clock … watching time, the only true currency

Still reeling after stretching my brain, I wafted my way through John Grisham’s last-but-one, The Appeal. I suppose I’ve read a half-dozen or more of Grisham’s 22 books, with general satisfaction.

The Appeal is a quick, reasonable read. The writing is clear and more than competent. But the ending bugged me. Grisham doesn’t write the Hollywood ending, which felt strange given the arc of the story. The Appeal is a morality play without a comeuppance for the villains. That may be real life all too often, but the pace and direction of his characters point in one direction. When the climax and denouement go in another, I felt like the author tried too hard to avoid the tidy conclusion. Since the rest of the story is told smoothly, the visible effort broke the spell.