61 pages • 2 hours read
John GrishamThe Testament
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual exploitation, alcoholism, suicide, and racism against Indigenous people.
The narrative begins in Troy Phelan’s first-person point of view. He has gathered his children and former wives, from whom he is estranged, to witness, via closed-circuit television, the signing of his new will. After enumerating his tremendous wealth and assets, he notes: “The money is the root of my misery” (1).
Phelan has three families. He married first wife, Lillian, young and had four children with her: daughters Libbigail (whom he says he erased from his wills after she married an African person) and Mary Ross and sons Troy Junior (TJ) and Rex. He describes all four as “heavily in debt and virtually unemployable” (3). His second wife, Janie, 22 years his junior, is the mother of two of his children: son Rocky, who was killed in a car crash, and daughter Geena. He married his third wife, Tira, 41 years younger than he, when she was pregnant with his son, Ramble, now 14 and already with arrests for shoplifting and marijuana possession. Also present is his servant of 30 years, Snead, of whom Phelan speaks with contempt.
Phelan admits to hating his family, though he knows that it is wrong to feel this way. They question his soundness of mind, which he recognizes as a smart legal move since his will would be voided if he were judged mentally incompetent.
Chapter 2 Summary
Phelan’s attorney, Josh Stafford, has prepared a will that divides his assets fairly among his children, with a large sum also going to each wife. Phelan has ensured that the family is aware of this new will. All have hired lawyers and psychiatrists who will examine Phelan camera to ensure that he is of sound mind. Believing that they are destined to inherit his money, the family is eager for Phelan to be proven sane.
They gather in a conference room to witness the signing, but Phelan has manipulated them all “[b]ecause I’m gonna screw ’em one last time” (12). After the psychiatrists question him and declare him mentally sound, Phelan signs the will that Josh has prepared. Following the signing, the families rush out. A camera continues to roll. Phelan pulls out a new, holographic will that he has prepared on his own, without Josh’s knowledge. Declaring all previous wills and codicils void, Phelan signs it and throws himself off the balcony to his death.
Chapter 3 Summary
The narrative shifts to the third person. Phelan had hoped to fall at the feet of his family but instead lands near a payroll clerk. A crowd of employees and family members slowly grows. In the conference room, Josh films Snead, who in tears states that he witnessed Phelan sign the new will and confirms his employer’s signature. The family feel “slight twinges of grief” but think also about the money (25). The psychiatrists are preoccupied with the implications of their having declared Phelan mentally sound moments before he jumped.
In the conference room, Josh and his associate, Durban, read Phelan’s document on camera. It instructs Josh to conduct an autopsy, have Phelan cremated, and keep the contents of his will confidential for a month. The will covers the debts of his children only up to the day of the will signing, excludes his wives completely, and leaves the rest of his estate to his daughter, Rachel Lane, a missionary with World Tribes Missions at the Brazil-Bolivia border. Neither Josh nor Durban knew of Rachel’s existence. Later, the lawyers note Phelan’s cruelty and ability to control the situation from beyond the grave.
Meanwhile, the family’s lawyers film the psychiatrists affirming that, despite his suicide, Phelan was of sound mind when he signed his will.
Chapter 4 Summary
Publicly, Lillian and her children accept condolences, but privately they celebrate. They briefly consider fighting Phelan’s stipulation against memorial and funeral services but finally decide not to “make matters worse” since “Troy always got what he wanted anyway” (33). Rex’s lawyer, Hark Gettys, contacts Josh demanding to see the will but is rebuffed. When Josh asks Hark if the psychiatrists still believe that Phelan was of sound mind, he insists that they do.
The autopsy reveals that, at the time of his death, Phelan was malnourished but otherwise in good health, with no sign of the brain tumor he claimed to have had. Josh and Durban discuss whether Phelan was mentally sound, given his suicide. Josh believes that he was depressed and lonely. He saw his family as leeches, and he was right, but Phelan recognized that he was “a bad father and a terrible husband” who also had sexual-harassment claims leveled against him (37). Josh puts together three teams of associates: one to research any legal problems that Phelan’s will might pose, a second to research holographic wills specifically, and the third to find Rachel Lane.
Chapter 5 Summary
Gloating over his newfound wealth, TJ decides to be known as Troy Phelan Jr. He reflects on how his father’s ideas always ended in success, his own “in bankruptcy and litigation” (44). At a BMW-Porsche dealership, he bullies a salesman into giving him two cars immediately, with the promise of future payment. Smoking pot in his basement, Ramble plans to start a band with his inheritance. Geena is married to MBA-holder Cody, who claims to come from a family with “old money from up East” (48), though the money has never materialized. Cody’s own ventures have failed. With the couple’s money rapidly diminishing, Geena’s inheritance has arrived at the perfect time. The couple begins looking at multi-million-dollar homes. Rex is heavily in debt and currently “under criminal investigation” over a failed bank (49). A “string of topless bars and strip clubs” funds his extravagant lifestyle (49), but all his assets are in the name of his wife, Amber, who formerly worked at these venues. This protects him legally but leaves him riddled with anxiety that she could disappear with everything after a bad fight. His inheritance has brought his worrying to an end, and he harasses Hark to see a copy of his father’s will.
Chapter 6 Summary
Josh and Durban fly Phelan’s plane to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to scatter his ashes over his estate. On the flight, they discuss developments. The family’s lawyers continue to press to see the will, flooding Josh’s office with signed affidavits attesting to Phelan’s mental stability. Preliminary research has affirmed that his holographic will is legal. They have learned that World Tribes Missions works “exclusively with native peoples” with the goal of “spread[ing] the Christian Gospel to every remote tribe in the world” (53). Missionaries commit to living with the people to whom they minister forever, “secluded and detached from modern civilization” (53). They ponder whether Rachel can or would want to be found.
After scattering Phelan’s ashes, Durban and Josh retire to Phelan’s estate, where they enjoy scotch and cigars as they consider their next steps. Someone must find Rachel. Josh insists that it be a lawyer from within their firm who understands the sensitivity of the legal issues. They agree to send Nate O’Riley, a partner currently bankrupt, indicted for tax evasion, and in rehab for the fourth time in 10 years after what may have been an attempt to die by suicide. Josh’s law office sends an associate to World Tribes Missions, but they refuse to disclose any information to him.
Chapter 7 Summary
Three days after Phelan’s death by suicide, Hark is strategizing how best to profit from the situation. He decides to raise his rates, leave his firm, and figure out how to “start a war with Josh Stafford” (63). A contested will would mean more billable hours and more public attention on himself. He meets with Rex’s sisters, but neither trusts him because they don’t trust Rex.
Libbigail was nine when her mother and Phelan divorced. Phelan referred to her as his favorite when she was a child but drifted away as time passed and as he moved on to his second marriage. She had gone to Berkeley and fallen “into the culture of drugs and casual sex” (65). As with her other siblings, Libbigail received her inheritance at the age of 21. Five years later, the money was gone, following two husbands, two arrests, three detox lockdowns, and a serious car wreck. Spike, her current husband, is “an ex-biker she’d met in rehab” who builds cabinets (66). Libbigail reports her meeting with Hark to her lawyer, Wally Bright, who represented her in one of her divorces. Anxious to protect his cash cow, Bright promptly phones Hark to chew him out, impressing Libbigail. After she leaves, Bright ponders making a move on her when the time is right.
Chapter 8 Summary
At Walnut Hill rehab facility, Nate feels sad contemplating the upcoming holidays and his ex-wives and four children. When Josh visits him, the two review Nate’s past addiction, brought on by the stress of litigation. Nate insists that he is better. Josh wants to believe him but is worried. Though Nate wants to return to litigation, Josh convinces him to go to Brazil to find Rachel Lane. The prospect of being away for the holidays appeals to him.
Chapter 9 Summary
Phelan’s heirs spend more time with their lawyers and less with each other, leading to infighting. Hark files a petition to compel a reading of Phelan’s will, tipping off a reporter who then interviews him. The other lawyers representing family members follow in kind. The ambitious judge overseeing the case, Wycliff, is pleased with the case’s high profile. He meets with Josh to learn more about Phelan’s will, and the two agree to read it in court on December 27. Wycliff and Josh both anticipate the spectacle with glee. Wycliff is especially pleased to hear that the will is “wicked” (85).
At Walnut Hill, Nate’s counselor, Sergio, worries that Nate needs more time to readjust before his trip to Brazil, but Nate is counting down to his release.
Chapter 10 Summary
Josh picks up Nate from Walnut Hill and briefs him on his itinerary to and within Brazil and his contact there, Valdir Ruiz. Josh has packed a carry-on bag for Nate including a satellite phone to enable them to communicate during his search for Rachel Lane. Nate is anxious about the trip but relieved to escape the holidays.
At the airport, Josh keeps a nervous eye on the bar, but Nate insists that he is happily sober. On the plane, Nate realizes that Josh has taken precautions, booking him next to an unoccupied seat to avoid exposure to others’ drinking and warning the air crew not to offer him any alcohol. Nate phones Sergio and Alice, his secretary, from the airplane phone, then buries himself in the Phelan files before falling asleep.
Chapters 1-10 Analysis
The first 10 chapters usher the reader through the exposition and rising action of the novel. By the end of this section, the central tensions are established: The novel’s suspense hinges on whether (or when) Nate will find Rachel and the implications of this outcome on the fight for Phelan’s fortune.
The first two chapters, narrated in the first person from Phelan’s point of view, introduce his will and its contentious nature. Grisham portrays Phelan as an isolated, lonely, miserable man who spends his last days thinking about how to further hurt his children, former wives, and devoted servant, all of whom he has neglected or taken for granted. He complains about his children’s poor financial choices, lack of focus, and various addictions while failing to account for his own addiction to money. He persists in his cruelties despite knowing that they are wrong. His actions introduce the theme of Reciprocity in Social and Family Networks, and Grisham uses first person in this section to emphasize the one-sidedness and lack of reciprocity in the actions of the Phelan family.
At the same time, he seeks some deeper meaning or purpose in life through spirituality and asceticism: He describes himself as a student of Zoroaster (an Iranian prophet who founded a monotheistic religion based on the conquest of good over evil) who wears “long white robes made of Thai silk,” shaves his head, and eats little “so that my body is small and shriveled” (5). However, he lacks a commitment to transformation, choosing for his final act to be one of trickery and harm of his own family: He allows his children to think that they are going to inherit his fortune knowing that they will recklessly spend on credit. In the chapters that he narrates, Phelan claims that he suffers from a brain tumor, though no evidence of one is found after his autopsy. The narrative suggests that what he ultimately suffers from is the absence of meaning and connection: He lacks an existential purpose that would make his life feel meaningful enough to live, which renders an existential danger also a physical one. His implicit struggle to find meaning in his life launches the theme of Interconnection of Existential and Physical Dangers, further explored across the novel through the characters of Rachel and Nate.
When the third-person narrative takes over at the beginning of Chapter 3, Grisham uses a wider narrative perspective to describe the full cast of characters involved in the will dispute. These include each of Phelan’s children (enumerated in his chapters), their lawyers, Phelan’s lawyer, Snead, Judge Wycliff, and, most significantly to the narrative arc of the novel, Nate. Each of these characters has their own motivations and preoccupations. The two themes introduced in the first two chapters will be developed through the dynamics among these parties, each of whom has, to varying degrees, a personal investment in Phelan’s will.
Phelan’s children are mostly preoccupied with their individual concerns. In part, this tunnel vision is fueled by their lawyers. Rex’s lawyer, Hark, sees the Phelan case as an opportunity to seize the limelight and financially profit for himself, as does Bright, Libbigail’s lawyer. Their concerns are to gain attention and profit from their involvement in the case. The judge presiding over it, Wycliff, is excited about the potential for an interesting case that will thrust him in the spotlight. Phelan’s lawyer, Josh, sees his client for who he is—a bitter and lonely billionaire—but believes in upholding his responsibilities as his lawyer. The question of how far each will go and the degree to which each can temper their self-absorption contributes to the tension building in the rising action.
The final character introduced in the rising action is Nate, who is a foil for Phelan. Phelan’s addiction is money; Nate’s is drugs and alcohol. In both cases, their addictions could become fatal. However, Nate’s attempt at dying by suicide did not result in his death, and he is in an expensive rehabilitation facility at the start of the novel. His physical journey through the Pantanal to find Rachel becomes a spiritual journey as well, as he will ultimately find the meaning and purpose that Phelan did not find.
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