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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2016
A positive verdict on Grisham’s kid lawyer character
Legal
adventures
where lead
character is a
child
Theodore Boone is a role model for
anyone his age, without appearing to try.
By PATRICK WEBB
Special to The Daily
Astorian
“The Fugitive”
M
ention bestselling
author John Grisham
and what comes to
mind?
Tangled legal dramas that
capture the essence of the
American South.
But there’s a side to Grisham’s
writing that is even more com-
pelling. And unlikely, too: Enjoy-
able legal adventures where the
lead character is a child.
“Theodore Boone: The
Fugitive” is the ifth in a series
of books written for young
readers.
And they have me hooked.
I liked the work of for-
mer attorney Grisham when
he irst exchanged the court-
room for the writer’s pen. “A
Time to Kill,” about a father
who shoots his daughter’s rap-
ists, was an attention-grab-
ber clear back in 1989 with
deinite echoes of “To Kill a
Mockingbird.” (In interviews,
Grisham refers to it as his
best book; it reportedly was
rejected by several publishers
and only reprinted when his
three next works gained note-
worthy success.)
“The Firm” involved
tedious photocopying, but
had a plot twist involving the
mob that was unexpected and
explosive. “The Client,” his
fourth work, is his best adult
story. The movie is faithful to
the plot, with Susan Sarandon
and Tommy Lee Jones captur-
ing Grisham’s cleverly drawn,
imperfect characters amid the
sweat of New Orleans.
Enter Boone
However, Grisham’s other
output has been a series of
somewhat weighty tomes that
are often far-fetched. “The Pel-
ican Brief” and “The Runaway
Jury” seemed implausible, and
took too many pages to excite.
Last year’s “Rogue Lawyer”
was episodic, almost as if it
were notes of novel fragments
strung together.
Enter Theodore Boone.
Theodore is a middle
schooler growing up in a
small American town. He’s
an inquisitive, intelligent boy
who rides his bike and has a
dog called “Judge.” His par-
ents are both lawyers, and their
son hangs around the court-
house where he is well liked
by judges and janitors. His
dad, Woods, is dull, predict-
able and somewhat lethargic.
His mom, Martha, who dei-
nitely wears the trousers, is
protective but encouraging.
Her compromises allow Theo-
dore to be himself.
And his Uncle Ike, a struck-
off lawyer, is eager to guide
his nephew’s “cases” with
an unorthodox approach that
proves to be key.
Grisham captures the
thoughts of a likable eighth-
grader. It may seem unbeliev-
able to middle-school teach-
ers, but Theodore admits he
doesn’t know all the answers,
he isn’t obsessed with rag-
ing hormones, and he always
pays attention in class. He is a
role model for anyone his age,
without appearing to try.
The ifth book in the series,
“The Fugitive,” takes Theo-
dore out from the conines of
his heartland hometown to
Washington, D.C., where a
chance glimpse at a wanted
suspect leads him to adven-
tures and danger involving the
FBI.
It’s the most far-fetched
plot to date. But it works,
in part because Grisham
blends the familiar charac-
ters with the unknown with-
out stretching the boundaries
of credibility.
Quick, yet satisfying,
reads
I’d recommend the series
to any Grisham fan, espe-
cially someone who liked the
author’s early works but inds
his later, adult novels too
dense and slow-paced. The
Boone novels are a quick read,
but satisfying.
The series began with
“Theodore Boone: Kid Law-
yer” and was followed by “The
Abduction,” “The Accused”
and “The Activist.” I have
read them in publication order,
though I don’t recall the later
books contain spoilers for the
earlier ones.
The sixth, “Theodore
Boone: The Scandal,” is being
released this month. I cannot
wait.
Patrick Webb is a North
Coast writer and the former
managing editor of The Daily
Astorian.
Surveillance: Mayor LaMear took a measured view
Continued from Page 1C
In addition, an FBI
Inspector General report
from last year revealed that
the bureau’s collection of
phone records between 2004
and 2009, as authorized by
the USA Patriot Act, did
not itself foil any terrorist
attacks.
But, even if government
agencies’ collection of per-
sonal data had helped to
thwart attacks, would that be
worth living in a panopticon
state?
At least one person at
Williams’ talk said “no.”
Another said he would
be more willing to sup-
port a period of heightened
national surveillance, pro-
vided it was a stopgap and
would be reined in when the
threat had passed.
Astoria Mayor Arline
LaMear took a measured
view of surveillance.
“I think there are times
when surveillance is import-
ant. We’ve talked about all
the negatives, but I’m happy
when they take a look at
who’s coming on board air-
planes and so forth when I’m
flying,” she said. “It’s hard
to know how to balance the
whole thing.”
Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian
Why privacy?
Williams raised a ques-
tion so basic that even the
most emphatic opponents of
surveillance forget to ask it:
Why do we value pri-
vacy in the first place? Why
do we care if our privacy is
invaded?
“What is it about this idea
of having unobserved space,
or unobserved time, that we
find valuable?” he asked.
One possible answer: To
maintain our sanity, and to
feel like ourselves, we need
room to drop our guards, to
unselfconsciously behave
as flawed beings — to tell
off-color jokes and sing out
of tune, write careless texts
and emails, behave vulnera-
bly and emotionally, use the
bathroom and be sexual.
“It’s not like we don’t
do those things in public
because we’re ashamed of
them,” Williams said. “It’s
just that we don’t do those
things in public because we
don’t want to.”
The “unobserved space”
is where we store the
blooper reels of our lives,
the outtakes that prove we’re
human. When that space is
monitored and the details
Astoria Mayor Arline LaMear, right, and her husband, Cliff, engage in a group discussion at the Astoria Public Library about balancing matters of
privacy and security in an age of government surveillance and concerns about terrorism.
shared without our consent,
it feels like a fundamen-
tal violation — a trespass
against our dignity.
What’s more, when we
know that such monitor-
ing may be taking place, we
cannot help checking our
own behavior, acting as our
own prison guards, even in
private.
In a sense, when we sub-
mit to surveillance measures,
we give up the freedom to
fully relax. Several people at
Williams’ talk reckoned that
is a rather steep price for
safety and security.
And make no mistake: At
the heart of every pro-sur-
veillance sales pitch is the
promise that it will make
society safer and more
secure.
“Personally, it think that
the burden of proof that it
does do that needs to be on
the people who are exer-
cising authority,” Williams
said. “I think this should
remain a question, but it’s a
question that people who are
exercising the control should
be able to answer.”
Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian
During the Oregon Humanities Conversation Project’s event “Keeping Tabs on America,” Astoria City Councilor Drew
Herzig shared his thoughts on the transparency of citizen’s lives to a less-than-transparent government surveillance
infrastructure.
W hile other n ew spa pers give you less, The D a ily Astoria n
GIVES
YOU
From left: H illa ry Borru d ,
M a teu sz Perk ow sk i,
Pa ris Achen
O u r n ew
M ORE
C APITAL
B UREAU
covers the sta te for you