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adderbolt - Jack posted an update Saturday, Nov 5, 2011, 6:34am EDT, 13 years, 12 months ago
A John Grisham Interview
John Grisham isn’t sure that there will be another John Grisham. He recently published a new novel called The Litigators. Grisham says that his early success was driven by word-of-mouth in brick-and-mortar bookstores. With stores closing because of the e-book things have changed. “Spreading the word on a good book may be more difficult without the bookstores,” Grisham said in a recent interview, “On the other hand, it may be easier online. No one knows.”
How did you come up with the characters in “The Litigators”?
These are compositions of many lawyers. I got the idea for the guys from watching all the TV advertising done by lawyers. It’s epidemic. You see these guys on television appealing for injury cases and all these drug cases.
Did you come away with more sympathy for ambulance-chasing lawyers?
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the ambulance chasing that you see today. Thirty years ago, we didn’t like those guys. We had a certain ethical structure to the practice of street law. That’s been completely eroded. Now it’s non-stop TV advertising that is unseemly and sleazy. When the BP oil spill happened last summer the advertising by the lawyers was disgusting. They were just all over the place begging for cases.
When the BP oil spill happened, what were your thoughts on it?
It’s easier to criticize offshore drilling and oil companies than for all of us to cut back on oil consumption. That was my reaction to it. I had no sympathy for BP….But it’s going to happen again. We didn’t solve any problems.
How did you come up with the idea of ‘The Litigators’?
A little of it was British Petroleum. When that happened, a bunch of trial lawyers swept in. We were bombarded with ads soliciting clients for a whole list of bad products. So I had the idea, what if the product doesn’t do all the damage it’s thought to do? I like to create fictional scenarios about lawsuits or trials or whatever. I’ve been sued several times. A lot of my own experiences went into this book, being a defendant.
Have all the legal shows on TV demystified the law?
People have this insatiable appetite for stories about the law, trials, law firms, litigation, criminal cases, civil cases. We were born with so many rights and if someone messes with our rights, we’re going to protect ourselves. It’s a very litigious society. I don’t know if the public is any smarter about the law because of those shows. But they want to hear these stories.
Are bankers replacing lawyers as our cultural villains?
I think bankers are going through a rough patch, but the truth is the average American is going to have very little contact with a Wall Street banker. But sooner or later he’s going to have contact with a lawyer. Something is going to happen. Hopefully it’ll be a good experience, but it probably won’t be.
How do you come up with and develop your ideas?
First of all, an idea comes up. I carry legal pad in my briefcase. I put it in the computer when I get home. I have thousands and thousands of pages of old notes, ideas for books, names, scenes. I’m always on the prowl, that’s just what I do. It’s second nature. At some point I got the idea of a young lawyer joining the firm of ambulance chasers. It was a very gradual process. Some ideas hit real fast and the stories are clear. Others sort of fester for months or years.
Do you know the endings of your books when you start?
I know the final scene before I start. If you know that last scene, it’s hard to get lost. You can’t outline everything and the spontaneous stuff happens in the context of a structured outline. I have the beginning, middle and end. I have the characters, the main plot, two or three subplots, and that’s what I work off of. But you can’t predict everything that’s go to happen in a book. And you don’t want to.
What’s your take on e-books?
My last book came out a year ago, “The Confession.” A year later we’re running about 60 percent hardback and 40 percent digital. If it gets to be 70-80 percent, a lot of publishers are going to go under, bookstores are going to go under. I do think there will always be books, but it’s just too chaotic right now to predict. Amazon sent me a Kindle a couple years ago, and I read a couple books on it. If I spent some time with it I’d get good with it. But I love books on a shelf. I collect first editions. However, back in January I went to a resort in the Caribbean and I was astonished. 80 percent of the crowd had Kindles or iPads. It was very unscientific research, as to where the future is going.
How is the TV version of “The Firm” coming?
They’ve filmed eight episodes so far out of 22….The buzz is really good. High expectations. NBC is behind it big time.
