The Language Use and Grammar Curmudgeon

I read John Grisham's The Innocent Man in just a few days. I loved it. However, throughout the book, I had the feeling that I was watching Mr. Grisham defend a client, and not tell a story. I would be interested in reading about the same case written by John Glatt, my favorite true crime writer.

I was also struck by the many times Mr. Grisham used the word "anxious" when he meant "eager".

I read other reviews of the book. This is from a site that allows readers to review books and refer to themselves as "Resident Scholar". Here is a tidbit by one of the resident scholars, she said sarcastically:

"Because he was known as a strange character around town that partyied alot and wandered the streets late at night as well as living close to the victim he was the easiest suspect for the local polic to focus their efforts on.”

Dana Riedberger, Resident Scholar

Dana, you ain't no scholar

Michael Harris, a writer for something I found online called The Times, wrote a review about the book in October 2006. In his review, he wrote the title of the book in quotes instead of italics.

Here is another review. Again, the title is in quotation marks instead of italics. And, the title is incorrect. It’s The Innocent Man, not “An Innocent Man”. Notice the lack of comma before “which was filled with inaccuracies”. Either put in a comma, or change “which” to “that”!

Book Review: John Grisham’s “An Innocent Man”

Posted on December 31, 2006 by Bryan Scrafford

I have always been a big fan of John Grisham’s writing and legal thrillers in general, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I received Grisham’s newest book, “An Innocent Man,” for Christmas. “An Innocent Man” is about two men who were convicted of a murder that they didn’t commit. Based upon an extremely coerced confession which was filled with inaccuracies and was immediately reneged...