In 1991, when John Grisham and his literary creation “The Firm,” blasted out of bookstores faster than a Learjet, both the author and the book’s protagonist, Mitch McDeere, were young, starry-eyed lawyers, hanging around Memphis, hungry for success. Writing what he knew was gold for Grisham: The book, his second after “A Time to Kill,” has sold more than 7 million copies and set the standard for the legal thriller genre.
“The Firm” showed the publishing world how enormous the appetite was for lawyers turned authors who could mix an expert’s eye with a fast-plotted good guy vs. bad guys scenario, with a morally complicated but charming protagonist at its center. As Grisham explained in a 1992 interview, “we lawyers get involved with people who have messed up their lives, and their mistakes make fascinating stories.” His agent received more than 100 unsolicited manuscripts from lawyers that year, and the Grisham effect was born.
A follow-up would have been natural, but it didn’t happen until now. “The Exchange,” Grisham’s 49th book, a sequel to “The Firm,” just hit shelves.
Will the sequel be as good as the original, or will it feel like pinning an extra tail on the prizewinning donkey? Will the loose threads be tied? And for a follow-up to “The Firm,” a book where the women sound as if they were penned by frat boys and the depictions of people of color are cringeworthy, will the non-White and female characters get a better seat at the table?
Let’s look back at how Grisham first set the scene.
As “The Firm” ended, Mitch McDeere, our bootstrapping hero, embodied so naturally by Tom Cruise, had managed to extract himself from the corrupt tax law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke With the help of his convict brother, fast-talking secretary and, Abby, his schoolteacher wife, McDeere outran the FBI and the Mob, handed the Feds all they needed for indictments, and pocketed a cool $10 million. The McDeeres ended up in the Cayman Islands, and while they seemed to have gotten away with it all, it was evident that the chase was on.
“The Exchange” begins in 2005. At 41, Mitch is middle-aged, moneyed and eating truffles on pizza. (The last part isn’t his fault. Abby is no longer a teacher but a cookbook editor.) The two Kentucky kids have become rich New York adults with a perfect marriage: Mitch is a partner at a fictitious mega firm Scully and Pershing and living peacefully with Abby and their twin boys. "The Mob never forgets” may have been the oft-repeated threat in “The Firm,” but for Mitch, and this sequel, they forgot.
So three big questions are answered immediately. Mitch and Abby really did outrun everyone, they’ve landed safely back in America, and Mitch is again a successful lawyer. The job happened because Mitch was hired in London and he waved his Harvard flag — so easy! The foodie gig for Abby is justified because after the Caymans, the McDeeres lived in Italy for three years where Abby took cooking classes, Mitch studied wine, and they learned to speak fluent Italian. In short, if murderers are on your tail, chill out in Tuscany and make bruschetta.
Another big question that comes with a sequel is: Do you take the characters out of the place that was so well drawn that it became a character? In his case, Memphis. And do you have the protagonists make peace with the past?
Grisham does take Mitch back to Memphis, to poke around a death row case, but it’s just an excuse for a meetup with former best friend and Bendini associate Lamar Quin. Their trip down nostalgia lane takes readers just where most of us would have guessed. I won’t spoil it, even if those loose ends are all tied up in a bow in the first few chapters. Mitch leaves Memphis, ready to move on to a new chapter, or in this case it seems, a whole new book that feels very little like a sequel to “The Firm.”
The geographical leap in plot is part of the reason that “The Exchange” reads like a stand-alone. This time, the drama is not legal but financial, as Giovanna Sandroni, an Italian British Scully associate, has been kidnapped in Libya and is being held for a $100 million ransom by some very shady characters. The money must come from Scully as the female go-between demands that no government or police be involved. (Yes, the women and non-White characters do get a better seat at the table. It’s not the best one, but it’s not in the coatroom either.) The main drama comes from the ticking clock on Giovanna’s life and the terrorist demands that take Mitch all over the world as he tries to raise cash. It’s an intriguing story with the violence, shady dealings and the fast plot that Grisham fans love, but here’s the thing: There’s not much law, and there’s very little gritty, witty Mitch McDeere. He simply feels like a different man.
Mitch has become a devoted husband and father, a person who will plan a quiet night with his wife over, say, getting naked on the beach, stealing dirty money and making wild demands to the FBI. Maybe it’s one too many truffles, but he’s shiny and perfect, even dealing with terrorists elegantly, and doesn’t that go against the standard that Grisham set with this very character?
In chapter three, when talking to his wife about Memphis, Mitch says, “Look, Abby, we made the decision a long time ago to live normal lives without looking over our shoulders … What happened there is old history now.” The distance from those Memphis days is felt, and with “The Exchange,” readers may find that a character without flaws is the biggest flaw of all.
Karin Tanabe is the author of six novels, including “A Woman of Intelligence,” “The Gilded Years” and, most recently, “Sunset Crowd.”
The Exchange
By John Grisham
Doubleday. 339 pp. $29.95
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October 19, 2023 at 01:00AM
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Book review: The Exchange by John Grisham - The Washington Post
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