The Racketeer by John Grisham

 

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  I've taken a hiatus for the last couple of months - from blogging, not reading! But I'm back to it now that the dog days of summer have arrived. 

           I got to this book and thought, "Oh no, not another Grisham lawyer book." As you may have surmised by that, I'm not the biggest fan of his lawyer stories. They tend to be sad and a little twisted. This one is more fun than his normal lawyer book though. I liked it.

            We have Malcolm Bannister, lawyer, a man who got used by some bad guys and landed, unfairly, in Federal prison for ten years. He loses his career, his wife, his child, but does not lose his mind. And, he develops a bold plan. He trades bad information for his freedom. Then he uses info he got while in prison to acquire a fortune in gold. Then he gives the authorities the correct info and rides off into the sunset while they capture and prosecute the real bad guy.

            There are twists and turns and Caribbean sunsets. Malcolm, instead of giving up and giving in when he finds himself in prison, takes his future into his own hands and boldly wrests it onto a path that will keep him happy

Calico Joe by John Grisham

          I’m not a big John Grisham fan. I’m even less of a baseball fan. So it was with great trepidation that I started this book.

          The first chapter sucks. It was horrible. I hated it. After reading one chapter I didn’t pick the book back up for 2 days.

          But I have that pesky three chapter rule, and the chapters really are pretty short. So I sighed deeply and started chapter two.

          By the end of chapter two, I was totally sucked in. By the end of chapter three, I believed this would have been a best seller even if Grisham wasn’t the author.

          This is the story of a young boy’s love of baseball and his hero worship of a remarkable player. The boy’s father is a pitcher for the Mets and a generally lousy human being. The boy’s hero is a young man from Calico Rock, Arkansas who had a record shattering, and meteoric rise to stardom with the Chicago Cubs.

          The climactic meeting between those two men, while that young boy watches from the stands, echoes through the boy’s life long into adulthood.

          This book reaffirms why Grisham is such a great writer. He took me from my predisposed attitude of board and disgusted, and propelled me, apparently effortlessly, into a place where I was unable to put the book down till I had completed it. Granted, it’s a pretty short book, but I read the rest of the book in one day. I actually insisted my husband read this one – he’s not a fan of Grisham’s baseball books – but I know he’ll like this one!

 

 

The Litigators by John Grisham

               I’ll start by saying I’ve never been a huge Grisham fan. I do not generally find lawyer stories amusing, and they are kind of his specialty. His stories tend to be a bit dark and sad. Since I read primarily to be entertained, his style and mine do not mesh well.

               That said, I really enjoyed The Litigators. I was highly entertained. It starts with a young lawyer, David Zinc, working for an enormous firm in Chicago. As he goes to work the first day of the story, the usual dread of another day in the salt mine is just too much. As he steps out of the elevator on his floor he suddenly knows he just can’t do it anymore. He turns around and dives through the closing doors behind him, sits on the elevator car floor giggling, rides ninety-odd floors down and runs for freedom.

               Now there is a scene millions of us would love to be a part of. During his insane run, he stumbles into the struggling firm of Finley and Figg.

               The escapades of the Finley and Figg gang are quite entertaining, and David’s maturation process is as well. This is one Grisham novel where everybody lives happily ever after.

               Grisham fans may be less than keen on this book. But, I recommend it – probably for the same reasons his usual readers won’t.