The Summons | John Grisham | Surprisingly Literary

The Summons | John Grisham | After Twists & Turns comes one engrossing plot with surprise end

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The Summons

	The Summons John Grisham Doubleday, 2002 - 354 pages average customer review:based on 744 reviews view larger image
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Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family's black sheep.

And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the Judge has withdrawn to the Atlee mansion and become a recluse.

With the end in sight, Judge Atlee issues a summons for both sons to return home to Clanton, to discuss the details of his estate. It is typed by the Judge himself, on his handsome old stationery, and gives the date and time for Ray and Forrest to appear in his study.

Ray reluctantly heads south, to his hometown, to the place where he grew up, which he prefers now to avoid. But the family meeting does not take place. The Judge dies too soon, and in doing so leaves behind a shocking secret known only to Ray.

And perhaps someone else.

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Surprisingly Literary

This book has produced a mixed bag of reviews, like any substantial work. I rarely read thrillers, although I loved the immersion of "workaholism" that drenches the first third of The Firm. The Summons is a good and serious read. It's depiction of the Deep South rings true and the characters are quite good (stock can equal universal and be satisfying). Its technical description of legal processes is straight on, as we expect from the author. It is also a very sly morality tale. The Oedipal dilemmas are timeless. This book actually reminded of Faulkner in these regards. One review referred to it as a Mystery Commedy ... like Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust. I believe that the literary reputation of this book will grow over time.

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After Twists & Turns comes one engrossing plot with surprise end

I have read several Grisham book about legal-eagles but none so engrossing and intriguing as this One! I got bogged down a few times in his description of places and persons, yet all-in-all it kept me reading rapidly until I came to his lengthy but surprising end! After slowing down to postpone the ending, I sort of expected somewhat the final end! I was still surprised.
I am also surprised at the variety of opinions expressed in the reviews. Grateful that I stuck it out even learning a bit about his unique style of writing! Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

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