The Chamber

Summary (from the publisher): "The decision to bomb the office of the radical Jew lawyer was reached with relative ease." So begins Grisham's legal leviathan The Chamber, a 676-page tome that scrutinizes the death penalty and all of its nuances--from racially motivated murder to the cruel and unusual effects of a malfunctioning gas chamber.

Adam Hall is a 26-year-old attorney, fresh out of law school and working at the best firm in Chicago. He might have been humming Timbuk 3's big hit, "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades," if it wasn't for his psychotic Southern grandfather, Sam Cayhall. Cayhall, a card-carrying member of the KKK, is on death row for killing two men. Knowing his uncle will surely die without his legal expertise, Hall comes to the rescue and puts his dazzling career at stake, while digging up a barnyard of skeletons from his family's past. Grisham fans expecting the typical action-packed plot should ready themselves for a slower pace, well-fleshed-out characters, and heavy doses of sentimentalism.

Review: The Chamber is about Sam Cayhall, who was involved in multiple bombings as a member of the KKK during the Civil Rights Movement and ends up on death row for a bombing that leads to two deaths. Flash forward to 1990, and Sam’s time is almost up, but his grandson, Adam, just happens to be a 26 year old lawyer who works for the law firm that handles Sam’s case. Adam travels to Mississippi to meet the grandfather he never knew, explore his family history, and try to save his grandfather from being gassed. 

I’ve only read three or four other Grisham novels, but this one is similar in that its law-oriented and the main character is a young, talented, over achieving, handsome young lawyer. However, this one differs in that it is less action packed, and deals far more with moral uncertainties. What makes a person good or bad? When is it ok to execute someone for his crimes? How does a family get over a legacy of racism and hate? 

Because this novel was published in 1994, it was a little outdated in terms of technology and execution procedures. That’s just a consequence of me reading it so late after it was published, but it was distracting to have references to outmoded technology. Additionally, I felt that the novel could have been much more concise than it ends up being at 676 pages. 

I don’t want to reveal the ending of the novel, but while the conclusion really bothered me, I think any other conclusion would have been a cop out on Grisham’s part. Grisham forces the reader to confront the moral question of the death penalty head on. I loved the ethical questions raised in this novel and how Grisham makes you see gray areas where on the surface things seem very black and white. 

Stars: 3