 90’s.

Indications
There are computers, the Amendments already excists, and all kinds of electronic aplliances are mentioned.

Timespan of the story
The story starts with the suicide of Jerome Clifford, and ends with the department of Mark to another state. The timespan is about a week or two.

Indications

1. ‘What do you think’ll happen today?’ Mark asked. For some reason this struck her as being funny. ‘You poor child,’ she said when she finished chuckling. ‘You’ve been through a lot this week.’ (Page 221)
2. Friday morning. Reggie sipped strong, black coffee in the darkness of predwan, and waited for another unpredictable day as counsel for Mark Sway. It was a cool, clear morning, the first of many in September, and the first hint that the hot, sticky days of the Memphis summer were coming to an end. (Page 318)

Chronological
The story is told chronlogically.

Perspective
3rd Person narrative.

Characters

Main characters
Mark Sway, main character, eleven years old. (Quote as a description:)
Mark was eleven and had been smoking off and on for two years, never trying to quit but being careful not to get hooked. (...) Most of the other kids in the neighborhood were into beer and pot, two vices Mark was determined to avoid. Their ex-father was an alcoholic who’d beaten both boys and their mother, and the beatings always followed nasty bouts with beer. Mark had seen and felt the effects of alcohol. He was also afraid of drugs. (Page 1)

Reggie Love, attorney in law, counseling Mark for a dollar
Reggie Love was fifty-two years old, and had been practicing law for less than five years. She was of medium build very short, very grey hair that fell in bangs almost to the top of her perfectly round, black-framed glasses. The eyes were green, and they glowed at Clint as if something funny had been said. Then she rolled them and shook her head. ‘I don’t need any new clients, Clint. What I need, for one goddamned day, is a client who can pay! What’s his name again?’ (Page 89)

‘Reverend’Roy Foltrigg, USA Attorney for The Southern District of Louisiana
The honorable J. Roy Foltrigg, United States Atorney for the Southern District of Lousiana at New Orleans, and a Republican, sipped properly from a can of tomato juice and streched his legs in the rear of his customized Chevrolet van as it raced smoothly along the expressway. (Page 47)

Minor characters
Dianne Sway, mother of Mark and Ricky
Dianne Sway had called the children’s clinic and was sitting on the edge of Ricky’s bed biting her nails and waiting for a doctor. On first sight you wouldn’t give her thirty-one years, but behind all that make-up there was a exhausted single mother, who had worked her butt off, for the last two years to keep up the trailer and her nice little family. Beaten to hell was nothing compared to were she had gone through after that. (Page 40)

Barry ‘The Blade’ Muldanno, murderer of Senator Boyette
The shoes were shark, and the vanilla silks ran all the way to the kneecaps where they finally stopped and caressed the rather hairly calves of Barry Muldanno, or Barry The Bladem or simply The Blade, as he liked to be called. The dark green suit had a shine to it and appeared at first glance to be lizard or iguana or some other limy reptile, but upon closer look it was not animal at all but polyester. Doublebreasted with buttons all over the front. It hung handsomely on his well-built frame. And it rippled nicely as he strutted to the pay phone in the rear of the restaurant. The suit was not gaudy, just flashy. (...) The hair was black and full, colored to hide a bit of gray, slicked down, laden with gel, pulled back fiercely and gathered into a perfect little ponytail that arched downward and touched precisely at the top of the dark green polyester jacket. Hours were spent on the hair. The obligatory diamond earring sparkled from the proper left lobe. A tasteful gold bracelet clung to the left wrist just below the diamond Rolex, and on his right wrist another tasteful gold chain rattled softly as he strutted. (Page 23)

Thomas Fink, right hand of Roy Foltrigg
He slowly kicked off his loafers and watched the night fly by as Special Agent Trumann listened to the telephone stuck in his ear. On the other end of the heavily padded bank bench sat Assistent US Attorney Thomas Fink, a loyal Foltrigg subordinate who’d worked on the Boyette case eighty hours a week and would handle most of the trial, especially the nonglamorous grunt work, saving of course the easy and high-profile parts for his boss. Fink was reading a document, as always, and trying to listen to the mumblings of Agent Trumann, who seated across from him in a heavy swivel seat. Trumann had Memphis FBI on the phone. (Page 47-48)

Explanation of the title

‘The Client’ could refer to Mark Sway, one of the clients of Reggie Love, and a pretty special one, so you with such a big problem. Besides Reggie is paid a dollar by Mark, so it’s not far from pro bono. ‘The Client’ could refer to Barry Muldanno too, he’s Jerome Clifford’s (guilty) client, also a pretty special, but of all things a guilty, client who killed some one and needs to be released from any prisonment.

Theme(s)

• Murder: Senator Boyd Boyette is murdered by Barry Muldanno, Jerome Clifford kills himself and Mark is threatened by the death.
• Dilemma: A small boy needs to make the biggest decision of his life, without getting killed or getting his mother or brother killed.
• Cheats in the real world/Trust: they try to manipulate Mark in whatever way they can think of, they need his information and would go over dead bodies if they needed to.

Evaluation

Own opinion
I liked the story very much, but I guess most of that is because I’m fond of the legal theme. Besides that, John Grisham is my favorite author (next to Dan Brown, ofcourse) and it was a very hard decision to pick one of their books, because each of them are masterpieces, pure art. This story starts really mysterious, you are thrown into a situation and overrun by a lot of information, which seems meaningless, at least for now. Then follows a lot of pretty boring stuff about the thoughts of Mark, carrying a big and important secret, but this is crucial for the story, without it would not be a good story. Then the excitement returns when Mark searches for the body of senator Boyd Boyette (and finds it too), and then there’s an ending you will never forget.

Convincing characters
They were convincing, at least Mark was, considering that was the main character, that’s the most important thing. You are drawn into the thoughts of a young boy with an enormous dilemma, almost not for real, but just because it’s described so well, Grisham makes something completely unbelievable, believable, even convincing.

Moving
I felt sorry for Mark. Such a small guy, who actually meets the grown world and all the sneaky ways of the law in such a way, it requires a lot of courage and feeling for reality.

Recommendation
Yes ànd no, for people who are definitely NOT interested in legal cases and all that sort of stuff, it’s a pretty boring book, especially the middle of the book. But for people like me, the story is way too short... © 2008 Iloontjevde, gepubliceerd in Buitenlands (Educatie en School) op 13-03-2008. Het auteursrecht van dit artikel ligt bij de infoteur. Zonder toestemming van Iloontjevde is vermenigvuldiging van dit artikel verboden. Meer...

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Bronnen en/of referenties

• http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0440213525.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg (picture)