The Confession: A Novel [Paperback]

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Confession: A Novel [Paperback]

Product Details

Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Bantam (March 20, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345534557
ISBN-13: 978-0345534552
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 7.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

By : John Grisham
List Price : ~~$16.00~~
Price : $10.88
You Save : $5.12 (32%)

Customer Reviews

I am an avid reader and have read countless legal thrillers over the years. As a retired Federal Judge with 24 years of experience, I can tell you that you will never find a more realistic portrait of how the legal system works and, more importantly, how often it does not. Run do not walk to your bookstore and grab this one. You won't be sorry.

I am a big fan of John Grisham's writing style, and The Confession was the first e-book I purchased for my new Kindle. Like his previous novels, The Confession is a smooth read; I finished it in just over a day. Grisham has a knack for interspersing engaging dialogue and narrative, and he knows how to end a chapter leaving you with a desire to read the next.
But with all due respect to Grisham's writing ability, reading The Confession is a lot like riding a carousel. It has all the expected ups and downs and turns, which sometimes make for a pleasurable experience. But it doesn't take you anyplace new, and you know how it's going to end. And all the characters are plastic.
For a subject as complex and multi-faceted as the death penalty, you would expect a little nuance from an author as intelligent as Grisham. Alas, there is none to found in The Confession. I would describe the theme of the book as: "If you support the death penalty, then you are ignorant, racist, and un-Christian. If you oppose the death penalty, you are a saint and a hero. Period." Nearly all the villains in this book work for the government: from the unscrupulous detective to the conviction-hungry prosecutor to the corrupt judge to the uncaring appeals courts to the cocky demagogue of a governor. Heck, even the front-line police officers and the National Guard are portrayed as Jim Crow-era goons who stand ready to trample the civil rights of the poor townfolk. I say that "nearly" all the villains work for the government because Grisham saves some castigation for the FAMILY OF THE MURDER VICTIM. The mother of the victim is portrayed as a fame whore who cares nothing about finding justice but only wants a painful death for the man she's convinced killed her daughter.
On the other hand, everyone who supports the wrongly-convicted Donte Drumm is a martyr and a visionary. Grisham gives them a pass for their dirty deeds. Even when they burn the home church of the murder victim and torch the business owned by the victim's step-father. Even when they throw Molotov cocktails into a widow's Buick. Even when they pelt police and National Guardsmen with cinder blocks, knocking unconscious an innocent reporter in the process. An effort to quell the violence with tear gas is viewed as a journey back to Selma in the 1960s. And a local church leader is portrayed as having quiet courage when he refuses to step in and ask for peace because the cops dared to use tear gas on the community "children."
The caricatures on both sides are drawn so ludicrously that it takes away from the sympathy the reader naturally feels for the innocent Donte Drumm. Grisham's take on the death penalty is so shrill and heavy-handed that he is likely to drive away far more readers than he is likely to win converts to his position. This book will probably only serve to alienate most police officers, prosecutors, judges, and Texans (and their families) who read it. Grisham's indulgent tale of government corruption, rife with race-baiting and demonizing of every possible public figure, is an affront to the many men and women in law enforcement and the courts who conscientiously grapple with the hard questions surrounding capital punishment.
Make no mistake about it: The Confession is a polemic dressed up as a novel. Those parts of the novel that deal with pastor Keith Schroeder's decision about what to do with the convicted sex offender who's shown up at his church claiming to be the real killer are interesting. There are enough twists and turns to keep the reader wondering if there is going to be more to this story than an overwrought morality play. And all this is done with the classic Grisham flair for the dramatic. But in the end, nothing unexpected materializes -- which is a huge disappointment.