Sparring Partners

Mack Stafford is the secondary protagonist of “Homecoming” and acts as a foil to Jake. Mack is 45, with salt-and-pepper hair, a neat beard, and tortoiseshell glasses; he “could have passed for a handsome college professor” (22). Mack was a lawyer in Clanton for many years before suddenly closing his practice, declaring bankruptcy, divorcing his wife, and abandoning his two young daughters. Mack’s fellow lawyers see him as a local legend, thinking that he “pulled off the great escape” (9).

Although he does feel guilty about stealing from his clients, and makes no attempt to pay restitution, Mack does express regret about leaving his family, especially his oldest daughter, Margot, with whom he is desperate to reconnect. Nevertheless, Mack decides to leave the country again rather than face arrest, assuming that his lawyers (Jake and Harry Rex) will be able to settle his case by paying fines in a few years. The novella ends with Mack disappearing into Mexico with $40,000 and four passports, solidifying his image as an adventurous crook. Unlike Jake, who generally upholds the law and is a faithful family man, Mack is primarily driven by self-interest.

Cody Wallace, the protagonist of “Strawberry Moon,” is a 29-year-old incarcerated man facing execution for a crime that he did not commit. On the day of his death, Cody is described as “a skinny boy with bushy hair who could convince no one that he is twenty-nine years old” (150). He is characterized by his dark humor, his love of reading, and his dedication to improving the lives of other incarcerated people. When the novella begins, Cody is cynical about his situation and confident that there is no afterlife, claiming that “all that nonsense about spirits rising from our dead bodies and floating up to glory or plunging into fire is a load of crap” (145). At the end of the novella, however, Cody begins to question his beliefs and open himself to the possibility of an afterlife.

Cody’s conversation with the prison’s chaplain, Padre, indicates that Cody has engaged with Christian theology through debate with Padre and personal reflection. Despite their history of “previous serious conversations about God and all his mysteries” (144), Padre has been unable to convert Cody to Christianity during his time on death row. Nevertheless, Cody claims to have read the Bible “cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation, at least three times” (144) and Padre confirms that Cody knows the Bible “better than most ministers” (144). This emphasis on Cody’s intentional, thoughtful reflection and his many years of activism on behalf of his fellow inmates underscore the novella’s condemnation of capital punishment a knee-jerk response that cannot account for the nuanced transformation inherent in a human life.

Jack Garber is Cody’s lawyer in “Strawberry Moon.” Although he did not represent Cody during his trial, he has represented Cody for the last 10 years of his incarceration, appointed and compensated by “a nonprofit foundation that represents people like Cody” (149). Although Jack’s organization is never named, Grisham is on the board of directors of the Innocence Project, a foundation with similar goals. Like Jake Brigance, the character of Jack is an idealized embodiment of Grisham’s own activism. Jack’s defining characteristics are his frustration with the criminal justice system and the exhaustion that comes from fighting it.

Jack is described as “the perfect picture of a frantic death penalty lawyer about to lose another one” (133). He has “long hair pulled back in a ponytail, a rumpled suit” (133) and speaks “in a low, dispirited voice” (163), indicating exhaustion and a lack of self-regard. When Cody asks Jack why he became a death penalty lawyer, “the answer was vague and brief and touched on some lofty ideas about capital punishment” (149), suggesting that, although Jack believes in his cause, the ambitious ideals he pursues contrast sharply with the realities he faces. It is only after Cody’s execution that Jack’s true emotions are revealed. In his final statement to the media, Jack offers the novella’s most impassioned criticism of the criminal justice system and its supporters: “[T]he system failed Cody at every turn, and now the system will fail him again. Congratulations to the God-fearing, gun-loving, law and order die-hards of this miserable state” (164). The ferocity of this statement suggests that Jack has more emotional and rhetorical strength than his quiet nature suggests.

Diantha Bradshaw is an associate lawyer at Malloy & Malloy, the law firm at the heart of “Sparring Partners.” She is described as “the rock, the mediator, the unofficial third partner” (186) of the firm, and by the end of the novella she has taken full control of Malloy & Malloy. Her office is located in the middle of the building so she can act as go-between for its estranged brothers, indicating her centrality to the firm. Diantha is characterized by her vulnerable past and dedication to self-preservation in the face of the Malloys’ exploitation.

Prior to the events depicted in the novella, Diantha had a sexual relationship with Bolton Malloy that affected her deeply. When she visits him in prison, she argues that the relationship was coercive: “I was a twenty-five-year-old kid fresh out of law school and you gave me a job. What happened after that was hardly consensual” (222). Later, in a conversation with her therapist, Diantha reiterates that she was a “naïve young lady” when she began her affair with Bolton, and that “it was never entirely consensual” (242). Diantha’s meeting with Bolton may be read as the catalyst for the events that bring down the firm. She uses Bolton’s former abuse as leverage to convince the Malloy brothers to make her a full partner of the firm, enabling her to take control of the tobacco money. Diantha’s strong sense of self-preservation also leads her to establish an immunity deal with prosecutors. Her eventual escape to Switzerland with firm’s tobacco settlement proceeds offers a satisfying conclusion to the novella’s plot and adds a note of ambiguity to Grisham’s otherwise clear condemnation of lawyerly greed.

Rusty Malloy is one of two brothers running Malloy & Malloy in “Sparring Partners.” More professionally and sexually aggressive than his brother Kirk, Rusty “fancied himself a hard-charging trial lawyer; he loved the courtroom and dreamed of big, splash verdicts” (183). When the Malloy brothers begin stealing the tobacco settlement money from their father, Rusty is responsible for “the dirty work” (27). It is Rusty who convinces the accountant Stuart to comply with their plan by showing up to his office “unannounced and ready for battle” and bullying Stuart. Whereas Kirk has only been married once, Rusty “adored blondes and married three of them” (184) and is depicted trying to pick up women throughout the novel. When he receives his share of the tobacco money, he immediately charters a plane to the British Virgin Islands “to impress a new girlfriend” (255).

Rusty is also characterized by his greed. His goal as a lawyer is to achieve notoriety because of the size of his settlements, which enrich him. When he loses a case after pushing a jury too hard, Rusty admits to himself that “he had been foolish to ask for so much money” (217) and that he had done so only because “his ego wanted more, much more” (217). Rusty’s greed has an obviously negative effect on his client’s family, but the novella also implies that his greed is partially responsible for the firm’s financial collapse.