Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 21, 1995 TAG: 9508220003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
That would be wrong. But you can get just a trifle annoyed with the man for this: He appears to have remained rational about his enormous success and - to a degree - his rabid literary critics.
His M.O.: staying close to his small-town roots in his adopted hometown of Oxford, Miss., population 10,000. (Grisham also has a home near Charlottesville, Va.). Keeping the focus on his wife and two children. And limiting his personal contact with Hollywood.
Grisham, it turns out, knows it's smart to take the money and run.
``I cannot imagine living here,'' he said during a recent visit to promote ``The Client,'' which debuts 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, on CBS before moving to its regular 8 p.m. Tuesday slot Sept. 19.
``Last night was my fifth night ever to stay in L.A. ... There are no distractions where I live,'' he said. ``I'm just not cut out for cities.''
He's also tended to create a buffer zone when it comes to turning his best-selling novels, including ``The Firm,'' ``The Pelican Brief'' and ``The Client,'' into films.
``I've always had the attitude with movies that'' - small laugh - ``I get as much money up front as I can, I kiss it good-bye and I expect it to be different. And if I don't like it I don't have to sell the film rights.''
He has somewhat closer ties to the TV series, which stars JoBeth Williams as Reggie Love, the big-hearted family law attorney played by Susan Sarandon in the film. John Heard and Ossie Davis co-star.
``I've been invited with the TV series to do anything I want to do, basically, except show up and tell 'em how to film it,'' he said in his soft Southern drawl.
There is another legal drama playing out on television that Grisham is willing to critique: the double-murder trial of O.J. Simpson.
``It's awful. It makes everybody cynical about the law. It portrays everything in our judicial system in the worst possible light,'' he said.
Yet he admits the trial will be fodder for his writer's mill.
``In the long run, the Simpson case will be good for me because there's been so much bizarre behavior in and out of the courtroom,'' he said.
Grisham knows the arena firsthand, of course: He spent more than a decade as a criminal defense and personal injury attorney.
His lawyer days are essentially behind him. Why toil in the courtroom with book sales in the neighborhood of 3 million copies for his hardcover novels and 10 million copies for paperbacks, not to mention the movie deals?
That success, however, has not come without critical prosecution. Grisham's novels have come in for some harsh reviews. The writer is a bit peeved at just how harsh.
``The first couple or three books, some of the reviews, even if they were unkind, were intelligent. They pointed out legitimate flaws. Now they're so mean and nasty, all they talk about is the fame and the money and the movies.
``I try to write, hopefully, a high quality of popular fiction. That's all I aspired to do; there's nothing pretentious about [the books].''
That is perhaps why he notes, with a touch of relief, that his best-selling streak must someday snap.
``It's not gonna go on forever, not at this level. When it's over, I'll say it was a whole lot of fun, I didn't change, I kept my feet on the ground. And I'm still where I was where I started - just with a whole lot more money in the bank.''
by CNB