Grisham novel upsets university

By Jessica Schneider Feb 2, 2009, 12:49 GMT

The AP notes that Duquesne University is upset for John Grisham choosing to use its name in context with a fictional gang rape.

“Grisham's The Associate deals with a character who attended the private Catholic college and was involved in a drunken rape scene in an off-campus apartment in 2003,” the AP states.

According to USA Today: “Not since the author's 1991 The Firm, with its young hero Mitch McDeere, has a fledgling lawyer been pushed so hard against the wall of corruption — until he starts pushing back. Kyle McAvoy, 25, from York, Pa., shows outward docility but soon reveals his inner spunk.”

The product description notes:

“Kyle McAvoy grew up in his father’s small-town law office in York, Pennsylvania. He excelled in college, was elected editor-in-chief of The Yale Law Journal, and his future has limitless potential.

But Kyle has a secret, a dark one, an episode from college that he has tried to forget. The secret, though, falls into the hands of the wrong people, and Kyle is forced to take a job he doesn’t want—even though it’s a job most law students can only dream about.

Three months after leaving Yale, Kyle becomes an associate at the largest law firm in the world, where, in addition to practicing law, he is expected to lie, steal, and take part in a scheme that could send him to prison, if not get him killed.

With an unforgettable cast of characters and villains—from Baxter Tate, a drug-addled trust fund kid and possible rapist, to Dale, a pretty but seemingly quiet former math teacher who shares Kyle’s “cubicle” at the law firm, to two of the most powerful and fiercely competitive defense contractors in the country—and featuring all the twists and turns that have made John Grisham the most popular storyteller in the world, The Associate is vintage Grisham.”

Oddly, there is no image on Amazon. Yet readers can read more here.