A Time to Kill

Racism and Revenge in Rural Mississippi

A Time to Kill by John Grisham was his first novel. Initially, a flop until Grisham found success, and then it sold like hotcakes.

An entertaining read, if only to discover what all the fuss is about.

Synopsis

Tonya Hailey is a black ten-year-old girl who is raped and left for dead. It doesn’t take the police long to round up the culprits. James “Pete” Willard and Billy Ray Cobb, two local red necks, were busy bragging about their exploits in a local bar. They didn’t worry about the hurt that they had caused and were quickly arrested and held for trial.

The crime was brutal; Tonya was horrifically injured, mentally scarred, and will never be able to have children of her own. But this is small-town Mississippi, in the deep south. Racism is alive and well. Will Pete and Billy Ray get the sentence that they deserve? Tonya’s distressed and enraged father, Carl Lee Hailey, decides to take matters into his own hands. He guns the two culprits down as they leave the courthouse on the first day of the trial.

In the ensuing courtroom drama, young lawyer, Jake Brigance, sets about defending Carl Lee. He tries to avoid the death penalty on the grounds of temporary insanity. The trial sparks an explosion of racial tension, provoking burning crosses, riots and death threats.

Should the town applaud Carl Lee Hailey for riding the town of two lowlifes or send him to the gas chamber?

Review

By his own admission, Grisham’s first book is a semi-autobiographical tale of a young lawyer and his first big case. Grisham was inspired by a trial that he saw after the rape of a young black girl. He wondered what would happen if her father had taken matters into his own hands, and the plot was born.

The fascinating thing about the novel is the social reality it reflects. Grisham wrote his book in Mississippi in the mid-1980s, and by his telling, racism was alive and well. Many critics find his use of the word “nigger” abhorrent and his portrayal of attitudes dated. Though John Grisham lived in Mississippi at the time, who am I to question its accuracy? Subsequent events in the United States have shown that racism is far from dead.

Grisham’s view on retribution and justice is also a fascinating insight into social norms. Few in Britain would think of taking the law into their hands so violently. Was the US legal system so imbalanced that the rapists of a young girl would be able to get away with their crimes? Of course, it is only fiction, but you cannot help but wonder how deeply prejudices ran.

Despite being a fascinating insight into the racial dysfunction of the southern U.S., Grisham’s work will never win any prizes for literature. The plot moves along rapidly, and there is plenty of action and intrigue, but there is little to connect you with the characters. There is non of the raw emotion the crimes must have caused.

The book is popcorn fiction; you will munch your way through a cinema-sized bucket full of it before you realise what you have done. Please read it for the context and the ride, not the word painting.

It is easy to criticise John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, though I shouldn’t think he is too worried; the book keeps selling.

Excerpt

She was ten, and small for her age. She lay on her elbows, which were stuck and bound together with yellow nylon rope. Her legs were spread grotesquely with the right foot tied tight to an oak sapling and the left to a rotting, leaning post of a long-neglected fence. The ski rope had cut into her ankles and the blood ran down her legs. Her face was bloody and swollen, with one eye bulging and closed and the other eye half open so she could see the other white man sitting on the truck. She did not look at the man on top of her. He was breathing hard and sweating and cursing. He was hurting her.

When he finished, he slapped her and laughed, and the other man laughed in return, then they laughed harder and rolled around the grass by the truck like two crazy men, screaming and laughing. She turned away from them and cried softly, careful to keep herself quiet. She had been slapped earlier for crying and screaming. They promised to kill her if she didn’t keep quiet.

They grew tired of laughing and pulled themselves onto the tailgate, where Willard cleaned himself with the little nigger’s shirt, which by now was soaked with blood and sweat. Cobb handed him a cold beer from the cooler and commented on the humidity. They watched her as she sobbed and made strange, quiet sounds, then became still. Cobb’s beer was half empty, and it was not cold anymore. He threw it at the girl. It hit her in the stomach, splashing white foam, and it rolled off in the dirt near some other cans, all of which had originated from the same cooler. For two six-packs now they had thrown their half-empty cans at her and laughed. Willard had trouble with the target, but Cobb was fairly accurate. They were not ones to waste beer, but the heavier cans could be felt better and it was great fun to watch the foam shoot everywhere.

A Time to Kill by John Grisham