Saturday, July 03, 2004

Grisham is great from beginning to middle.

I've read all of John Grisham's legal books. I haven't read his books that don't have lawyers in them like "A Painted House".

Anyhow, I really enjoy reading John Grisham for one reason: his books do not require any thinking on a higher level. They are pure plot and don't generally have any symbolism, deeper themes, or anything that generally makes reading challenging to the mind. I enjoy reading, and I enjoy reading challenging books, but when you're in the mood for a break, at the beginning of a vacation for example, then Grisham is the way to go. No one does it better.

The issue I have with John Grisham is that his endings are generally very bad. Let's go title by title. "A Time to Kill" simply ended with the jury verdict, too abrupt.

"The Firm" had the opposite issue. The ending had nothing to do with the rest of the book and went on for way too long.

"The Pelican Brief" had an obligatory romance and not much substance to it at the end.

"The Client" was anti-climactic to say the least.

"The Chamber" had an ending you could see from page 15.

"The Rainmaker" was formulaic, but moderately satisfying.

"The Runaway Jury" actually had a great story to the very end, only the last couple pages were disappointing.

"The Partner" was one of his better books along with one of his better endings.

"The Street Lawyer" was disappointing from beginning to end, so isn't worth singling out just the ending.

"The Testament" was Grisham's best book and far and away his best ending.

"The Brethren" was an interesting concept and I enjoyed reading it. The whole thing was odd, along with the ending, but enjoyable.

"The Summons" had a red herring suspect and sort of a twist ending that wasn't very satisfying. It also ends rather abruptly.

"The King of Torts", which I just finished reading 20 minutes ago, was one of his better stories, along with the disappointing ending. He doesn't give any closure to the story and we're not really sure how the main character comes out in the end.

I really enjoyed having the character of Patton French appear semi-prominently in both "The Summons" and "The King of Torts", especially since I read them both back to back. It tied both stories together really well.

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