a review

For all those who don’t know me, I’m fascinated by reading books, any kinds of novels that captures my interest. As of now, I just finished reading “The Testament" by John Grisham, so here’s my review of it. To the readers of my blog, hope you like it. :)

Title: The Testament

Author: John Grisham

Summary:

Troy Phelan, a billionaire jumps to his death, just moments after signing his will. A holographic will, handwritten by him which revokes all his prior will. He has three ex-wives and six children who are circling around Troy Phelan’s lawyers like a vulture waiting for them to tell them what they have inherited.

The children of the dead billionaire get the shock of their lives when they found out that they were only left enough to cover their debts as of the time of death of their father and that their father has an illegitimate daughter named Rachel Lane that he is leaving everything of his fortune to.

The law firm handling the estate of the father needed a lawyer to find the missing heir. However she is a missionary in the Jungles of Brazil and looks like she doesn’t want to be found. So to find Rachel Lane, they send Nate O’Riley freshly out of rehab and about to be indighted by the IRS, he goes on an adventure to find her. Nate O’Riley is a self-confessed alcoholic, involved in drugs, women, and different kinds of addictions before. He’s also been in rehab four times but always back to his crash life every after rehab. Now, the adventure in search for Rachel Lane, also challenges Nate whether he would be clean and sober for good this time.

While in the jungles of Brazil, Nate finds Rachel, a woman of faith who doesn’t want the money and content of having a simple life with the native people. The very Christian Rachel shows him about the power of prayer and how Jesus can free him from his addictions. He promises not to reveal her whereabouts and he returns home.

Once home he decides to protect her interests and to keep her greedy brothers and sisters from getting the money. He strikes a bargain with them and must return to Brazil in able to settle things. When he returns he learns that Rachel has died from malaria and left him as her trustee for her funds.

Review:

This is the first time I’ve read a craft of John Grisham. It’ s a very wonderful novel of him. It contains so much drama in the life of the characters involve. Readers of this novel would learn so many lessons from this. The novel shows how miserable the life of a billionaire, Troy Phelan in spite of all success and being wealthy. This just means that being rich, although you have all the means to buy and do things you want, you can’t get happiness through this. Sad to say, people becomes greedy when it comes to money. In this story, the children of Troy Phelan that suppose to be the heirs of his entire estate are the greedy ones plus a bunch of their lawyers who also cares nothing but money and fame.

Sometimes, the upbringing of the parents and their presence in the life of a child while they are growing is a big factor on a child’s behavior and the outcome of their future. This is shown in the story, maybe Troy tried to fulfill his negligence and absence in the life of his children by pampering them through his money but obviously he failed. All his children are miserable, they know nothing but to waste and spend money which they do not earn or work hard for. Including the money given to them when they reach the age of 21 is wasted in just a short span of time. That’s why the old man just leave them enough money to cover all their debts because he knew that if they are given the appropriate fortune as an heir, it would not last to them and all his hardship on his estate will just vanished. The old man preferred to give the remainder of his estate to his illegitimate heir Rachel Lane who is a missionary, maybe because he knew that Rachel has a good heart.

Nate O’Riley, the lawyer chosen to find Rachel Lane, is also a failure in his own life, that’s why his oldest son looks like also doing his own failure. His children hates him for being an alcoholic, all he’d done in his life and his absence while they are growing. In the case of Nate, he is lucky for having a chance to rebuild his life including his relationship with his children and it’s all because of Rachel. Unlike Troy, who ends his life through suicide, all his failures to his children were also buried with his death.

Rachel is really a woman of faith, money means nothing to her although she knows that her inheritance will help her fulfill his mission for the needs of the native people. Because of her, Nate changed his life for good. Through the character of Nate, it shows how great God is. Even a person you thought to be worst, still has a chance to restart a new beginning in his life. It’s never too late to all of us.

I like the way Grisham narrates the story, the courthouse scene & the legal matters discussed in the novel was great which I thought that it would be boring. I like the part of Nate in the courtroom, tearing the Phelan heirs into pieces, he make them look stupid while he asked them a series of questions. I don’t like the part of adventure of Nate in the river, it’s a bit scary! One last thing, I dont like the ending, I dont like the idea of death of Rachel. She doesn't deserve it. But anyway, maybe it's also the will of God why it happened, maybe to lessen the complications it will brought to the Phelans to know that Rachel exists in their life. No more other than that, overall the novel was good.