No one does legal thrillers with an eye for detail and a finger on society's pulse quite like John Grisham. While you may have read some of his more than 30 internationally known books, you are just as likely to be familiar with this former attorney's stories via the big screen, thanks to Hollywood's hunger for film adaptations of such page-turners as The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client.
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.
BooksAndAuthor.com: You've created some iconic heroes—Jake Brigance, Mitchell McDeere, Darby Shaw. Tell us about Samantha Kofer, the young legal star at the center of Gray Mountain.
JG: The protagonist is a 29-year-old female lawyer from a big firm in New York who suddenly loses her job due to the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008. She lost her job with a huge firm in Manhattan, she's suddenly out of work, and she's the heroine of the story.
BooksAndAuthor.com: Big Coal plays a role in this book, as coal mining has always been a ubiquitous, but controversial presence in Appalachia. Since you've researched and queried power struggles in a variety of settings for decades now, have your perceptions of power, especially in the hands of a few who control large organizations, corporations, and parts of the government, changed?
JG: Well, I'm not sure they've changed. When it comes to corporations, I've always been very skeptical of big business and big corporations, and I think a healthy skepticism is needed: There are so many corporations and so many industries. As far as the government, I think I've changed considerably since when I was a young lawyer. I never had a client—I've had a lot of criminal clients—but I never had one who I thought was really mistreated by the system. We had a pretty good system when I was practicing law; we had good judges and good prosecutors. But I went through the process of writing The Innocent Man, which is a true story, and I got into the world of wrongful convictions, and it has really shaken my faith in the judicial system. There are thousands of innocent people in prison right now, and they were sent there by police, prosecutors, and juries who believe the police and prosecutors. There are so many bad verdicts that happen; it really kind of shakes your faith in the system.
BooksAndAuthor.com: You quit the Mississippi state senate in your second term because you "realized it was impossible to make changes." Do you hope by giving stories to these issues that you might effect change in another way? Is your writing infused with the idealism your young lawyers have?
JG: Yes, the idealism is there—that's me, I'm the writer. As far as changing things, I'm not sure the books have that big of an audience. What I try to do, when I write a book about an issue, is to entertain. You can't spend too much time on a soapbox. You've got to entertain. If you can get the reader to think about an issue—whether it's the death penalty, wrongful convictions, wrongful incarcerations, insurance fraud, or homelessness, whatever the issue is—if you can get the reader to think about that for the first or second time in the context of a popular novel, that's enough for me. Just to get people to think a different way maybe.
BooksAndAuthor.com: Do you have a writing process?
JG: Well, I don't call it looking backward. It's a process I go through that takes a long time and is not always that pleasant. But I make myself work out the final scene in a book before I write the first words. And to do that, you should always know where you're going. John Irving, a writer I really admire, has said he actually writes the last sentence before he writes the first sentence. I can't do that, but it's a wonderful way to write. Most writers don't do it because it just takes a lot of time and effort to sit down and carefully construct the story, outline it almost chapter by chapter, and see everything. When you do that, you see the witnesses. You see which characters may not be necessary, which subplots may not be necessary, or where you need something extra. It really forces you to flesh out the whole story. With Sycamore Row I couldn't wait to get to the final scene —I knew what it was going to be when I started. It was very climactic at the end.
So that's the way I write. As far as what comes first, plot or character—almost always plot, because my books are so plot driven. I'm always thinking about what would be a great plot. I'll read a newspaper article or something in a magazine about the law or a trial or a firm or something, and I'll think, "OK, I can take this story, change this and that, add some fiction to it"—and you've got a real hook, you've got something that can really grab the reader. That's how almost all books start. Occasionally I can think of a couple of times when I had a character in mind, but I never take that too far without the plot.
BooksAndAuthor.com: What are you currently reading?
JG: I'm reading a book called Natchez Burning by Greg Isles—he's an old buddy from Mississippi. It's a big, thick book, 775 pages, which is too thick for me, but I'm enjoying the book. I just read a nonfiction book called Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, about his adventures defending death-row inmates in Alabama.
I tend to read a lot of nonfiction, obviously a lot of legal stuff. That's where my foundation is, that's where my home is, that's what I enjoy and understand. It also gives me ideas.
I loved Ian McEwan's latest book, The Children Act—I read it a couple of months ago; it's one of his better books. So that's what's keeping me busy.
BooksAndAuthor.com: It's also keeping you up to date with research, since you're not really in the courtroom anymore, right?
JG: Not voluntarily. I haven't seen a courtroom in a long time. I walk in them all the time—if I'm in a town, I go find a courtroom, and hopefully no one's there. I'm fascinated by courtrooms, and I have a lot of interest in being there. But when I'm in a courtroom now, I'm usually being sued by somebody. That's not pleasant! Trial work is extremely stressful, and it's really tough on a lawyer to do it all the time. Looking back, I have fond memories of trials I had. But when you're actually doing it, there's not a whole lot of fun being in a courtroom.
BooksAndAuthor.com: "So many great movies have come from your novels; which actor pulled off one of your characters so well that even you, as their original creator, felt as if the part was written for them?" "
JG: Well, I have to go back to A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row, because that's where I'm from, and those characters are my characters and it's autobiographical. But even the sidekicks—the characters, the judges, the courthouse gang—that's where I come from, and those are the people I knew.
As far as the movies, The Rainmaker was one of Matt Damon's first big movies, and he was a lot younger. He wasn't nervous, but he wasn't a big star then, and he was very worried about the southern accent. We were on the set in Memphis, and I talked to him, and he kept listening to me talk, and he said, "I'm just not sure about the accent." I told him, "The worst thing you can do, Matt, is try to fake a southern accent. You can't do it. It's never been done; don't try it. Just be yourself." He really relaxed and did a great job in the movie. His sidekick, Danny DeVito, I thought nailed the role of Deck, the kind of sleazy paralawyer—not paralegal, but paralawyer—and I thought those two together really captured the two characters in the book.
BooksAndAuthor.com: What has been your most challenging book that you have written? What's been your favorite book?
JG :The most challenging book, by far, was The Innocent Man. It's a true story, and thus required a ton of research, far more than what is required by a novel. My favorite book is still my first, A Time To Kill.
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.
BooksAndAuthor.com: You've created some iconic heroes—Jake Brigance, Mitchell McDeere, Darby Shaw. Tell us about Samantha Kofer, the young legal star at the center of Gray Mountain.
JG: The protagonist is a 29-year-old female lawyer from a big firm in New York who suddenly loses her job due to the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008. She lost her job with a huge firm in Manhattan, she's suddenly out of work, and she's the heroine of the story.
BooksAndAuthor.com: Big Coal plays a role in this book, as coal mining has always been a ubiquitous, but controversial presence in Appalachia. Since you've researched and queried power struggles in a variety of settings for decades now, have your perceptions of power, especially in the hands of a few who control large organizations, corporations, and parts of the government, changed?
JG: Well, I'm not sure they've changed. When it comes to corporations, I've always been very skeptical of big business and big corporations, and I think a healthy skepticism is needed: There are so many corporations and so many industries. As far as the government, I think I've changed considerably since when I was a young lawyer. I never had a client—I've had a lot of criminal clients—but I never had one who I thought was really mistreated by the system. We had a pretty good system when I was practicing law; we had good judges and good prosecutors. But I went through the process of writing The Innocent Man, which is a true story, and I got into the world of wrongful convictions, and it has really shaken my faith in the judicial system. There are thousands of innocent people in prison right now, and they were sent there by police, prosecutors, and juries who believe the police and prosecutors. There are so many bad verdicts that happen; it really kind of shakes your faith in the system.
BooksAndAuthor.com: You quit the Mississippi state senate in your second term because you "realized it was impossible to make changes." Do you hope by giving stories to these issues that you might effect change in another way? Is your writing infused with the idealism your young lawyers have?
JG: Yes, the idealism is there—that's me, I'm the writer. As far as changing things, I'm not sure the books have that big of an audience. What I try to do, when I write a book about an issue, is to entertain. You can't spend too much time on a soapbox. You've got to entertain. If you can get the reader to think about an issue—whether it's the death penalty, wrongful convictions, wrongful incarcerations, insurance fraud, or homelessness, whatever the issue is—if you can get the reader to think about that for the first or second time in the context of a popular novel, that's enough for me. Just to get people to think a different way maybe.
BooksAndAuthor.com: Do you have a writing process?
JG: Well, I don't call it looking backward. It's a process I go through that takes a long time and is not always that pleasant. But I make myself work out the final scene in a book before I write the first words. And to do that, you should always know where you're going. John Irving, a writer I really admire, has said he actually writes the last sentence before he writes the first sentence. I can't do that, but it's a wonderful way to write. Most writers don't do it because it just takes a lot of time and effort to sit down and carefully construct the story, outline it almost chapter by chapter, and see everything. When you do that, you see the witnesses. You see which characters may not be necessary, which subplots may not be necessary, or where you need something extra. It really forces you to flesh out the whole story. With Sycamore Row I couldn't wait to get to the final scene —I knew what it was going to be when I started. It was very climactic at the end.
So that's the way I write. As far as what comes first, plot or character—almost always plot, because my books are so plot driven. I'm always thinking about what would be a great plot. I'll read a newspaper article or something in a magazine about the law or a trial or a firm or something, and I'll think, "OK, I can take this story, change this and that, add some fiction to it"—and you've got a real hook, you've got something that can really grab the reader. That's how almost all books start. Occasionally I can think of a couple of times when I had a character in mind, but I never take that too far without the plot.
BooksAndAuthor.com: What are you currently reading?
JG: I'm reading a book called Natchez Burning by Greg Isles—he's an old buddy from Mississippi. It's a big, thick book, 775 pages, which is too thick for me, but I'm enjoying the book. I just read a nonfiction book called Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, about his adventures defending death-row inmates in Alabama.
I tend to read a lot of nonfiction, obviously a lot of legal stuff. That's where my foundation is, that's where my home is, that's what I enjoy and understand. It also gives me ideas.
I loved Ian McEwan's latest book, The Children Act—I read it a couple of months ago; it's one of his better books. So that's what's keeping me busy.
BooksAndAuthor.com: It's also keeping you up to date with research, since you're not really in the courtroom anymore, right?
JG: Not voluntarily. I haven't seen a courtroom in a long time. I walk in them all the time—if I'm in a town, I go find a courtroom, and hopefully no one's there. I'm fascinated by courtrooms, and I have a lot of interest in being there. But when I'm in a courtroom now, I'm usually being sued by somebody. That's not pleasant! Trial work is extremely stressful, and it's really tough on a lawyer to do it all the time. Looking back, I have fond memories of trials I had. But when you're actually doing it, there's not a whole lot of fun being in a courtroom.
BooksAndAuthor.com: "So many great movies have come from your novels; which actor pulled off one of your characters so well that even you, as their original creator, felt as if the part was written for them?" "
JG: Well, I have to go back to A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row, because that's where I'm from, and those characters are my characters and it's autobiographical. But even the sidekicks—the characters, the judges, the courthouse gang—that's where I come from, and those are the people I knew.
As far as the movies, The Rainmaker was one of Matt Damon's first big movies, and he was a lot younger. He wasn't nervous, but he wasn't a big star then, and he was very worried about the southern accent. We were on the set in Memphis, and I talked to him, and he kept listening to me talk, and he said, "I'm just not sure about the accent." I told him, "The worst thing you can do, Matt, is try to fake a southern accent. You can't do it. It's never been done; don't try it. Just be yourself." He really relaxed and did a great job in the movie. His sidekick, Danny DeVito, I thought nailed the role of Deck, the kind of sleazy paralawyer—not paralegal, but paralawyer—and I thought those two together really captured the two characters in the book.
BooksAndAuthor.com: What has been your most challenging book that you have written? What's been your favorite book?
JG :The most challenging book, by far, was The Innocent Man. It's a true story, and thus required a ton of research, far more than what is required by a novel. My favorite book is still my first, A Time To Kill.