Gray Mountain by John Grisham is about a lawyer,
Samantha, who loses her cushy job in New York City at a big firm and goes to
Brady, Virginia to work as an intern at a legal aid clinic with no pay for a
year. Her job in New York mainly involved proofreading documents for
business transactions but when she joins the Legal Aid Clinic, she feels like a
real lawyer, actually making a difference in people’s lives. When she
meets the Gray brothers, nephews of Mattie, the owner of the legal aid clinic,
she finds herself unknowing pulled into a dangerous situation as Donovan Gray,
an attorney who likes big cases against coal mining companies, takes a personal
interest in her. Samantha eventually must choose what world she wants to
work in. Will she remain to follow-up on her meaningful cases and continue
to become a litigator fighting for the poor people who really need her help or
go back to the corporate scene where she is paid the big bucks and given a
cushy office?
I liked this book and learned a lot about strip mining and
the plight of coal miners who contract black lung disease. It paints a
pretty dark picture of how hard it is for the miners to get the benefits they
deserve. I found the cases Samantha was involved in during her time at
the legal aid clinic interesting because they made her feel more like a social
worker than a lawyer. This novel has very little court scenes because it
focuses more on the leg work involved in preparing for trial.
(Karen's review, 3 stars)
Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!