Bookquote.net Bookquote.net – Books Review and Quote site
Related Articles
| Categories | Thrillers & Suspense |
| Author | John Grisham |
| Publisher | Vintage; Reprint edition (August 19, 2014) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 464 pages |
| Item Weight | 12 ounces |
| Dimensions |
5.2 x 1 x 8 inches |
I. Book introduction
Sycamore Row is a legal thriller novel by American author John Grisham published by Doubleday on October 22, 2013. The novel reached the top spot in the US best-seller list. It is preceded by A Time to Kill and followed by A Time for Mercy.
Plot
The title refers to a row of sycamore trees in the countryside near the fictional town of Clanton, in fictional Ford County, Mississippi. The trees play an important role in the book’s plot, though the full significance becomes clear only in the end of the novel. It is suggested that these sycamores are very old, having been planted by Native Americans prior to the arrival of European settlers and their stolen, enslaved Africans in what would become the state of Mississippi.
The story begins three years after the sensational events in the trial of Carl Lee Hailey (A Time to Kill). An employee of wealthy recluse Seth Hubbard is instructed to meet his boss at a location by these sycamores one early Sunday afternoon. The employee finds Mr. Hubbard has hanged himself from the tree because his terminal lung cancer had become too painful. Accompanying the body are very specific funeral and burial instructions.
Jake Brigance, Carl Lee’s former attorney, had gained much fame after the Hailey trial, as well as the respect of the black community and of many whites, but he has little to no money to show for it. During the Hailey trial, the Ku Klux Klan had tried to intimidate Jake by burning his home. Jake has yet to see any of the insurance money for the burnt house, which is tied up in litigation with his own insurance company.
Jake receives a letter sent by Hubbard just before he killed himself, containing a new holographic will that renounces a will he filed the year before in which he leaves all his assets to his daughter and son as well as his grandchildren. In this new will, Hubbard stipulates that his children will receive nothing. Instead, five percent will be given to the local church and another five percent will be left to his long-disappeared brother, Ancil Hubbard. The remaining ninety percent is to be given to his black housekeeper Letitia “Lettie” Lang. Further instructions stipulate that the will must not be filed for probate until after Hubbard’s funeral so that his children, who rarely visited him during his bout with cancer, can put on a show not knowing that they will ultimately be left with nothing.
Hubbard notes that his children will certainly contest the new will because they are greedy and that Jake must do whatever it takes to make sure the new will is enforced. He says he chose Jake because of the admirable work that Jake did during the Hailey trial.
Soon, Jake finds out that Hubbard had earned more than $20 million in a lumber yard business, a fortune unmatched by any other individual in Ford County. As the executor publishes this sum, the entire town of Clanton shifts their attention to the case.
Hubbard’s children attempt to contest their father’s new will by claiming he was not capable when filing it, igniting a hotly contested court battle with many twists and turns. Jake’s first concern is to prevent the trial from becoming a race issue of blacks vs. whites. Since Ford County has a white majority, the jury would almost certainly also be majority white. On the other hand, whites in Ford County are far from completely biased, as proven by the fact that voters had elected a black sheriff to two consecutive terms by an overwhelming majority. Jake believes that if the race issue is toned down, the jury might rule for Lettie on the case’s own merits, i.e. that Hubbard made his money himself and had the right to leave it to whoever he wanted and that he knew what he was doing when changing his will.
First, Jake must get rid of a rabble-rousing black lawyer from Memphis who goes to Clanton and involves himself in the case while engaging in a series of provocative acts which risk the chances of winning the case. Then, Lettie’s husband, with whom she is on bad terms, kills two teens while driving drunk, arousing great passions against the Lang family and hurting their chance of a fair trial. As a measure of damage control, Jake convinces Lettie to immediately file for divorce (which was on her mind anyway).
The trial finally begins and goes well. Jake builds his case, and Lettie’s own testimony makes a good impression on the jury and Jake succeeds in discrediting the testimonies of Hubbard’s children and their assertion to have been close to their father and deeply caring during his illness. However, the opposing lawyer manages to spring a surprise witness, whose testimony seems to show that Lettie had tried to influence an earlier ailing employer to leave her money in a will, creating a suspicion of her systematically preying on the weakness of elderly ailing people. Still another surprise witness, a former black female employee with whom Hubbard had sexual relations comes forward, implying that Lettie had also slept with Hubbard.
The trial looks lost for Jake, with even the two black jurors starting to strongly doubt Lettie’s credibility. At the last moment, the trial is changed again by a sensational deposition given by Hubbard’s long-lost brother Ancil. Ancil, who had a very traumatic childhood, had left Ford County and joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 17, vowing never to return. Since then, he had led an adventurous and often criminal life around the world under a variety of assumed names, until finally being located as a bartender in Juneau, Alaska.
The disbarred Lucien, Jake’s friend and ex-partner who is an alcoholic but when sober still a sharp legal mind, goes to Alaska and manages to obtain Ancil’s testimony. Ancil explains why Seth left the money to his housekeeper and the significance of the sycamore tree from which he hung himself.
In the 1920s, Lettie’s grandfather Sylvester, whom she never knew, owned a considerable plot of land. His being a landowner was very much a rarity for a black person in the segregationist Deep South, and was greatly resented by racist whites in general and in particular by his neighbor, Cleon Hubbard, who laid a claim to Sylvester’s land. Hubbard, an abusive man who was often violent toward his wife and two sons, Seth and Ancil, tried to go to court. However, Sylvester had an unassailable title to the land, registered by the family during the Reconstruction period when federal troops, present in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War, upheld the rights of blacks.
Having failed in court, Hubbard resorted to the alternative method available at the time to whites in the Deep South, i.e. lynch law. Sylvester was falsely accused of “speaking rudely to white women”, which, together with resentment at his being a black landowner, was enough to mobilize a lynch mob. Several men dragged Sylvester from his home and hanged him from a sycamore tree. His sons, Ancil and Seth, who did not share their father’s prejudice and sometimes played with the black children, secretly observed this scene with great horror. Subsequently, Cleon Hubbard intimidated Esther, Lettie’s grandmother, who had just seen her husband being murdered with impunity, and forced her to sign away the family’s ownership for a pittance â with a promise that she could continue residing on the property. However, the promise was promptly broken, and Cleon and the sheriff then expelled the entire extended family and set fire to their homes and small chapel, totally eradicating the small black community which had been known as “Sycamore Row”. Esther, along with her five-year-old daughter (who would become Lettie’s mother), had to escape with virtually no possessions. An older child, with whom the Hubbard boys sometimes played, drowned in a river during the final expulsion.
Years later, Seth Hubbard used the property gained by his father as collateral for a mortgage in order to build his lumber yard. Knowing that his success was partly owed to this mortgage and wanting to make up for the injustice caused by his father, he decided to give the majority of his capital to Lettie and in a final act hung himself from the same tree from which Lettie’s grandfather was hung.
After hearing Ancil Hubbard’s testimony, the jury unanimously upholds the will and rejects the claims against its validity by Hubbard’s children. However, an appeal seems very probable, which might last for years and consume a large part of the estate in legal fees. Moreover, the judge’s decision to let the jury hear Ancil Hubbard’s testimony might be challenged on procedural grounds (it was a recorded testimony and opposing counsel could not cross-examine him). Therefore, Judge Reuben Atlee suggests the parties settle the case with reasonable conditions. As the judge suggests, after Ancil Hubbard and the local church get their promised share, $5 million would be given to a fund providing college education to members of Lettie’s family, all of whom share in the terrible legacy of the 1930 lynching and expulsion. Such a fund would also help Lettie get off her back numerous relatives who had shown up since the news spread that she would become rich. Jake would be in charge of this fund, giving him steady employment but also a lot of headaches. The remaining $6 million would be divided equally between Lettie and Seth Hubbard’s children.
The compromise is acceptable to everybody. Lettie is content to get back the land which belonged to her grandfather and build on it a nice house for herself, her children and grandchildren and does not mind Seth Hubbard’s children getting at least some of his money. In the final scene, Ancil Hubbard arrives from Alaska and has an emotional meeting with Lettie and other protagonists under the sycamore tree, she asking him to let the past lie and look to a better future.
Editorial Reviews
“John Grisham is about as good a storyteller as we’ve got in the United States these days.” âThe New York Times Book Review
“John Grisham is exceptionally good at what he doesâindeed, right now in this country, nobody does it better.” âJonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
“Grisham is a marvelous storyteller who works readers the way a good trial lawyer works a jury.” âPhiladelphia Inquirer
“John Grisham owns the legal thriller.” âThe Denver Post
“John Grisham is not just popular, he is one of the most popular novelists of our time. He is a craftsman and he writes good stories, engaging characters, and clever plots.” âSeattle Times
“A legal literary legend.” âUSA Today
About John Grisham
John Grisham (born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 28 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing.
Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practised criminal law for about a decade and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990.
Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. Grisham’s first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. The book was adapted into a 1993 feature film of the same name, starring Tom Cruise, and a 2012 TV series which continues the story ten years after the events of the film and novel. Seven of his other novels have also been adapted into films: The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas.
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John Girsham lives on a farm in central Virginia.
II. [Reviews] Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2) by John Grisham
| Here is a summary of the book Review “Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2) by John Grisham“. Helps you have the most overview of the book without searching through time. Please access “BookQuote.Net” regularly or save it to keep track and update the latest information. |
1. MILES review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
Reading the first fifty pages of Sycamore Row I experienced two very different emotions. Firstly, and I canât remember this happening before, I couldnât help but grin as I lost myself in every page, in fact I wasnât aware I was grinning until I heard my mobile ringing and looked away from the book â smiling! The second emotion was anger. Not of Grishamâs writing, his narrative or style, but Sethâs distant family. Racist, obnoxious, opinionated and just plain vile â you canât help but feel for Lettie the black housekeeper, a housekeeper tasked with looking after the house and an ailing Seth Hubbard for the last three years. Upon his death and his familyâs arrival Lettie is cast aside like a mess on a shoe, left to fend for her family and unemployed.
Now that Iâve finished Sycamore Row I can categorically say that those emotions never went away. They would bubble and fester, they werenât always present but it was as if they were stuck in limbo, waiting to emerge just like a pocket of air escaping water throughout the entire story. You never quite knew where the bubble would burst but you knew it would at some point.
This is without doubt the best legal thriller Iâve read this year, hands down the best. Set at a terrific pace this multi layered story evolves and evolves and just when you think it canât go anywhere, that the end is in nigh, the book suddenly branches off in a fresh direction, a new perspective, and Grisham introduces a new witness or a different focus to the investigation. This really is clever and sharp witted stuff!
Characterisation is key to any book and it was so satisfying for me to find out what happens to Jake Brigance and his family following the trial of Carl Lee Hailey. Three years down the line heâs still dining out on the plaudits and fame from the case â even if the money and rewards arenât as forthcoming – and finds himself stuck in a rut doing the same old cases day in day out. Our protagonist had hoped to have moved on to bigger and better things but alas his loss is our literary gain.
John Grisham has brought together an eclectic mix of old and new characters. They all play their part in a legal thriller that is both entertaining and evocative. Even the nasty characters are enjoyable; they all help to add depth and colour to the book but Jake, Ozzie and Lucien carry the book as far as Iâm concerned.
I enjoyed where the book takes the reader and where it ends and hopefully in a few yearsâ time weâll be allowed to revisit Ford County and experience life in Reuben Atleeâs courtroom once again through the eyes of Jake Brigance. With sharp dialogue, atmospheric narrative and a sagacious storyline, Sycamore Row is one not to be missed. Highly recommended.
2. SUSANNE review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
Seth Hubbard was a wealthy white man. He was also dying of lung cancer. After months of suffering, he decided heâd had enough, so he planned his own suicide and one of his workers finds Seth hanging from a Sycamore tree, on his own property, in Clanton, Mississippi. Before his death, Seth Hubbard leaves a suicide note, with burial instructions. He also re-did his will, the day before, having researched the laws in the State of Mississippi. Seth Hubbard knew that the hand written will, drafted by his own hand, without the presence of a witness was legal and it revoked all others.
After writing it, Seth mailed it to one Jake Brigance, Attorney-At-Law. The same Jake Brigance, who years earlier presided over the Carl Lee Haley trial and won. Though Seth had never met Mr. Brigance, he knew he would uphold Sethâs wishes till the bitter end. And this battle? It became as bitter as they get. Why? The handwritten will left 90% of Sethâs estate to his black maid, and caregiver, Lettie Lang, 5% to his long-lost brother, Ancil Hubbard, and 5% to his church. Sethâs children and grandchildren were cut out completely, even though they received the bulk of the estate in the prior will.
As you can imagine, this causes quite the commotion and Sethâs children and grandchildren commence a lawsuit to fight for the money. Jake Brigance was given specific instructions to do whatever it takes to make sure the handwritten will was enforced and a jury trial commences. Things get complicated and ugly fast, with Sethâs family trying to disparage Lettie at every turn so that they can convince the jury that Seth Hubbard was not in his right mind when he wrote the handwritten will. They want that money and will stop at nothing to get it. His handwritten will raises so many questions .. Why would Seth Hubbard leave Lettie Lang all of his money? And was he in his right mind when he wrote it? .. the list goes on.
Until Sycamore Row, the last John Grisham book I had picked up was The Pelican Brief, over twenty-five years ago. (And I only remembered to add his books to m GR read list this morning). I thoroughly enjoyed Sycamore Row and have no idea why I waited so long to pick up another one of Grishamâs novels. The pacing was good, the characters were interesting. Further, I remember liking the character of Jake Brigance from A Time to Kill and liked him better here. Grisham kept me interested throughout even though this novel was fairly complicated. Based on my enjoyment of this one, I will definitely be reading (and/or listening to) some of John Grishamâs others.
3. ANDREW SMITH review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
I’ve read the precursor to this book, A Time to Kill, but don’t remember much about it – it was a long time ago. What I do know is that this is a brilliantly crafted courtroom drama in it’s own right. It’s worth reading whether you caught ATtK or not. Having recently read another excellent courtroom yarn, in Michael Connelly’s latest offering The Gods of Guilt, I had little hope this would compare favourably. I was wrong, it’s as good if not better.
I love the Deep South setting and the characters Grisham develops here. The tale is compelling and there are elements here that drove me close to tears. It’s just brilliant.
I read all the early Grisham novels but then tired of what felt like a well trodden, if not worn out, format. Then I read a good review of The Confession and picked it up. I loved it and have read all the books he’s written since, each of them of the highest quality. Actually, that’s true with the exception of his last book (Gray Mountain) which was a huge disappointment. I’m hoping he springs back to form with his next book.
4. SUSAN review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
Wow! Grisham is back with another excellently written stunner. A smart, fast moving story about the legality of a Holographic Will. The sudden suicide of a family’s Patriarch and his twenty-four hour old, handwritten Will, have his family up in arms when it is revealed that he has left millions to his black maid. Jake Brigance and the, “Time to Kill”, original gang return with another southern, court room, roller coaster.
Jake Brigance is a handsome, lawyer who has a reputation for his ability to woo a jury. His mentor Lucien, a disbarred, alcoholic attorney and Harry Rex, a devious divorce attorney, all return for a second act in the ongoing saga of race equality during the early 80’s in Mississippi. Lawyers and family members start popping out of the woodwork when the dollar amount of the Will is revealed and then it is off to the races.
An original storyline that had the characters just jumping off the page. This is a must read for those of you that enjoy legal thrillers. A first rate narrative by Michael Beck mixed with an intensely emotional, surprise ending made this one of my favorites of the year.
5. CAROLYN SHARA review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
This was an interesting sequel in the trio of the protagonist who first appeared in A Time To Kill. Struggling financially after losing his home and gaining virtually nothing from defending Carl Lee Hailey, Jake is thrust into a fight over a will.
Sounds dull but Grisham manages to make the struggle suspenseful.
A white man leaves a multi-million dollar estate to his black housekeeper and the motive is obscure. The surprise ending is pure Grisham with Mississippiâs endemic racism front and center.
If youâve never read A Time to Kill you might want to read it first.
6. RGM review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
I liked revisiting the characters from ‘A Time to Kill’, which was totally unexpected, because I didn’t know that this was a sequel of the main character, Jack Brigance. A typical beach-book, one that was hard to put down except to reach for a beverage of choice or a quick-dip in the pool.
I most often leave my beach-books at the resort, but I made room in my suitcase to bring this one back.
It’s worth re-reading again (at another beach). One of Grisham’s better books.
7. MICHELLE L.BECK review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
When a successful, white Southern businessman decides to hang himself from a sycamore tree, and leave his entire fortune to his black housekeeper/maid, he knew he’d be opening a can of worms. Having grown tired of fighting his terminal illness, Seth Hubbard decides to end it all and do the unimaginable with his money. But, with $22 plus million dollars at stake, his family, who were cut out of the will, were not going to let his wishes stand without a fight. Enters Jake Brigance, the attorney who rose to fame by winning the acquittal of Carl Lee Hailey, who killed his daughter’s rapists. No one is more shocked than Jake when he receives Seth’s handwritten will in the mail a few days after his body is discovered. Jake has never met the Seth, nor does he know why he was chosen, but he appreciates his good fortune. Since the Hailey trial, business hasn’t necessarily been booming and Jake could use the money. So Jake takes the case and is up for the challenge. It should be simple, if you ignore the other implications of executing a controversial will. After all, Seth has left explicit directions concerning what he wants done with his assets and offers no real explanation of why. He’s written his kids out of his will, left a small amount to his estranged brother and his church, but the remaining 90% to Lettie Lang, is housekeeper. And while race relations have improved in Ford County (after all it is the year 1989), some things haven’t. As a result, Jake finds that giving a dying man his last wishes will prove difficult and the courtroom drama ensues as some very apt attorneys fight over a fortune, only to bring past sins and family secrets long buried, to light.
I will warn readers that while Jake Brigance is the same attorney that zealously defended Carl Lee Hailey, in “A Time to Kill”, this is by no means a sequel. Besides revisiting some of the characters from ATTK (Harry Rex and Lucien), there are only a few references to what happened during the trial three years prior. Hard living Lucien, who can’t escape the bottle, and dapper Harry Rex, are always there to provide legal advice and support to Jake as he puts his legal know how to the test against defense attorneys who will stop at nothing to win. Both visits to Clanton were familiar to me, but very different. Neither time has it been a real “who done it”, instead they both have been interesting stories about race relations, reparations and forgiveness. In my opinion, this was not really what I would consider to be a legal thriller but a beautifully crafted story, in the form of a civil trial.
There is a lot to appreciate about this story. To me, the writing was by far some of Grisham’s best work to date. Even though it has been over 10 years between the two stories, A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row, Grisham hasn’t lost his touch. Perhaps it is just something about Ford County and Jake Brigance that lures the reader in. I know I found myself transported to the small Southern town of Clanton, Mississippi. I could see the row of sycamore trees that would become pivotal to the story, and later serve as the name of the book. I could see the diner, the town and even the characters were so vivid that they came to life as the story unfolded. There were times when I cheered and times that I felt real sadness. Regardless, I enjoyed the story. Sycamore Row was a fantastic read that will stay in the hearts and mind of the reader for some time. I give it 4.5 to 5 stars.
8. MARIALYCE review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
From my five star rating, I guess you would know I loved this book. This was the author, John Grisham, that I once loved. He was back in full swing with a fast moving wonderful story with a cast of characters that we grew to love and appreciate in Grisham’s A Time to Kill.
I believe it is always wonderful to see an author return to his or her roots, the things that made them special and gave readers a thrill to have read them. In this book, Grisham shows what a wonderful storyteller he is as he weaves this tale of life in small town Mississippi and the death of a white man who leaves his considerable fortune not to his children and grandchildren, but to his black housekeeper. Suffice to say the story keeps moving, all 400+ pages of it with lots of twists and turns and things “lawyerly.”
I heartily recommend this novel and even though I am not a mystery book lover, this story made me want to rethink my “thinking.” Read it and enjoy an author who has in my humble opinion found his way back home.
9. LUANNE OLLIVIER review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
Twenty five years ago, the initial print run of John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was 5000 copies. His second novel propelled him onto the bestseller lists – where every subsequent novel has landed.
In his latest novel, Sycamore Row, Grisham takes us back to Clanton, Mississippi and his first character – ‘street lawyer’ Jake Brigance. Three years ago, in 1985, Jake successfully defended a black man accused of murder – the murder of the white rapists of his ten year old daughter. The trial and verdict divided the town and racial tension still runs high.
I was waiting for just the right time to crack the spine of Sycamore Row. (Figuratively speaking of course because I would never hurt a book. đ
I just knew that once I started, I wouldn’t want to put it down. And I was right – I was hooked from the opening lines….
“They found Seth Hubbard in the general area where he had promised to be, though not exactly in the condition expected. He was at the end of a rope, six feet off the ground and twisting slightly in the wind.”
It turns out that reclusive Seth was extremely wealthy. And that he changed his will in the days before his death. His new handwritten will lands in the office of Jake Brigance, delivered by mail the day after Seth’s death. Hubbard has cut out his children and left the bulk of his estate to his housekeeper of three years – a black woman named Lettie Lang. Jake doesn’t know Seth Hubbard but is determined to follow Seth’s instructions to the letter of the law.
By doing so, he’s in for another fight….
Oh man! I loved it, loved it, loved it!!! Nobody does legal thrillers like Grisham. Really, you don’t even need the ‘legal’ qualifier. Grisham is pure and simple, one heck of a storyteller. Absolutely one of the best. His prose flow seamlessly, drawing the reader ever deeper into the story and the town of Clanton. I could picture myself sitting at the diner, with Dell pouring coffee, and listening to the latest gossip.
The characters are really well drawn. Jake is extremely likable, principled and the kind of lawyer you’d want in your corner. I also quite enjoy the other supporting legal players – drunken, but canny Lucien Wilbanks, the pronouncements of Harry Rex and the astuteness of Sheriff Ozzie Walls.
Grisham brings his setting to life – the town, culture, attitudes and more are all detailed and benefit greatly from the author’s own past. The legal machinations employed are just as detailed (and interesting) Grisham both grew up in the South and practiced law in Mississippi.
The plotting is excellent, the tension palpable and the journey to the final pages and reveal is oh so good. Absolutely addictive reading, Stick this one in your own stocking – five stars for sure!
10. PAUL review Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
If you have read A Time To Kill and enjoyed it, you will almost certainly enjoy Sycamore Row. All of the characters rerun from the first book. Jake Brigance a lawyer who at times seems to be in way over his head. Lucien his his alcoholic landlord and somewhat mentor. His pal and fellow lawyer Harry Rex, and Ozzie the sherif of Ford county.
The story is about a handwritten will written by a man named Seth Hubbard done so the day before he hangs himself and whether the will is valid or if the one he had professionally prepared 3 years earlier is the one to be executed. The hand written one excludes all family from any money which is a considerable amount. Instead 90 % of the estate is left to Seth’s black housekeeper, and Seth is white. This being Mississippi race becomes the main focal point, and for a number of very good reasons.
The author is an expert at writing about law and legal proceedings without ever being boring, and while the ending could lead to a sequel it does not require one.
This was a fantastic book. It is too bad there are not more books out there to say that about.
III. [Quote] Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2) by John Grisham
The best book quotes from Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
âWhen you have no future, you live in the past, and Lonny would be stuck there forever.â
âFirst on the scene was Calvin Boggs, a handyman and farm laborer Seth had employed for several years.â
âEthics are determined by what they catch you doing. If you donât get caught, then you havenât violated any ethics.â
âThey found Seth Hubbard in the general area where he had promised to be, though not exactly in the condition expected. He was at the end of a rope, six feet off the ground and twisting slightly in the wind.â
âIt must be pretty cool being a lawyer,” she said in awe.
“Cool” was not an adjective Jake would use. He was forced to admit to himself that it had been a long time since he viewed his profession as something other than tedious.ââA man shrewd enough and clever enough to amass such a fortune in ten years does not throw togetherâ
âBut such a cheap shot from a sibling can never be left alone.â
âHe hadnât hit her in several years, but when youâve been beaten you never forget it. The bruises go away but the scars remain, deep, hidden, raw. You stay beaten. It takes a real coward to beat a woman.â
âSistrunk looked angrily at Lettie and said, “I’m allowed to be paid for my time and expenses, plus there is the matter of the loans. When can I expect the money?”
“In due course,” Jake said.
“I want it now.”
“Well, you’re not getting it now.”
“Then I’ll sue.”
“Fine. I’ll defend.”
“And I’ll preside,” Judge Atlee said. “I’ll give you a trial date in about four years.ââIn the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus teaches the importance of forgiveness. He knows weâre human and our natural tendency is to seek revenge, to strike back, to condemn those who hurt us, but this is wrong. Weâre supposed to forgive, always.â
âYou mentioned law school,” he said, and this grabbed her attention. They talked about it at length, with Jake careful not to make his description as dreadful as the three-year ordeal itself. Occasionally, like all lawyers, Jake was asked by students if he would recommend the law as a profession. He had never found an honest way to say no, though he had many reservations.â
âSistrunk looked angrily at Lettie and said, âIâm allowed to be paid for my time and expenses, plus there is the matter of the loans. When can I expect the money?â âIn due course,â Jake said. âI want it now.â âWell, youâre not getting it now.â âThen Iâll sue.â âFine. Iâll defend.â âAnd Iâll preside,â Judge Atlee said. âIâll give you a trial date in about four years.â
âHubbard obtained the land from Sylvesterâs widow.â
âBooker Sistrunk sat awkwardly with his hands behind him and continued the mouthing: âYou oughtta be ashamed of yourself, treating a brother like this.â âThe white guyâs gettinâ the same treatment,â Ozzie said. âYouâre violating my civil rights.â âAnd youâre violatinâ mine with your mouth. Now shut up or Iâll lock you under the jail. We got a little basement down there.â
âIf you smoke cigarettes, take the advice of a dead man and stop immediately.â
âyou start repeating whatâs already been said, as lawyers have a natural inclination toâ
âa Caucasian over the age of fifty. The younger people went to integrated schools and tend to be more tolerant on race, and obviously we areâ
âThe lawyer calmly said, âEthics are determined by what they catch you doing. If you donât get caught, then you havenât violated any ethics.â
âthe jury that conniving her way into wills handwritten by her old and vulnerable bosses was a devious pattern.â
âBut, in a case like this, itâll be nice to have twelve of our good and faithful citizens in the hot seat.â
âIf he neglected Seth as an adult, it was because Seth had neglected him as a little boy. A child is not born with the tendency to neglect; it has to be acquired. Herschel learned from a master.â
âItâs just depositions,â Jake had said. âYouâll be bored out of your mind. Death by deposition.â
âYou werenât required to divulge all of your witnesses and describe what they were going to say, no sir. It was trial by ambush.â
âThe effort to validate the handwritten will of Seth Hubbard continued to unravel late Sunday morning,â
âThere had been so many. He had hired young ones because they were more plentiful and worked cheaper. The better of those got married and pregnant and wanted six months off. The bad ones flirted, wore tight miniskirts, and made suggestive comments. He had hired more mature women to negate any physical temptation, but, as a rule, they had been bossy, maternal, menopausal, and they had more doctors’ appointments, as well as aches and pains to talk about and funerals to attend.â
âFrom the gravel road, they all strained to see the old sycamore, but after a few seconds of focusing it was apparent there was a man hanging from it. Calvin told them everything he knew. The deputies decided it was best to proceed as if a crime had been committed, and they prohibited the ambulance crew from approaching the scene.â
âthat there was no mud on his shoes and no tracks below him, so therefore he was probably hanging and dead when the rain began. Why was that important? Ultimately, it was not. The logistics of hanging oneself from a tree are not that simple.â
âThe bruises go away but the scars remain, deep, hidden, raw.â
âHe had hired more mature women to negate any physical temptation, but, as a rule, they had been bossy, maternal, menopausal, and they had more doctorsâ appointments, as well as aches and pains to talk about and funerals to attend.â
âFor him and his Chancery Court, a major trial was a nasty divorceâ
âHe was definitely part of the gang, but he didnât want to get his hands dirty. There were four trucks, and they drove slowly away from the settlement, not far, to a row of sycamore trees. Seth and I knew the place well because we had fished in the creek.â
âchild is not born with the tendency to neglect; it has to be acquired.â
âThereâs no mandatory retirement age for drug dealers.â
âand exactly twenty-one feet from the ground. From there it fell about nine feet, culminating in a perfect hangmanâs knot, one that Seth had undoubtedly worked on for some time.â
âSistrunk had made a decision. If possible, they would commandeer the table used by the prosecution and plaintiff, the one closest to the jury, and assert themselves as the true voice of the proponents of the will. Jake Brigance would probably throw punches, but bring it on. It was time to establish proper roles, and since their client was theâ
Excerpted from Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2)
Chapter 1 – Sycamore Row
They found Seth Hubbard in the general area where he had promised to be, though not exactly in the condition expected. He was at the end of a rope, six feet off the ground and twisting slightly in the wind. A front was moving through and Seth was soaked when they found him, not that it mattered. Someone would point out that there was no mud on his shoes and no tracks below him, so therefore he was probably hanging and dead when the rain began. Why was that important? Ultimately, it was not.
The logistics of hanging oneself from a tree are not that simple. Evidently, Seth thought of everything. The rope was three-quarter-inch braided natural Manila, of some age and easily strong enough to handle Seth, who weighed 160 pounds a month earlier at the doctor’s office. Later, an employee in one of Seth’s factories would report that he had seen his boss cut the fifty-foot length from a spool a week before using it in such dramatic fashion. One end was tied firmly to a lower branch of the same tree and secured with a slapdash mix of knots and lashings. But, they held. The other end was looped over a higher branch, two feet in girth and exactly twenty-one feet from the ground. From there it fell about nine feet, culminating in a perfect hangman’s knot, one that Seth had undoubtedly worked on for some time. The noose was straight from the textbook with thirteen coils designed to collapse the loop under pressure. A true hangman’s knot snaps the neck, making death quicker and less painful, and apparently Seth had done his homework. Other than what was obvious, there was no sign of a struggle or suffering.
A six-foot stepladder had been kicked aside and was lying benignly nearby. Seth had picked his tree, flung his rope, tied it off, climbed the ladder, adjusted the noose, and, when everything was just right, kicked the ladder and fell. His hands were free and dangling near his pockets.
Had there been an instant of doubt, of second-guessing? When his feet left the safety of the ladder, but with his hands still free, had Seth instinctively grabbed the rope above his head and fought desperately until he surrendered? No one would ever know, but it looked doubtful. Later evidence would reveal that Seth had been a man on a mission.
For the occasion, he had selected his finest suit, a thick wool blend, dark gray and usually reserved for funerals in cooler weather. He owned only three. A proper hanging has the effect of stretching the body, so Seth’s trouser cuffs stopped at his ankles and his jacket stopped at his waist. His black wing tips were polished and spotless. His blue necktie was perfectly knotted. His white shirt, though, was stained with blood that had oozed from under the rope. Within hours, it would be known that Seth Hubbard had attended the 11:00 a.m. worship service at a nearby church. He had spoken to acquaintances, joked with a deacon, placed an offering in the plate, and seemed in reasonably good spirits. Most folks knew Seth was battling lung cancer, though virtually no one knew the doctors had given him a short time to live. Seth was on several prayer lists at the church. However, he carried the stigma of two divorces and would always be tainted as a true Christian.
His suicide would not help matters.
The tree was an ancient sycamore Seth and his family had owned for many years. The land around it was thick with hardwoods, valuable timber Seth had mortgaged repeatedly and parlayed into wealth. His father had acquired the land by dubious means back in the 1930s. Both of Seth’s ex-wives had tried valiantly to take the land in the divorce wars, but he held on. They got virtually everything else.
First on the scene was Calvin Boggs, a handyman and farm laborer Seth had employed for several years. Early Sunday morning, Calvin had received a call from his boss. “Meet me at the bridge at 2:00 p.m.,” Seth said. He didn’t explain anything and Calvin was not one to ask questions. If Mr. Hubbard said to meet him somewhere at a certain time, then he would be there. At the last minute, Calvin’s ten-year-old boy begged to tag along, and, against his instincts, Calvin said yes. They followed a gravel road that zigzagged for miles through the Hubbard property. As Calvin drove, he was certainly curious about the meeting. He could not remember another occasion when he met his boss anywhere on a Sunday afternoon. He knew his boss was ill and there were rumors he was dying, but, like everything else, Mr. Hubbard kept it quiet.
The bridge was nothing more than a wooden platform spanning a nameless, narrow creek choked with kudzu and crawling with cottonmouths. For months, Mr. Hubbard had been planning to replace it with a large concrete culvert, but his bad health had sidetracked him. It was near a clearing where two dilapidated shacks rotted in the brush and overgrowth and offered the only hint that there was once a small settlement there.
Parked near the bridge was Mr. Hubbard’s late-model Cadillac, its driver’s door open, along with the trunk. Calvin rolled to a stop behind the car and stared at the open trunk and door and felt the first hint that something might be out of place. The rain was steady now and the wind had picked up, and there was no good reason for Mr. Hubbard to leave his door and trunk open. Calvin told his boy to stay in the truck, then slowly walked around the car without touching it. There was no sign of his boss. Calvin took a deep breath, wiped moisture from his face, and looked at the landscape. Beyond the clearing, maybe a hundred yards away, he saw a body hanging from a tree. He returned to his truck, again told the boy to stay inside and keep the doors locked, but it was too late. The boy was staring at the sycamore in the distance.
“Stay here now,” Calvin said sternly. “And don’t get out of the truck.”
“Yes sir.”
Calvin began walking. He took his time as his boots slipped in the mud and his mind tried to stay calm. What was the hurry? The closer he got the clearer things became. The man in the dark suit at the end of the rope was quite dead. Calvin finally recognized him, and he saw the stepladder, and he quickly put the scene and the events in order. Touching nothing, he backed away and returned to his truck.
It was October of 1988, and car phones had finally arrived in rural Mississippi. At Mr. Hubbard’s insistence, Calvin had one installed in his truck. He called the Ford County sheriff’s office, gave a brief report, and began waiting. Warmed by the heater and soothed by Merle Haggard on the radio, Calvin gazed through the windshield, ignored the boy, tapped his fingers along with the wipers, and realized he was crying. The boy was afraid to speak.
….
Note: Above are quotes and excerpts from the book “Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance Book 2) by John Grisham”. If you find it interesting and useful, don’t forget to buy paper books to support the Author and Publisher!
| The above content has been collected from various sources on the internet. Click the Share button to recommend the book to your friends! |
BookQuote.Net Sincerely Introduced!
