DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

SABBAVARAM, VISAKHAPATNAM, A.P., INDIA

PROJECT TITLE
BOOK REVIEW:THE TESTAMENT

SUBJECT-ENGLISH

NAME OF THE FACULTY

MS. BEENA PUNJABI

Name of the Candidate-PRIYANKA SINGH

Roll No.-2017068
Semester-1st

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Ms. Beena Punjabi who
gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic ,’Book Review:The
Testament’ which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and i came to know about so
many new things I am really thankful to them.

Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing
this project within the limited time frame.

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 CONTENTS

 About the author………………………………………………………..4

 Book Review…………………………………………………………...5-10
a) Title of the Book……………………………………………….5
b) Name of the Author……………………………………………5
c) No. of pages in book……………………………………………5
d) Published date………………………………………………….5
e) Genre…………………………………………………………..5
f) Central Theme………………………………………………….5-6
g) Strengths……………………………………………………….7
h) Weakness………………………………………………………7
i) Character Sketch……………………………………………….7-9
j) Story in brief……………………………………………………9-10
k) My assessment………………………………………………….10

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Grisham was born on February 2, 1955, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in the southern United
States. He was the second oldest of five children. His father was a construction worker and
cotton farmer, and his mother was a homemaker. His father moved the family all around the
southern United States, stopping wherever he could find work. Eventually the family settled in
Southaven, Mississippi, where Grisham graduated from Southaven High School. In 1981,
Grisham earned a law degree from the University of Mississippi’s School of Law, which
qualified him as a lawyer. During his time in law school, he switched his focus from tax law to
criminal and civil litigation. After graduating from Law School, Grisham worked at a small-
town law practice in Southaven for nearly a decade, representing all kinds of clients. He
specialized in criminal defense and personal injury claims. Serving as a young attorney,
Grisham spent much of his time in court proceedings. In 1984, at the De Soto County
courthouse in Hernando, Grisham heard the disturbing testimony of a twelve-yearold rape
victim. He decided to write a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl’s father
had decided to take the law into his own hands and murder his daughter’s attackers. The book,
entitled A Time to Kill, took him three years to complete, and although it was initially rejected
by a number of publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, which published 5,000
copies in June of 1988. Grisham’s next novel, The Firm, was one of the biggest hits of 1991,
spending forty-seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The book’s success enabled
him to shift his focus from law to full-time writing. In the years to follow, Grisham

produce at least a novel a year, most of which became bestsellers, including The Testament,
which was published by Doubleday in 1999. Publishers Weekly named Grisham “the
bestselling novelist of the 90s” for selling a total of more than sixty million copies of his novels
during the decade.

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TITLE OF THE BOOK:

THE TESTAMENT

NAME OF THE AUTHOR:

JOHN GRISHAM

NO. OF PAGES IN THE BOOK

448

DATE OF PUBLICATION:

2nd February,1999

OTHER NOTABLE WORKS:

GENRE:

ADVENTURE NOVEL

CENTRAL THEME:

Greed was the motivation of many of the characters in the book, including some of the lawyers.
Greed is what messed up the children's mind. People were ready to sell themselves for 15
million dollars and were ready to lie in front of the judge.

The passion for money and wealth and the destructive consequences that come along with this
passion represent the main theme of The Testament. Greedy ex-wives and greedy children
employ greedy lawyers in pursuit of wealth. They are selfish and dishonest people, and in spite
of their wealth, they spend more money than they have, so they are never happy and always
need more. The ideal of a family life is destroyed in the process. Conversely, Phelan’s
illegitimate daughter has shed the need for money and wealth.

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Other side themes are:

The riches of giving: Rachel Lane’s life in the jungles of Brazil is difficult but also highly
rewarding. Her faith and dedication to helping the poor, the hungry and the sick make her life
richer than money ever could. She doesn’t want to live in the United States ever again, and she
isn’t tempted in the slightest to accept the billions of dollars that her father has willed to her.
She understands that the true riches in life come from giving rather than taking.The common
Grisham theme—that good always overcomes evil in the end—satisfies readers as they read
this fascinating story about the wealth of giving.

Families divided: Grisham explores the nature and frailty of families in The Testament. Due
to their incessant greed, Phelan’s immediate family, which includes six children, are divided
in their pursuit for their father’s fortune. They don’t care about his health, and they aren’t
concerned with showing their love for him—if they even have any love left. Instead, they can
only think about their father’s final will and testament—a document that could make them
richer beyond their wildest dreams. It is in human beings’ nature to live as families—to love,
care for, nourish and protect one another—but it is also in their nature to be greedy, and
sometimes, the latter is so powerful that it supersedes the former.

Forgiveness: The Testament is concerned with the act of forgiveness. Realizing that his
children don’t truly love him and that they want him to die so that they can get his money,
Phelan is unable to forgive them for their greed, and he ends up giving his fortune to Rachel, a
daughter whom he hardly knew. However, it isn’t just his inability to forgive his children that
makes him give his estate to almost a stranger—it is also the guilt that he feels for not being a
father to Rachel in the first place. He is asking Rachel for forgiveness. He is telling her that he
is sorry for not being in her life while she was growing up. He can’t forgive his children, but
he hopes that Rachel can forgive him. It is just one of several ironies in the book. Nate is also
seeking forgiveness in the story—both for and from himself. He has allowed himself to become
addicted to alcohol and drugs, and he can’t stop thinking of himself as being weak. He needs
to be able to forgive himself—just as he needs to be able to receive forgiveness.

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STRENGTHS OF THE NOVEL

Grisham does a great job of blending the law genre and the adventure genre.This is a book with
a moral that good always overcomes evil in the end. It was really quite enjoyable. Particularly,
the contrast of the rich lifestyle the Phelan children lived in the States, and how unhappy they
all actually were, and the plain and simple lifestyle Rachel lived and how happy she was with
it. He’s so well know for his legal thrillers. This story has an unusual twist to it though. Less
time in the court room, and plenty of adventure in the Pantanal area of the Brazilian wetlands.
WEAKNESS OR CRITICISM

There were parts in the book I thought where it had a slow pace. The story moves at a slow
pace. A lot of time is wasted in explaining the Brazilian wetlands and in search of Rachel
Lane. At some points of time it becomes boring due to over explanation of incidents in
Brazilian land. The change in Nate after meeting Rachel seems very unrealistic as he
completely changes from being a greedy and selfish person to a person who cares about his
family and relations.

CHARACTER SKETCHES:

Troy Phelan, an eccentric, withdrawn, heartless extremely rich person specialist, confers
suicide. Keeping in mind the end goal to remove his group of his will, he influences a phony
will to a couple of hours before his suicide, putting his family into that will. Minutes before his
suicide, he demonstrates his legal counselor another will that he might want completed. This
will leave sufficiently just cash to each of his beneficiaries to pay off their obligations up until
the day of his passing, and leaves everything else to Rachel Lane, an ill-conceived girl that
none of his family and partners think about.

Josh Stafford, Troy's legal advisor, partner, and agent, must discover Rachel, however he
knows just that she is a minister some place in Brazil. He chooses to dole out Nate O'Riley,
previous powerful litigator and recouping alcoholic, to discover her. Nate is rising up out of
his fourth remain in recovery, and he reluctantly consents to go. Josh controls the circumstance
from off camera.

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Rachel Lane, an ill-conceived little girl who Troy wills eleven billion dollars to. She is a
preacher in Brazil who needs nothing to do with the cash and declines to sign any legitimate
papers. She was re-reached by her dad when she was a young person. Troy paid for her to learn
at school, however she at that point vanished into restorative school and theological college.
She kicked the bucket by contracting jungle fever.

Nate O'Riley, the legal counselor sent to discover Rachel Lane. He has been now and again
tranquilizes/liquor a few times, slamming harder unfailingly. An obsessive worker whose
propensities have smashed both of his relational unions, he is sent to Brazil to make tracks in
an opposite direction from the workplace. He has two youngsters from his first marriage and
two more youthful kids from his second marriage. His experience with Rachel in the end shows
him a way to profound recovery. He developed affections for Rachel, before she passed on.

The Phelan Children, six kids that were destined to three unique ladies (a seventh one passed
on in a pile up). Every one of them, regardless of being given an endowment of $5 million at
21 years old, are either down and out or intensely in the red. They are frantic for a cut of Troy's
riches and utilize much greedier attorneys.

•Troy Junior: The most seasoned kid. On his second marriage, his business wanders
dependably end in disappointment. He was kicked out of school for offering drugs. Totally
spent his $5 million preceding he was thirty and was terminated from various positions in his
dad's organization.

•Rex Phelan: The second tyke. As of now owes more than $7 million and is under scrutiny by
the FBI for being an executive in a fizzled bank. Runs a progression of strip clubs albeit every
one of his benefits are in his better half's name, herself an ex-stripper.

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•Libbigail Phelan Jeter: The most established girl by Troy's first marriage with a long history
of medication mishandle. As of now wedded to her third spouse, an ex-biker she met while in
recovery.

•Mary Ross Phelan Jackman: The most youthful kid from Troy's first marriage. The main
Phelan beneficiary still wedded to their first marriage. Considered the minimum unstable and
most practical of her kin, being the just a single with no captures, addictions or ejections. She
and her significant other (an orthopedist) carry on with an affluent way of life yet are vigorously
under water.

•Geena Phelan Strong: The surviving offspring of Troy's second marriage (her sibling Rocky
was killed in a fender bender in secondary school). Hitched to her second spouse, whose
business wanders have all been poor ventures. Portrayed with her significant other as being
"two juvenile children carrying on with a spoiled existence with another person's cash, and
longing for the huge score." Shifty, unscrupulous, talkative and fast with the misleading
statement, in this way considered similar to the most unsafe of the beneficiaries.

•Ramble Phelan: The most youthful youngster generally, and the just a single from Troy's
third marriage is fourteen years of age and hasn't gotten any cash yet. Just goes to class when
he feels like it, lives in his cellar, maintains a strategic distance from his mom however much
as could reasonably be expected, has never had a paying activity, played any games or seen
within a congregation. Likes to play the guitar and dreams of being a demigod. Thought to be
the "scariest" of the Phelan beneficiaries.

STORY IN BRIEF:

The Testament is the story of Troy Phelan, his will, and the struggle over the distribution of his
estate. Troy commits suicide and leaves behind a controversial will. The estimated value of his
assets at the time of his death was approximately eleven billion dollars. The will leaves nearly
all of his assets to his illegitimate daughter, Rachel. Because of this, the will is perceived as
offensive by his other children who are quick to contest it. They are encouraged to do so by
their selfish lawyers, most notably Hark Gettys, who earn generous hourly fees for each hour

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they spend in court haggling over the will. At the time of her father's death, Rachel was a
missionary living amongst the Ipica Indians deep inside the Pantanal region of Brazil in South
America. To notify her of her father's gift, a semi-retired lawyer, Nate O'Riley, was sent to find
her.

Nate's journey was both factual and metaphorical. A recovering alcoholic and substance abuser,
Nate undergoes many changes while searching for Rachel. Her exact location is a mystery and
getting there is a matter of both skill, in the form of a guide named Jevy, and luck, because
even Jevy became lost multiple times. Once they find her, Rachel shares her faith with Nate
and he grows spiritually. Old habits are difficult to eradicate, however, and Nate has set backs.
He also contracts dengue fever and becomes very ill. Following his recovery Nate returns to
America and is dissatisfied with the life he left behind. He starts anew and only returns to
Washington D.C. to attend the Phelan case proceedings. He acts as Rachel's lawyer, but if it
weren't for her, he wouldn't practice law at all. To complete the process, Nate returns to the
Pantanal with paperwork for Rachel to sign. He is saddened to discover that she died from
malaria during his time away.

The Phelan will is settled with Rachel's portion placed in a trust to assist the charities she
believed in. Her siblings each receive a flat settlement greater than what their father had
envisioned but significantly less than Rachel's portion. Nate retires from law and focuses on
his sobriety and repairing his relationships with his children.

MY ASSESSMENT :

The Testament is ,in effect ,an interesting popular response to a great modernist classic.It is
consolatory and hopeful ,reaching a broader audience than the bleak but truthful Heart of
Darkness.Causal contemporary readers who put aside Heart of Darkness after the first few
pages of dense prose keep reading Grisham’s The Testament ,responding favourably to its
optimistic message. Whether or not its assessment of the human condition is true,The
Testament presents,as much popular fiction does,reason to look gladly toward the future and
to be respectful of the human struggle to behave well. This is a book with a moral that good
always overcomes evil in the end. It was really quite enjoyable. The adventures in Pantanal
are fascinating. At some points it become boring but overall it is a good novel.The people
having interest in law genre and adventure will love this. It is a great piece of mix of law and
adventure genre.

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