Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - A Time to Kill

This book has not aged particularly well and is full of racial slurs and sexism and a lot of random drinking. It took until the 75% mark to get to the actual trial and my patience was very thin by then. For all of these reasons and more, I might not have finished it. But my mom and I were reading it aloud together and I really enjoyed that, as usual. So I would say 2.5 stars, at best, for the book, 4 stars for the reading experience…

Content Warnings

annabelle42688's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Please check the trigger warnings. The language like many of the characters are racist, sexist, and ableist. Not to mention the horrific nature of the inciting event and presents of the KKK in the book are extremely hard to read/listen to at times.

Content Warnings

mblanke's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

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pratha's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

3.75

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pained_creations's review

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I saw this movie years ago, but now that I am reading more fiction, I decided to try a John Grisham novel. The story is very hard to read, with a lot of racism, a brutal rape, and the n-word more times than I can count. All of that actually led me to stop reading and google Grisham to see if he was a racist, but was relieved to see that he seems to have fought racism, even in politics.

The deep south mentality, culture and racist history are all on clear display in this book. The story is well written, and you feel like you get to know the characters as the drama and legal battle unfold. I think the moral of the story is that even a few people can make a big difference in the hatred and bigotry on display in this book. I am sure I will read another Grisham book, as the emotional roller coaster and great story telling drew me in....but I hope the next crime isn't so brutal and difficult to read!

Content Warnings

jonssweater's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

My advice: just watch the film. In the live action adaptation, Jake Brigance is genuinely a likeable protagonist. Having to wade through the perspective of a self-important, hypocritical, fame-hungry misogynistic lawyer could have been an interesting critique of enforcers of the judicial system, but the framing of Brigance as an entirely unfeeling, apathetic, untouchable white saviour who does as he pleases and twists the law he supposedly upholds to make his ends is unsavoury and droll to read in my opinion (especially for a book that runs for over five hundred pages).

The treatment of female characters in this book is abysmal and eye-roll-worthy; Brigance constantly berating and mocking his secretary Ethel, causing her to cry and making inappropriate comments about her chest; the same patriarchal leering he ascribes to Ellen (despite being a married man with a child) as he lusts after her and has the gall to resent her for being a self-important tease, so to speak; as well as demanding the list of jurors for the trial (a crime) and reprimanding Jean Gillespie for doing her duty as a secretary and not giving into his self-serving demands.

Here’s a fun example of Brigance’s bigotry that were be nearly comical if it weren’t treated in such a blasé fashion: “‘Because men don’t have female friends. No way. I don’t know of a single man in the entire South who is married and has a female friend. I think it goes back to the Civil War.’

‘I think t goes back to the Dark Ages. Why are Southern Women so jealous?’

‘Because that’s the way we’ve trained them. They learned from us. If my way met a male friend for lunch or dinner, I’d tear his head off and file for divorce. She learned it from me.’

‘That makes absolutely no sense.’

‘Of course it doesn’t.’

‘Your wife has no male friends?’

‘Why would I want female friends? They can’t talk about football, or duck hunting, or politics, or lawsuits, or anything that i want to talk about. They talk about kids, clothes, recipes, coupons, furniture, stuff I know nothing about. No, I don’t have any female friends. Don’t want any.’

‘That’s what I love about the South. The people are so tolerant.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Do you have any Jewish friends?’

‘I don’t know of any in Ford County. I had a real good friend in law school, Ira Tauber, from New Jersey. We were very close. I love Jews. Jesus was a Jew, you know. I’ve never understood anti-Semitism.’

‘’My God, you are a liberal. How about, uh, homosexuals?’

‘I feel sorry for them. They don’t know what they’re missing. But that’s their problem.’

‘Could you have a homosexual friend?’

‘I guess, as long as he didn’t tell me.’

‘Nope, you’re a Republican.’

I could write a whole essay about how mind-numbingly dull to read and unnecessarily discriminatory this passage of dialogue between Brigance and Roark is, but for the sake of my general comfort and given the fact that I don’t care enough to point out how blatantly and ridiculously disrespectful this excerpt is – I won’t. I’ll just leave it as it is, and allow anyone reading this review to make their own opinions based upon this unedited piece of wasted words.

It’s easy to read through Jake’s point of view and feel easy in ascribing his miserable temperament and unappealing characteristics to Grisham himself, who I really would prefer to judge as an author here – but his stylisation as an author is also incredibly lacking. Many times while reading, his simplistic prose and tendency to reply upon short sentences grows monotonous. Grisham’s dialogue too deserves criticism for the continuous ambiguity of which character exactly is talking during a scene. A conversation between three characters, for instance, grows confusing and frustrating when every line is one of dialogue that isn’t specified to a particular character.

It’s clear to me that A Time To Kill, published in 1989, does not exactly stand the test or time (no pun intended). As a piece of literature it’s childishly simple and lacking in every place that counts. Candidly speaking, it becomes a chore to have to sift through. Frankly, I can’t help but feel a twinge of pride for getting through it. My earlier advice remains: just watch the film if you have interest in A Time To Kill, as it is far more entertaining and less aggravating than this read.

Content Warnings

treutman93's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Content Warnings

bridgetanderson's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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