The Innocent Man
John Grisham’s fiction isn’t my thing — the one novel I read twenty years ago was plenty — but I read good reviews of The Innocent Man, his foray into non-fiction/true crime, and I had an iTunes gift cert to kill, so I downloaded the audio version.
I very much enjoyed it, and it’s Craig Wasson’s narration that really sells it. Grisham isn’t a bestseller-list fixture because of his elegant prose; he’s about plot, which is fine, and which serves the subject here (and the timeline, which is a long one with several ancillary story clusters tied into it). Wasson is also perfect for the subject: a hickory-cured voice that stays on the right side of the folksy line; careful enunciation that doesn’t oversell the important parts to you; soothing, but not dull.
I got the unabridged version, which held me on commutes for a solid month, but if you like true crime and despair of finding material that isn’t overheated or overwritten, I think you’ll like The Innocent Man.
Tags: books
Oh crap. I hated this book so much I skipped to the end to see how it turned out and got ready to donate it to Goodwill. I think Grisham needs to stick with the fiction. I thought Grisham’s lack in the writing department made a potentially exciting story extremely dull.
Maybe the audio version was better than just reading it.
@Kermit: If I’d been reading it, I suspect I’d have had a similar experience, but listening to it, the overcooked writing isn’t as noticeable.
Heh. When I saw your headline, I thought, “Oh, man, Sars is gonna weigh in on this Spitzer nightmare!”
But apparently not so much.
Well, what could I add, really. I will tell you that the TWoP bullpen spent its penultimate day making tasteless jokes at Spitzy’s expense — “Former governor Eliot Spitzer underwent an abrupt bilateral orchidectomy earlier today when news of his indiscretions reached his wife and three daughters” — and speculating that life may have been imitating “Dirty Sexy Money.”
Interesting. I love Grisham’s novels — his writing isn’t exactly exemplary, but I love the courtroom drama and once in a while I need a book with a plot that will keep me reading for an entire Saturday — but I thought his style crept too much into this one and didn’t work for non-fiction. I did enjoy the book and thought it was a good story, but another writer could certainly have done more with it.
My folks listened to this on CD on a road trip. My dad, who has always been fairly conservative, said it changed his opinion about the death penalty. So it’s got that going for it, which is nice.
I read the Innocent Man and had mixed reactions. It was a compelling story, but the way Grisham wrote it really made it drag in parts.
As far as the Spitzer thing goes, am I the only one who was horribly disappointed to realize that the headlined “Spitzer linked to prostitution ring” meant that he just slept with a call-girl and did not in fact mean that he was running the show?
@Kona: I felt the SAME EXACT way. I mean, it’s much more fun to be accused of being a pimp than a john, right?
As for The Innocent Man…I bought it months ago, and I still haven’t gotten more than 100 pages into it. Grisham is one of my all-time favorite writers, because I absolutely lurve courtroom dramas, but this just isn’t doing it for me. If someone can tell me that it stops dragging, I’ll pick it up again. Until then…Dusy corner of the bookshelf for you!
@Ashley: It doesn’t really stop dragging, but I think that’s kind of the point; it’s a long story with many different angles and not one right answer.
Having said that, I do enjoy Grisham’s early fiction because he’s a good storyteller, but I am not convinced that nonfiction is for him. Then again, his latest fiction isn’t convincing me that fiction is for him either. Ahem, ‘Playing for Pizza’ and ‘The Broker’ :)
Wow, Craig Wasson! Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in years! I loved him in Body Double (I know, I know, cheezy 80’s noir…). I’ve tried and tried to like Grisham, really. He’s okay, but his writing style is too spare; I like a much lusher, wordy narrative. I may have to try the audio version now.
Even though I am a big basher of John Grisham, I end up reading all his books anyhow. I would like it better if he started a series of books with the same character, such as Michael Connely and Detective Harry Bosch.
Ashley — The book does kind of drag, but after I finished it, I was glad to have read the story and it did make me think about the death penalty, even though I already oppose it. I get the feeling Grisham was going for a Capote-style non-fiction novel and it just didn’t work. I’d say it’s worth finishing, though.
I hate to say it, but I didn’t like the newest novel either. He’s one of my favorites — I’ll read anything he writes — but the new novel just didn’t grab my attention I hated the end.
@Jo: I couldn’t agree more about the most recent Grisham novel. I also hated the end. I understood what he was going for but it still sucked.
With Grisham, I’ve always felt that if you’ve read one of his books, you’ve read them all.
I borrowed a few Grisham books from one of my profs in college (I love small schools) because I’d never read anything by him and my prof really loved them. I didn’t hate them, really. They did have great plots and, when you’re a college student, you appreciate a fast, entertaining read. I honestly don’t remember much about either of them and didn’t feel a burning desire to read anything else by him, which probably tells you something, but I didn’t hate them. I can see why they make good movies, now.