art A

The book
Title: The King of Torts ISBN: 0-385-50804-2
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 384
Year of publication: 2003

The Author
Name: John Grisham Nationality: United States of America
Date of Birth: 8th of February, 1955
John Grisham, the second oldest of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In
1977, Grisham received a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Mississippi
State University. In 1983, Grisham was elected as a Democrat to the Mississippi House
of Representatives, where he served until 1990. During his time as a legislator, he
continued his private law practice in Southaven. In 1984, at the DeSoto County
courthouse in Hernando, Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old
rape victim. According to Grisham's official website, Grisham used his spare time to
begin work on his first novel, which "explored what would have happened if the girl's
father had murdered her assailants. He spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished
it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, the manuscript was eventually bought
by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000-copy printing and published it in June
1989. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel,
the story of a young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what
it appeared. That second book, The Firm, became the 7th bestselling novel of 1991.
Grisham then produced at least one work a year, nearly all of which became very
popular bestsellers. He authored seven number-one bestselling novels of the year
(1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2005).

Motivation
The primary reason why I decided to read this book, is that I am a great fan of thrillers
and John Grisham is a very well-known author, famous because of his thriller novels. I
have read many of his books, so the decision for this book was a logic one. But this time
I had to do it in English, which I thought, shouldnt be that much of a problem.
I would defenitly recommend this book to another person. It is so well-written and the
story is just so good. I really wanted to know what was going to happen next. I couldnt

stop reading. A small problem is that the choice of words by the writer might be a bit
difficult, so some people will need a dictionary in order to keep up with the story.

Part B
1. Explain the title of your book
The King of Torts stands for the king of mass claims. The main character in this books
starts of as a poor lawyer and develops himself to a mass claim master lawyer, with one
of the most successful big law businesses in the US.

2. What is the genre?

This book falls under the category legal thrillers. It is about legal issues that a young
lawyer faces. The book features also a lot of tension, what makes it a thriller.

3. Give a short summary

The book is about a young lawyer named Jarrett "Clay" Carter. Hes a hard working man,
but stuck in his lousy, bad paid job at the Office of the Public Defender. The parents of
his girlfriend Rebecca wants her to pick a man who does earn decent money. Clay hates
them and when the father of his grilfriend offers him a well-payed job, he refuses.
Rebecca is mad and breaks up with him. Clays life gets all upside down when he gets
the case of the young Tequila Watson. Hes a drug addict who killed somebody. The
strange thing is that Tequila was clean for over 100 days when he committed the
murder. When Clay investigates the case he finds several unexplainable things, like the
fact that Tequila Watson was clean for over 100 days when he committed the murder.
The rapport files that Tequila wasnt a violent person as well. There were also identical
cases where a clean drug addict without a violent past, would suddenly murder
someone. At this time a person named Max Pace contacts Clay. He says that Clay will
earn a lot of money, when he does what he says. In exchange he has to drop the case of
Tequila and Max will tell him everything. Clay agrees and Max tells him that there is a
medicine called Tarvan. It miraculously cured drug addicts but in some minor cases it
would trigger extreme violent behavior after approximately 100 days. Max advises Clay
to make a regulation with the parents of Tequila and Clays honorary exceeds the milion
dollar mark. After this Clay starts his own big law firm, he starts to seek for more cases.
He finds several with the help of Max Pace, who supplies him of secret information
about, for example certain side effects of medicins, so he can make large settlements
with those companies and its clients who want money to make a fortune. He starts a

relationship with a rich Gorgian model to make Rebecca jealious. After a while,
everything falls apart. A settlement that he arranged for the victims of a medicine called
Dyloft appeared to be not adequate enough, because the side-effects of the medicine is
way more severe then the settlement could cover. He has to pay now. Also the
government comes sniffing around about Max Pace, who appears to have used Clay as a
pion in order to trade at the stocks with the knowledge that Clay would sue certain
companies. Now multiple claims fail and Clay loses alot of money. His accountant
warned him about this but Clay was blinded by his own succes. Clay gets beaten up by
a couple of angry ex-employees of a bankrupt company, which was forced to
bankruptcy by Clays ridiculous demands for a settlement. Clay declares himself
bankrupt and leaves the country with his newly retreived girlfriend Rebecca who broke
up with her boyfriend to be with Clay again.

4. Mention the Main theme a.o.

Being blinded by the succes and money, so youll eventually lose it all is the main
theme of this books. Clay is the perfect example of someone who suddenly eanrs a
great sum of money. He starts investing in alot of new cases without keeping an eye on
the possible consequences. He is warned serveral times for this by his accountant but
Clay stayes recless and even buys an airplane. Because Clay doesnt watch the
consequences, he eventually loses it all and ends up right where he started.

Heb jij al stress voor je examens?

Nee, ik heb nooit stress

Ja, ik zit al in de stress voor mijn eindexamens.. Help!

Mwah, ik zie er nog wel cool uit, maar begin al te stressen

5. Describe the development of your main character

Clay starts of as a poor, hard working lawyer, with not much of a future. His girlfriend

dumps him and his live seems miserable. At the moment Clay starts to earn alot of
money, he becomes ambitious and starts of his own company with his friends from the
Office of the Public Defender. But Clay starts to loose grip on reality. He starts to meet
Patton Fench, another mass claim lawyer, and Patton teaches him everything about
being a succesful mass claim lawyer. Clay does what he was thought and makes even
more money despite the risks. Clay falls eventually from his statue and is brought
with a hard bang back into the real world. He realises that he made wrong decisions and
tries to fix everything. He loses most of his money but gets eventually his girlfriend
Rebecca back.

6. For what kind of people was this book written for?

This book is for adult people who really like a thriller. You dont have to be particulary
interested in legal issues, because it still grabs you at the troat until the end. So, its
actually targeted at a very wide range of adults and perhaps some younger people.

7. What is the purpose of this book?

The main purpose of this book is to entertain. It is not a book where global issues are
featured or where a terroristic attack is prevented. Another possible purpose of the book
is to criticise the mass claim lawyers and the settlements they make. They are probably
a big deal in America and the commercials are full of lawyers trying to win clients for
there mass claims. And when a settlement is made, the clients earn the least out of it
while the lawyers make literal millions.

8.Can you relate to the character described in the novel?

Yes, a little bit with Clay. Hes just an ordinary guy where something unbelievable
happends too. It could be every other random lawyer. He acts just in the way I would
probably act. I would also be blinded by the wealth and the urge to earn even more. But
I would listen to my accountant, what Clay obviously did not.

9. Has this book changed your opinions?

No not really. It didnt had any opinions about the mass claims culture in the US. But
now I think of mass claim lawyers as people wholl do anything to get you in your claim
and eventually give you a small settlement while they make millions themself. It isnt
fair towards the people who really have been damaged by , for example, a medicine and
get a lousy sum while their lawyers, who are supposed to fight for you, make alot of
money.