Book Review: "The Client" by John Grisham

The Client reads fast and rips your heart out slow.  A couple of kids in a trailer park stumble upon a mob lawyer just as he's about to commit suicide.  Out of a mixture of curiosity and compassion, they get sucked into the mess.  One boy ends up learning where a certain celebrity body is buried.  Then, the lawyer bites a bullet from his own gun.
The rest of the story is the kid trying to find a way out of the mess he stumbled into without harming his family in the process.  He is being chased by the mob and the Feds, and he is a poignant mixture of crafty and helpless, cunning and innocent.
In addition to its sheer enjoyment value,  The Client offers a beautiful little glimpse into the lives of an underprivileged family.  They are simply struggling to survive amid tragically difficult circumstances, yet they maintain steady love and grace for each other.  That's one of the things I love about Grisham.  He can deliver a profound message without the reader ever being aware that a sermon lies between the lines of the narrative.  Well done, sir.  Well done.

Retro Poem #8: Jazz Club

"The Jazz Club" by Phillip Maxwell

music lubricates my mind

the rhythm rolls my head

and my pen

music talks in mysteries

unmatched by words

(I wrote this one on another napkin at the same jazz club I visited with my sister in 2000.  I don't feel like it really finishes its thought, but I love the way the words roll, so I figured it is worth a post.)

Dangerous Dreams - Genesis 37

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.


Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.
   
  In this poem, Langston Hughes portrays dreams as essential to a good and satisfying life.  But what happens when the dream itself is disruptive?  What happens when dreams collide?  What happens when the dream seems so impossible that it causes more pain than hope?
    Langston Hughes understood something of the pain of dreams since he wrote as an African American in the beginning of the 20th century in New York.  Langston Hughes would have resonated with the Joseph story.
    Last week Matt talked about God’s promise to Abraham to give him a son.  God worked a miracle, and Abraham’s wife Sarah gave birth to Isaac.  Isaac had two sons – Jacob and Esau.  After Jacob got himself two wives and two concubines, he had collected 10 sons, by three different women, but none with Rachel – his first love. 
Finally, when it seemed like all hope was lost for Rachel, she became pregnant and gave birth to Joseph.  Joseph became the golden boy, the child of his most loved wife, the child of his old age.  Let’s read the story in Genesis 37.

 1 So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived as a foreigner.  2 This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.
3 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.  4 But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.
 5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6 “Listen to this dream,” he said. 7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”

The Runaway Jury - Review

Every vacation, I read at least one John Grisham book.  This year it was The Runaway Jury.  Once again, it was hard to put down.  There was more mystery than usual for the first half of the book.
The story begins with the selection of the jury for a huge tobacco lawsuit.  A widow of a man who died of cancer after smoking three packs a day for thirty years is suing the maker of his cigarets.  Drama and mystery swirl around the whole process, especially around one juror who seems to be willing to sell his vote and influence on the jury.
The ending is exciting, even if predictable.  I don't read Grisham to surprise me.  I read Grisham for the fun of the story.  However, I have to admit that after several years of vacationing with Grisham, I'm starting to wish he would shake things up a bit more.
The Josh rating: JJJ.

Wild Blood

Wild blood climbing up a tree
Wild blood climbing up me
Thorns in the bushes
Thorns in the vines
Thorns in the rushes
Of unsettled times
Wild blood in the street
Wild blood on our feet
Forgot our shoes
Forgot how to lose
Rush out, rush in
Again and again
Thorns on the hills
Thorns on our hands
Thorns in the ills
Of unsettled lands
Wild blood roses unpreened
Wild blood roses unseen