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THE CLIENT

--BY JOHN GRISHAM--

 

Some words about the author:

He was born in 1955, in Jonesboro. He spent his childhood preparing for a career as a professional athlete with playing baseball. He received his undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University and his law degree from Ole Miss in 1981. He practised law for nearly a decade, specialising in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. His legal and political training eventually proved to be a path toward literary rather than litigious pursuits. Grisham began writing in 1984, and three years later he finished his first novel, A Time To Kill, published in June 1988. It was followed by The Firm in 1987, The Pelican Brief in 1990, The Client in 1993, The Chamber in 1994, The Rainmaker in 1995 and others.

Some words about the main characters:

Mark Sway: He is a young, cute boy who is really mature for his age. He is clever, quick and remarkable. He takes care of his little brother and his mother. He feels like the father.

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Diana Sway: She is anxious and very worried about her sons. She has weak nerves. She is very poor and works hard. She tries to enable her sons everything. Diana is a warm-hearted woman.

 

Reggie Love: She is a fantastic lawyer with many experiences. From the first time she sees Mark, she loves him very much. She is a good friend for him and does nearly everything to help him and his family. She likes it to work with children.

 

FBI agent Trumann: He is a hard working man, who wants to know the truth. He isn’t very sympathetic and so he doesn’t understand Mark’s behaviour. He is not very patient.

 

FBI agent Foltrigg: He must win anyway. He loves it to be in the limelight, surrounds with photographs and reporters. He also doesn’t understand, why Mark is so afraid to tell them about the corpse.

 

Harry Roosevelt: He tries to help Mark. He protects him in his juvenile Detention Centre. He often quarrels with the cops and the FBI because they think to little of witness securities. They only want a quick success. He is a good friend of Reggie Love, because they work a lot together.

 

 

 

COTENT:

 

This is the story of 11-year-old Mark Sway, who lives with his mother Diana and his younger brother Ricky in a trailer park. They had a very terrible childhood because their father was hooked by drugs and alcohol. He often beat his family. Fortunately, Diana is divorced now. Mark is very mature for his age and he is like a father for Ricky. One day Mark and Ricky go to the wood to smoke a cigarette, which Mark has stolen from his mum. They hide behind bushes and trees. Suddenly they watch a big car which stands still only 40 feet from them. It is obvious that the man inside the car wants to commit suicide, because he puts a water hose into the exhaust pipe and the other end through a small hole of the window. Mark sneaks twice to the car to put the hose out of the exhaust pipe. Suddenly the man, Romey Clifford a New Orleans attorney, discovers Mark and pulls him into the car angrily. He wants Mark to die with him. The lawyer tells mark a deadly secret concerning the recent murder of the first US Senator. Romey’s client, Barry The Blade, a Mafia guy, has killed the Senator and has hid the body under the fresh concrete of Romey Clifford’s garage. The police and the FBI need to find the body to start with legal procedures against Barry.

While Mark sits in the car, Ricky is so afraid that his heart pounds and he shivers all over. Mark can flee from the car and the two boys witness how Romey shots himself. They run back to the trailer and Mark calls the police without saying his name. Ricky has a big shock. He curls his knees to the stomach and sucks his thumb.

Ricky is brought into psychiatric care. He is very ill and Diana and Mark have to stay with him at hospital. The police finds out that Mark was in the car, before Romey shot himself. So the police, the federal prosecutor, special agents, like Mr. Trumann, US attorneys like Mr. Foltrigg or Mr. Thomas Fink and the FBI pressure Mark to tell them the attorney’s last word; But Mark knows that with the mob ( Mafia ) is watching each of his moves and that revealing his secret would almost surly mean his death.

Mark hires a lawyer: Reggie Love, a 52-year-old divorcee who’s been through more than anyone could imagine basically, because she is tough. She loves helping kids overlooked or abused by the system. She has a male secretary, named Clint. Mark trusts her, so he tells her the whole story, except the hiding place of the body, to protect himself and Reggie. Reggie and Mark immediately go to the hospital. The FBI is still waiting in a conference room and want to talk to Mark. Reggie hides a small record under Mark’s T-shirt and waits outside the room. After a while Mark comes out of the room. He is very scared because the agents asked him unfair questions. Reggie goes into the room and tells them that he represents Mark Sway. She shows them the recorder. She is very angry that they have attempted to interrogate Mark outside the presence of his mother.

Foltrigg , McThune, Trumann and all the others FBI agents try to find out about what Mark knows – without success. They often go to Reggie’s office or to the hospital.

In the meantime the Mafia, especially Paul Gronke and Bono, follow and watch every single step Mark takes. They also threat on him in the elevator of the hospital, where an ugly man clenches his fingers around Mark’s throat and shows him a knife. Mark is very afraid of the Mafia.

Reggie takes care of Mark. She treats him very nicely. She also brings him to her mother, Momma Love, who loves to cook for the kids Reggie represents. Reggie lives together with her mother. So Mark stays with them one night and enjoys the fantastic meal.

The same night a big car stops at the trailer park and puts a box against the Sway’s trailer. He has come and gone without a noise or a trace. Later the box explodes and a fire brakes out. The Sway’s home is nothing but rubble. Diana has weak nerves. First she loses her job, because her chef doesn’t understand the situation and fires her, second she is so worried about Ricky who’s state will not be getting better and now she lost her home.

The FBI agents want a hearing for Mark in the Juvenile Court because Mark refuses to speak. The Honourable Harry Roosevelt, who is a legend in Memphis, has presided over this Court for 22 years. For him it is the most important job in the world, to help and protect children. Two US- attorneys visit him. They say that it is really important that the kid cooperates with them. They are trying to get Mark on the witness stand, under oath, in a closed hearing, only to ask him some questions. Harry signs the petition because Mark is in serious danger. The Mafia guys are killers and don’t shrink back from anything. They get all their orders from Barry The Blade.

So two policemen come to the hospital to fetch Mark. Diana is near a nervous breakdown. She shouts and cries at the police as they take Mark. They bring him to the Juvenile Detention Centre. Mark is locked in, and a woman called Doreen looks after him. So it comes to a hearing but Mark refuses to answer any questions concerning his experience with Romey. He is locked up in "jail" again.

 

One evening, on the final room check of the Juvenile Centre they find Mark under a big shock. He curls tightly with his knees on his chest, motionless, except for rapid, heavy breathing. He has his thumb in his mouth. They bring him to St. Peter’s hospital, where Ricky is. He isn’t escorted by cops, security men or the FBI. They bring Mark to a small room. But he has only simulated a traumatic shock. Mark gets up, informs Reggie of his escape, and sneaks out of the hospital. He knows all doors, exits and ways in the hospital. Mark doesn’t want another hearing. Reggie comes to the parking lot very quickly. Clint has given her his car and his credit cards. So Reggie and Mark disappear. First Reggie doesn’t know where Mark wants to go. She only knows that she can loose her job and she can be arrested for this action. Mark wants to go to New Orleans, to find out whether the body is really under the boat in Romey’s garage. If it is not, Diana and Ricky would be safe. Mark knows the FBI would never suspect them to be in New Orleans because there, Barry The Blade and the rest of the dangerous Mafia have their head quarters.

When the FBI, the attorneys and the cops find out about Mark’s escape they are shocked. They inform Diana – but she already knows that Mark has fled with Reggie because Mark has called her. Diana doesn’t say anything to the police. They think that Reggie has something to do with it because they can’t find her.

In the meantime Barry goes to his uncle Johnny Sulari. He wants his help. He needs three men who can dig the body up without making a sound. He can’t do this himself because the FBI watch every step of him. Johnny helps him and gives him three men. He has drawn a map, which helps them to find the corpse.

This night they dart with their tools and flashlights to Clifford’s garage. The neighborhood is already asleep. They start to dig up the Senator’s body.

Reggie and Mark also head towards the garage. The house of Mr. Clifford is very big and in the bend of an old, shady street. They park their car in one or the neighbours street and sneak through bushes and trees to the garage which has one door and one window. Suddenly they can hear noises out of the garage. Mark can see the men digging up the body. Both are afraid, because they know these men are dangerous and would kill them if they find them. They are killers. Mark tells Reggie to stay under the bushes and not even to move a muscle. Mark crawls to the neighbourhood garden and throw a stone into a window. Suddenly an alarm is wailing and Mr. Ballantine, the owner, runs into his garden with a gun. His wife calls the police. After a few minutes the first police car arrives. The cops search the area. The three men are so scared that they flee quickly. After a while the cops leave. Reggie and Mark wait, trembling and holding hands. Then they creek to the garage and look for the corpse. They can see the decaying face of the late Senator Boyd Boyette which is full of snakes, worms and other insects.

Reggie calls Trumann. They propose a deal. Reggie says that he must be in a special grill in 40 minutes. Reggie meets Trumann and another FBI agent. She wants them to pick up Diana and Ricky with Trumann’s private jet. They would meet them at the airport, and when Mark is safely on board and the plan is gone, Reggie would tell them where the body is. The Sways should be offered to choose a place where they want to live. The entire family enters the witness protection plan. (Complete change of identification, nice little house, a work for Diana and twenty-five thousands dollars. ) The FBI signs the agreement.

Diana and Ricky fly to New Orleans. Mark kisses Reggie goodbye and wipes his tears. He would never see her again.

As the plane takes off, Reggie tells Trumann, where the body is.