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Book Review: The Reckoning By John Grisham

For July’s book review I decided to read John Grisham’s latest novel The Reckoning. John Grisham is one of my favorite authors and I was really interested in diving into this novel. This review will be a spoilers free review. If you would like to read my spoilers version, please click here.

A Brief Synopsis Summary: Pete Banning, a war veteran and a respected member of a small southern town wakes up one morning, eats breakfast, goes about his normal morning ritual, drives into town and shoots his pastor in the face.

The location: Like most of John Grisham’s novels the location plays a pivotal role in how a character’s actions will be perceived. The Reckoning is no different. The novel takes place in a small Mississippi town spanning the years before, during, and after WWII. And like most southern towns during that time, its occupants are very religious. Shooting a Preacher in church is just about the worse thing you can do. The time and the location also play a major role in understanding the twist at the end of the story and if you want to see how click here, for the spoilers section. I think John Grisham did a great job in establishing an atmosphere in which the main character, Pete Banning would be judged.

The Characters: I did not care for Pete Banning nor his family. I specifically did not feel a connection with Pete himself and I have often wondered if that was deliberate. In the beginning he exudes a coldness. He is very deliberate about his murder and doesn’t express any emotions. To his family and his lawyer who try desperately to help him he is short at best and downright rude at worst. The novel is divided in three parts: The Killing, The Boneyard, and The Betrayal. For the duration of The Killing I found myself thoroughly frustrated with Pete’s stubbornness, and his lack of remorse for, if not the Pastor he killed, then at least the Pastor’s wife and young children.

I also felt no connection with the Banning children or his wife. I have no reason not to feel any connection to the children, I just didn’t and I’m not sure that it matters. Banning’s wife, however, is an absent figure in the first section labeled The Killing. She shows up pretty prominently during the second part, The Boneyard. In this section of the novel you can see she is a very lively, very lovely, and sensual woman. You can’t put her in a box either. She is a party girl who wants and cherishes Pete and her children. She also actively wants more children. She is a city girl but fits in pretty well at Pete’s farm in Mississippi. I saw no true reason to dislike her and yet I did. The only family member I somewhat liked was Pete’s sister Florry and all of her eccentricities.

There are also some black people on the farm. Including, the house keeper Nineva, her husband Amos who is the grounds keeper, and their grandson Jupe. I found the portrayal of most of the black people in this book to be annoyingly caricature-ish and minstrel-like. They spoke and behaved mostly how movies portrayed them and didn’t represent some of the old-timers I had known and loved in the past (I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with my great grandmother whose parents had escaped from slavery, and my grandfather who fought in WWII as a black soldier). So, I felt no connection with the black people in this book either. And it was the one thing I was truly disappointed in. On a side note I can only speak from my experience. I did not personally grow up in that era so, I can’t completely discount the possibility that there were some black people who spoke and acted as portrayed in the novel.

The Structure: As I said before, the novel is cut into three parts. The second section details Pete’s time as a soldier. I have seen earlier criticisms that Grisham spent too much time on the war and it is true he dedicated an entire section of the book and what a section it is! You feel every moment of it! The war was the reason I took much longer to read this book than any others. This section is brutal and I often had to take breaks. I don’t watch a lot of war movies; I don’t believe I have ever read a book that was war heavy and with John Grishams’ dry, realistic, INCREDIBLY descriptive writing style you felt you were right there with Pete Banning every torturous step. I often found myself hating the Japanese troops alongside the American soldiers and I had to put the book down several times because of this. Was it completely necessary? It could probably have been much shorter and still have made it’s point, but there is no denying that it is a stellar piece of writing!

Unfortunately, I did feel like the length of time spent on the war and the devasting conditions Pete Banning endured had the opposite effect than what I suspect was its purpose. I don’t feel like it did much in the way of changing my reaction to the twist i.e. the reason behind the Pastor’s murder.

The Ending: Don’t worry no spoilers. Well mild spoilers as I will tell you in this section whether it had a good or bad ending. If you would rather not know look away in:

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So, I am a person who loves HEA (Happily Ever After). There are a lot of people who love a realistic ending (although the world ain’t all bad people! An ending can be realistic and happy) but if I could speak to every author out there, I would say LIE TO ME! All joking aside I do prefer a happy ending, and if you ONLY like happy endings . . . This. Book. Is. Not. For. You. There is no happiness to be had here. I don’t think anyone got a truly happy ending in this book and it left me personally angry. I was quite angry when I finished this book for how unnecessary everything was.

The Moral: I have two main takeaways from this novel. One, the truth shall set you free. And two: Forgiveness is key. Learning how to forgive can solve so many problems. I am not saying it’s easy but I am saying it’s worth it.

Who would I recommend this novel to: I have great admiration for an author that can write an engaging novel with an unlikable protagonist, a twist that makes a bold political statement and an intentionally unsatisfactory conclusion. John Grisham has been a fantastic writer for a very long time.  So, the fact that I don’t necessarily recommend this novel has nothing to do with his writing prowess. It has more to do with where you are in life. While I love the skillful writing, I did not find the novel fulfilling in any way so I would rather recommend another one of his novels.

#writing #bookreview #Johngrisham #bibliophile