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THE GREAT DIVIDE, T. DAVIS BUNN (2000, HARDCOVER) - NEW
Gloria Hall has gone missing in China, where she went to investigate
and expose slave labor conditions. The prison camp she ends up in is a
factory for a big American corporation. Marcus Glenwood is a formerly
successful corporate lawyer who has retreated to a house on the wrong
side of the tracks after an auto accident in which his two small
children are killed. Gloria's sacrifice and Marcus's redemption are the
larger themes of this moving and engrossing novel of international
trade practices and personal salvation. Marcus agrees to represent
Gloria's parents in a legal battle to hold New Horizons, the world's
largest manufacturer of sports shoes and athletic gear, accountable for
the disappearance of their daughter. But his investigation is hampered
from the beginning by his former colleagues, who represent New
Horizons, and by powerful lobbyists and associates of the Chinese
government, who will not hesitate to use any means possible--including
murder--to keep their gruesome practices a secret. With his resources
limited to a canny retired judge and the mysterious woman who was
Gloria's closest friend, Marcus sets out on a David and Goliath-like
battle against a mighty corporation with powerful political backers and
corrupt trading partners determined to stop him. In the wake
of increasing political protest against the abuse of workers in third
world countries who manufacture goods sold by American companies, the
outlines of Bunn's plot are particularly timely. The theme of the
burned-out lawyer taking on a mighty corporation and its
anything-for-a-win legal minions, however, has been used by many
others, most notably John Grisham, for nearly a decade. What makes this
novel exceptionally powerful is its deep spiritual core. The scene in
which Marcus painfully relives the accident that shattered his world
and confronts the loving presence of the only force that can absolve
his guilt and heal his soul is remarkable: "There within the church the
shadow formed more clearly still, gliding on slippered feet. The shroud
it carried wrapped him up so tightly that Marcus felt his hold on the
church and the comforting noise slip away until he could scarcely hear
anything save the frantic beating of his terrified heart. He sat there,
trapped and helpless to do anything save observe the approach of his
own eternal night." The secondary characters are as well drawn as the
protagonists, and Bunn's writing has moments of real beauty and
clarity. While the plot doesn't move as quickly as it might, and the
sympathetic judge who presides over the courtroom leaves herself wide
open to appellate review, neither detracts from the powerful resonance
of this well written novel.
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