The Street Lawyer

John Grisham is back with his latest courtroom conundrum, The Street Lawyer. This time the lord of legal thrillers dives deep into the world of the homeless, particularly their barely audible legal voice in a world dominated by large, all-powerful law firms. Our hero, Michael Brock, is on the fast track to partnership at Washington, D.C.'s premier law firm, Sweeny & Drake. His dream of one day raking in a million-plus a year is finally within reach. Nothing can stop him, not even 90-hour work weeks and a failing marriage--until he meets DeVon Hardy, a.k.a. "Mister," a Vietnam veteran with a grudge against his landlord--and a few lawyers to fry. Hardy, with no clear motive, takes Brock and eight of his colleagues hostage in a boardroom, demanding their tax returns and interrogating them with a conviction that would have put perpetrators of the Spanish Inquisition to shame. Hardy, a man of few words and a lot of ammunition, mumbles cryptically, "Who are the evictors?" as he points a .44 automatic within inches of Brock's face. The violent outcome of the hostage situation triggers an abrupt soul-searching for the young lawyer, and Hardy's mysterious question continues to haunt him. Brock learns that Hardy had been in and out of homeless shelters most of his life, but he had recently begun paying rent in a rundown building; that means he has legal recourse when a big money- making outfit such as Sweeny & Drake boots him with no warning. When Brock realizes that his profession caters to the morally challenged, he sets out on an aimless search through the dicey side of Washington, DC, ending up at the 14th Street Legal Clinic. The clinic's director, a gargantuan man named Mordecai Green, woos Brock to the clinic with a $90,000 cut in pay and the chance to redeem his soul. Brock takes it--and some of the story's credibility along with it; it's hard to believe that a Yale graduate who sacrificed everything--including his marriage--to succeed in the legal profession would quickly jump at the opportunity for low-paying, charitable work. However, Brock's search for corruption in the swanky upper echelons of Sweeny & Drake (via the toughest streets of Washington, DC) is filled with colourful characters and realistic, gritty descriptions. In The Street Lawyer, Grisham once again defends the voiceless and powerless. In the words of Mordecai Green, "That's justice, Michael. That's what street law is all about. Dignity."

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UTTER TOSH - Rated
Grisham must have written this in his sleep. It is formulaic, cliche-ridden and without any sense of growing excitement. The end is flabby and the love interest is completely superfluous. Every character is one-dimensional - not, I accept, unique to this book as Grisham always has the same cast of characters - and some of the writing is truly excruciating. I have enjoyed many of his books, but this is complete rubbish.

Quite dreadful - Rated
This is a party political broadcast on behalf of the homeless of Washington DC. Not so much a page-turner as a must-I-really-read-it-to-the-end book? Boring, badly written, reads like treacle. Not thrilling, no twists. Plodding and predictable.

I got my copy from somebody who left it behind, she herself having picked it up in an abandoned state at an airport. It seems that people are not attached to this book, with reason. I shall put it out of its misery and add it to the recycling so that nobody else need suffer after me.

This is my first Grisham. It was my last.

Disappointing - Rated
I'd not read much Grisham before and had no expectations, but on the basis of reputation, I thought this would be worth a go. The author tells a straightforward tale of a corporate man on his way up the ladder to Big Things, who after a terrifying ordeal, starts to see through the superficiality of his existence. He unceremoniously dumps his old life to look for fulfilment by working with the homeless and helpless, and through a series of coincidences he uncovers a scandal involving his former employers, and in the climax to the book, puts the wrongs right and finds love to boot.

Which is all well and good, but ... it is told in such a one-dimensional linear fashion that you can very easily predict what's coming next. No twists or turns to keep the plot buzzing along; no development of the supporting characters to provide depth; no climactic final scene or real page-turning excitement ... by the end you just don't care, and the story seems to fizzle out. It feels indulgent - like the lead character's selfishness has bled through into the writing.

Have to say I was glad to finish this one, just so I could put it away and move on.

Makes you think novel - - Rated
This is the first John Grisham novel I have read and I really enjoyed it. The story line really makes you think hard about life and the homeless - I will definately be after reading another John Grisham novel soon. Give it a go and enjoy!

Surprisingly bad - Rated
Having read this book on the recommendation of a friend that a.) John Grisham is an excellent writer and b.) this is one of his very best books, and knowing how popular his books were, I was really looking forward to reading this. I thought at best I was about to discover a new author whose work I could really get lost in, or at worst was about to read a populist page-turner that, while not brilliant in a literary sense, would provide an entertaining journey.
I was sorry to find that I didn't pitch my worst outcome expectation anywhere near low enough. The plot was straight-forward to the point of embarassment, the characters were wafer-thin, the dialogue was terrible and the pace could best be described as erratic. Either of these aspects on their own can be found in some exceptional novels. For example, a simplistic plot is not necessarily a bad thing if the point of the work is characterisation or to explore other deeper issues. However, this was not the case here. It was simply bad. When everytime a character speaks the dialogue suddenly jolts you into remembering you are reading a book, you know the book is not good.
I struggled through the first half - it must have taken me almost a week to read it. Then, because I wanted to get on with reading something better, and I refuse to leave a book unfinished once I start, I forced myself to sit down and finish the last couple of hundred pages in one sitting. They were some of the worst hours of my life. I still don't like to talk about it...