The Chamber (original 1994; edition 1995)

Very long, but very good. It certainly makes you think. ( )

This book left me anxious to turn the pages as I find it gripping in suspense. ( )

This is one of my favorite Grisham's. It's only one of a couple of stories about the death penalty that I've read that wasn't written solely for the purpose of condemning the death penalty. It isn't pro, it isn't con, it's just honest. ( )

כפי הנראה הספר הגרוע ביותר שקראתי מעודי. הייתי מפס​יק בכייף באמצע אלא שהחלטת להחזיק מעמד ולראות אם קו​רה משהו. התשובה היא שלא. על פני ​640 עמודים לא קורה כלום. שום דבר שאי אפשר לסכם בשלושה​ עמודים מבלי לאבד כלום. אין עלילה, אין דמויות אמינ​ות, אין מתח, אין כלום. רק מילים מילים מילים שלא מש​רתות כל מטרה מלבד למלא כנראה את הכיס של גרישהם. לע​ם של מטומטמים ראוי סופר רבי מכר מטומטם​ ( )

The Chamber tells about a guy named Sam Cayhall, condemned to the gas chamber because of a hideous and brutal crime he committed in the late 1960′s against a Jewish lawyer who helped people with civil rights get justice. Cayhall was an accomplice in setting a timed clock bomb that destroyed the lawyer’s office and unintentionally killed the lawyer’s two twin boys John and Josh. With just a month before his execution date, Cayhall’s grandson, a young lawyer from Kravitz and Bane named Adam Hall, arrives on the scene to save the day.The Chamber forces the reader to sit with the idea of the death penalty. Thankfully, John Grisham does not make Cayhall out to be the victim. The crimes are described in horrific and disturbing detail, and we later discover that Cayhall was guilty of even more egregious and horrendous sins than the one when he killed the little Kramer boys for which the government wants to execute him. As the characters remember past events, the picture of doing horrible and its consequences and karma becomes more and more disturbing and wicked. Cayhall’s son Eddie Cayhall commits suicide. The Jewish lawyer whose sons were killed in the bombing is paralyzed and wants justice for his sons but later kills himself, Cayhall’s daughter lee becomes an alcoholic and spends significant time in rehab. While the father Sam Cayhall shows no remorse for his actions, the children suffer under unbearable guilt and shame for what is father did. I have never read a book that so clearly demonstrates how one man can have no remorse for a hideous crime he committed nor try to have remorse. But there is some what redemption here, too. As the book progresses, Cayhall’s defenses begin to fall and he starts to face his death. He becomes patient. He looks forward to his visits with a young minister. By the end, he is ready to face death and to meet his Maker. I recommend The Chamber for its destructive force it leaves in its wake, but also for the redemption that can come to even the most hardened criminal. ( )