The Racketeer, John Grisham

John Grisham is one of my favorite writers in fiction. His plots always seem to be within the realm of reality, and his characters usually believable, relatable and gritty.

The first Grisham book I read was ‘The Firm’ while in junior college. At a time, when Sidney Sheldon was all the rage among college girls, I found his writing refreshingly mature. ‘The Street Lawyer’ settled it; his writing was nuanced and empathetic and he celebrated the seeming ordinariness of his protagonists.

The central character in ‘The Racketeer’, Malcolm Bannister, is an average bloke, whose life changed in the blink of an eye. He’s a small-town lawyer, merely getting by, when he gets caught in a web of someone else’s greed. He is convicted for a crime he didn’t commit and is sent away to prison for 10 years. He loses his family - his wife tired of waiting for him, walks away into another marriage, and he’s torn from his only son without the assurance that he will ever see him again.

Shattered by the vicissitudes of life, he spends his time plotting revenge and an escape. I thought Grisham could have done much more with this character, and sketched his bitterness in depth. I was disappointed to not see more profundity shine through from Malcolm Bannister’s protracted, uncertain and melancholic journey.

The stranglehold that bitterness is, it’s the rare man who refuses to let it shape his identity. But, I digress.

The protagonist does however, pummel his situation with humor, which makes following his exploits a good read.

The book is critical of the American incarceration system and its wastefulness; Grisham himself being an ardent advocate of prison reform. There are scathing references to arbitrary convictions and egregious wrongdoing on the part of law-enforcement agencies and other administrators of justice.

The pace is fast and there isn’t a single dull moment. Page after page, you find Bannister’s enemies and friends alike, playing into his hands. One of the most hilarious moments occurs in the latter half of the book, when Malcolm writes a ‘Dear FBI’ letter and castigates his self-important offenders with a ‘shame on you’. Sidesplitting.

The plot as it unravelled, kept gathering more and more steam, until you became convinced that this story could have no other ending but a conveniently happy one. There are far too many moving parts, far too many collaborators and one too many lucky breaks. Stay away if you cannot suspend disbelief and tend to feel agitated by loopholes or unexplained questions.

The Racketeer, then, is for the die-hard Grisham fan. By his own admission, this one is more of a work of fiction than his previous books. Strict accuracy was evidently not a priority.

I’m confident this isn’t Grisham resting on his accolades and the laurels bestowed on him by a loyal fan base. He might have dismissively attributed not steeping this book in research, to laziness, but boy, can he tell a good story.

Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead

I’ll admit I watched the TED talk delivered by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook only recently. No, I haven’t been living under a boulder. I avoided the clip; being simply wary of what I presumed would be another ‘feminist’ voice urging women to be men.

Her talk was titled, ‘Why we have too few women leaders’, and turned out to be an impassioned plea to women for “sitting at the table”, “not leaving before you leave” and leaning in by asking for, and then making the most of opportunities.

One of the most thought-provoking ‘revelations’ in her bestselling book, Lean In, was an insight from an experiment conducted by a professor on perceptions associated with gender. A case study on a woman entrepreneur, Heidi Roizen, was circulated amongst business school students which drew on the professional accomplishments of the central character. This case assigned to 2 sets of students, had only one crucial difference; Heidi’s name was changed to Howard in the study handed out to one of the groups.

Thankfully, students found both Heidi and Howard to be equally accomplished and competent. However, Howard was the one they ‘liked’. The impression Heidi engendered was not of likeability, even if she was considered competent.  Sandberg reflects on how as a child growing up, she was teased by her siblings and acquaintances, as being too “bossy”. Leadership and assertiveness weren’t considered as feminine qualities and she states how a woman often is at the receiving end of comments deeming her as not enough of a team player, despite being comparable in her ‘people-skills’ to a male colleague.  

She posits that men are rated on their potential while women on their past achievements. She cites studies to demonstrate how women underestimate their own ability while men almost consistently overestimate theirs. She writes about the 2012 study of thousands of political candidates where men were 60% likelier than women to say they were “very qualified” to run for office. Another survey among medical students, showed women giving themselves lower scores than their male counterparts, although faculty evaluations gave the women higher points. (Women, think of your self-evaluations during performance appraisals).

Sandberg also touches on the prickly issue of compensation and apprises why women don’t negotiate as hard with prospective employers. Stepping off the wagon for a bit here; but I recall a study published by the Harvard Business Review that confirmed what women in corporate jobs implicitly know. The study unveiled interviewers’ biases by revealing that they viewed women who don’t pull punches in salary discussions, far more negatively than men adopting similar stances.

It’s bold writing, albeit tempered by candor and an open admission of personal failings. What is impressive and what sometimes tends to get lost in the clamor of raucous feminist voices goading women to be more aggressive in voicing and driving their career aspirations, is her acceptance of the fact that an assiduous, relentless climb, up the corporate ladder may not be every woman’s desire, whether she is educated and savvy, or not. And that is OK.

A woman may consciously choose to lay aside her corporate ambition, in exchange for personal pursuits or to devote herself to home. This is not necessarily a step-down.

As well, Sandberg exhorts men to bear their load of household responsibilities and treat their partners’ careers with as much importance as their own.

Men’s identities are closely tied to their professional success. They tend to draw their sense of self-worth and accomplishment from work-related achievements; unlike women, who reach toward multiple sources for personal affirmation, both within and without.

It’s striking to see how open to criticism and correction, Sandberg is, as a professional. Her teachability is a reflection of her self-belief and an honest management of insecurities.

In conclusion, Lean In, is substantive in research but unified in its scope. Recommended reading for women irrespective of whether they're homemakers, in a "jungle-gym" or in typical corporate jobs. 

I’m richer for having read it.