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Justice
As law students, Jack and Tubby were best friends, despite their conflicting love for Anne Church. But when Jack is corrupted by the rock music world, the friends find themselves opposing each other in court. This story of exploitation and big business is by the author of "Cold New Dawn" and "The Killing Anniversary".
- GenresFiction
448 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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February 21, 2020
In Ian St. James’s novel ”Justice”, we follow three characters who are bonded by friendship. Though all of them could be viewed as protagonists in some sense, at least for the majority of the plot, things are about to take a turn for the worse. We’ve probably heard the same story thousands of times before, but St. James has managed to pull it off in a way that far exceeded my expectations. Not that my expectations were very high, seeing as this is a genre I usually don’t preoccupy myself with.
The novel certainly has a lot going for it. The characters are vividly portrayed, and we follow them from the age of 20 or so, and onwards. The reader is transported through transitioning periods and major events of their often intertwined lives, and it is done with more suspense than I had anticipated. Many novels will suffer from an apparent lack of sentimentality due to little exposition. Other times there will be too much of it, resulting in the book turning into a tedious bore of a read. Such is not the case in Justice as the contrasting personalities of the main characters contribute to the dynamics and serves to maintain the reader’s interest, forming the exposition in the very flow of the story itself.
What Justice above all else excels at is character development. That is really what the novel is all about. The name of the protagonist is Peter Mortlake (called ”Tubby” by most of his acquaintainces). He starts out as an insecure fellow who doesn’t fit in anywhere, but begins to find his way. His best friend, Jack, is a success story who becomes ever so corrupted by his own fame, and his greed establishes the focal point of the conflict. You know, the ”I don’t know you anymore – you’ve changed” type of deal. Again, we’ve heard it countless times before, but it really does work as a plot device. And then there’s Ann, the beautiful, intelligent, and gorgeous young lady Jack falls in love with, who goes from being an intriguing goddess like figure to a desperate, miserable, and somewhat pathetic woman. Sentimentality is certainly a strength here.
For a book dealing with a subject matter such as this, there isn’t a whole lot to complaian about. If anything, it would be that the Jack-character’s transition to flat out tyrant could possibly have been a bit more smooth and seamless. It comes off as rather hasty and rushed to me, as the beginning stages of his descent into douchery is elaborately plotted and meticulously crafted. The reader is immersed in all the nuances and colors of the progress, which I think was crafted in a particurlarly skillful manner. And then it’s like Jack is suddenly beyond redemption in the blink of an eye. I’m trying to think of something to compare it to, and the first thing that springs to mind is the transformation of Anakin Skywalker as he becomes Darth Vader in ”Revenge of the Sith”. While I thought of it as a fantastic movie (easily the best out of the three prequels), that very transition was marked by an equally marvellous beginning stage, and a sudden, jolted, and abrupt jump into the hooded sith lord he came to be.
The twist at the end suffered from similar tendencies I think. The disposition and the space alotted to the different stages of the storyline might have been reconsidered if the author was striving for a more balanced dramaturgical flow. The way St. James exectuted that twist bears resemblance to this paragraph you are now reading - a bit disjointed and out of place, coming from out of nowhere, and ending somewhere. Clever, but imperfect.
In conclusion, I don’t think there is anything remarkably special about this novel. It’s a good read, and fans of the author and the genre will likely enjoy it. A good novel. Good, but not spectacular, not unlike certain movies and music albums that are immensely solid with little flaws, but that just don’t really have that something extra.
3.5 shrewd contracts out of 5 possible
The novel certainly has a lot going for it. The characters are vividly portrayed, and we follow them from the age of 20 or so, and onwards. The reader is transported through transitioning periods and major events of their often intertwined lives, and it is done with more suspense than I had anticipated. Many novels will suffer from an apparent lack of sentimentality due to little exposition. Other times there will be too much of it, resulting in the book turning into a tedious bore of a read. Such is not the case in Justice as the contrasting personalities of the main characters contribute to the dynamics and serves to maintain the reader’s interest, forming the exposition in the very flow of the story itself.
What Justice above all else excels at is character development. That is really what the novel is all about. The name of the protagonist is Peter Mortlake (called ”Tubby” by most of his acquaintainces). He starts out as an insecure fellow who doesn’t fit in anywhere, but begins to find his way. His best friend, Jack, is a success story who becomes ever so corrupted by his own fame, and his greed establishes the focal point of the conflict. You know, the ”I don’t know you anymore – you’ve changed” type of deal. Again, we’ve heard it countless times before, but it really does work as a plot device. And then there’s Ann, the beautiful, intelligent, and gorgeous young lady Jack falls in love with, who goes from being an intriguing goddess like figure to a desperate, miserable, and somewhat pathetic woman. Sentimentality is certainly a strength here.
For a book dealing with a subject matter such as this, there isn’t a whole lot to complaian about. If anything, it would be that the Jack-character’s transition to flat out tyrant could possibly have been a bit more smooth and seamless. It comes off as rather hasty and rushed to me, as the beginning stages of his descent into douchery is elaborately plotted and meticulously crafted. The reader is immersed in all the nuances and colors of the progress, which I think was crafted in a particurlarly skillful manner. And then it’s like Jack is suddenly beyond redemption in the blink of an eye. I’m trying to think of something to compare it to, and the first thing that springs to mind is the transformation of Anakin Skywalker as he becomes Darth Vader in ”Revenge of the Sith”. While I thought of it as a fantastic movie (easily the best out of the three prequels), that very transition was marked by an equally marvellous beginning stage, and a sudden, jolted, and abrupt jump into the hooded sith lord he came to be.
The twist at the end suffered from similar tendencies I think. The disposition and the space alotted to the different stages of the storyline might have been reconsidered if the author was striving for a more balanced dramaturgical flow. The way St. James exectuted that twist bears resemblance to this paragraph you are now reading - a bit disjointed and out of place, coming from out of nowhere, and ending somewhere. Clever, but imperfect.
In conclusion, I don’t think there is anything remarkably special about this novel. It’s a good read, and fans of the author and the genre will likely enjoy it. A good novel. Good, but not spectacular, not unlike certain movies and music albums that are immensely solid with little flaws, but that just don’t really have that something extra.
3.5 shrewd contracts out of 5 possible
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