A Time To Kill, by John Grisham
How things have moved on in 30 years!
The language of John Grisham’s debut novel would surely not pass the publisher’s pencil today.
The persistent use of the “N” word unarguably amounts to hate speech in today’s more politically sensitive, not to say correct, atmosphere.
As do many of the utterances of members of the Ku Klux Klan and even members of the public watching the trial that underlined his discrepancies between the law and existing social conventions.
It is common cause that had the accused Carl Lee Hailey, who killed the white supremacists who raped his ten-year-old daughter, been white, the case would probably never even have come to court.
Ironically, the book was conceived by then young lawyer Grisham after the trial of a black man who raped a 12-year-old white girl.
The nub of it is the right to extrajudicial revenge.
Grisham struggle to get this book published.
However it rode to best-seller status on the back of “The Firm” published three years later.
It was made into a film in 1996 and later even a stage play.
Notwithstanding the wince-inducing racist dialogue, one should ideally begin Grisham’s impressive bibliography with this book.
He has used characters developed in it in several of his later works