[Froide]

RE: A Time to Kill

Originally Posted by barryem

I can't see what you're alluding to in the quote from "A Time to Kill". It's been a few years since I last read that book but my memory of it is that he was sympathetic toward Carl Lee. Leathery sold can describe the feet of anyone who customarily goes barefoot when outdoors, as I did when I was in college and unwilling to waste what little money I had on shoes. I had very thick calluses on my feet and I could walk on hot pavement or gravel without much difficulty. I certainly had leathery soles. My feet weren't black although after a walk outside it might be hard to tell that.

I think you're mistaking what Grisham did in that book.

I decided before I hit Post I'd better check the book and make sure I was right. Well, I'm basically right and you're way off. I did searches and the word "padding" doesn't appear in the book. The only reference to barefoot refers to Lucien Wilbanks, an elderly lawyer who helps the defense.

"Leathery" does appear, describing the feet of Leroy, Carl Lee's cellmate.

I think you got this one wrong.

Barry

Like you, Barry, I read the book decades ago (as I stated). However, unlike you (unfortunately), I don't have the book at hand. Therefore, I qualified my attempt to describe the passage that left a long-lasting, discomfiting impression with, "or some words to that effect", and I misremembered the detail that Grisham was not describing Carl Lee but his cellmate. (Thank you for that correction.) Nonetheless, my descriptions of my discomfiture with that part of the book and the way I handled it at the time are accurate.

You - and some downstream posters in this thread - disagree with my interpretation of, and therefore my reaction to, that passage, attributing it to the fact that I might not have gone barefoot or (as another poster surmises) spent time in the South. Good guesses, but wrong on both counts.

FYI, it's worth noting: I enjoy (most of) Grisham's writing and through it, the way he tackles many issues.

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

I would be interested in any other passage which I may have missed but to which you were referring in making your claim.

Yes, it was a confluence of details, all the specifics of which I don't remember, although I distinctly recall my discomfiture. This thread, in general, and this conversation about A Time to Kill, specifically, do make me want to reread the book.

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I haven't read the book being discussed, but I've seen "padded" used plenty of times in lots of different books to describe someone walking quietly without shoes. I've never found it to have any negative connotation.

As someone who has the book handy pointed out above, the use of the word "padding" is mine, not Grisham's; I used it in trying to describe the passage I remembered reading and reacting to back in 1988. "Padding" doesn't bother me - I use the term, myself. Rather, it was the image Grisham painted of an African American prisoner's black leathery soles, combined with some other details I don't recall, that discomfited me back then. It's the impression I remember more than the specific details.