ISBN #: 978-0440245919
Page Count: 672
Copyright: June 23, 2009
Publisher: Dell
Book Summary:
(Taken from back cover)
For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his client's life - and then his own.
Mandy's Review:
A Time to Kill is one of my most favorite movies. I don't care how many times I see, I will still want to see it again and I will still cry at the end. It is absolutely heart-wrenching. When I realized it was based on a novel (this was back before I had heard of John Grisham) I put the novel on my TBR list. Needless to say, it has been on my TBR list for years. I have finally been able to read it.
As I was reading, I can easily see the differences between the book and the movie. Most of the time, I don't like it when the movie differs from the book very much. With this story, though, I can understand why the movie was made the way it was. This is no short read. If the producers would've kept the movie in line with the book, the movie would have been close to 6 or 7 hours long. This is one of those book/movie combinations where I enjoy both versions of the story.
If, for some weird reason, you're not familiar with this story let me sum it up for you: A 10-year-old black girl gets raped, beaten, pissed on, and left for dead. Thanks to a trusted informant, the police find out who did the heinous crime, arrest them, and take them to jail. As the boys are leaving the courtroom, the little girl's father rushes at them shooting them dead. The father is then arrested and put on trial for their murders. During the imprisonment and trial of Carl Lee (the girl's father), the Ku Klux Klan converge and commit acts of crime against the people associated with Carl Lee's defense.
Whether you watch the movie or read the book, A Time to Kill is an emotionally gut-wrenching, soul-stirring story about the different forms of justice and people's interpretation of such an idea. This is the ultimate story of black versus white set in an American small town, which is still mostly segregated. The N-word is used quite prevalently, so if you are easily offended you may not want to read this story. For me, the language did not deter my enjoyment of this novel, but I think I enjoy the movie a little bit more.
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AND...now you've read it in time to appreciate the sequel to A TIme To Kill that is coming out this fall! It's been a long time since I've read John Grisham but I will certainly be reading his new one.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap! There's a sequel!!!! I read in the Author's Note at the front of the book that he was thinking about revisiting Clanton, but I didn't realize it would be out this year! I am beyond excited!!!
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