The Broker - Book Review

When we intend to make a quick analysis of a book of fiction "light" the best known of the twenty-first century, moreover, written by one of the most famous authors of recent decades, the magazine Publishers Weekly said "the writer of the most sold nineties, "I think the first question to be answered is:" The success of the book / author is really deserved? ".
I read "The Broker" by John Grisham that I knew without any other work of the author knew that his books are classified as "yellow legal," and little else.
The Broker is not a yellow legal, I think it is more properly a thriller, but in my opinion, is outside the classical connotation of this kind.
The plot, briefly said, is that a powerful Washington lobbyist lawyer was sentenced to twenty years in prison for espionage. Just six years later he is granted a presidential pardon, was released from jail and is being conducted in Italy, where she forges a new identity and try to rebuild their lives, while old enemies on his trail to bring him pay.
I will not say much for not abusing the curiosity of readers, but from these few lines it is clear that the kind of thriller that seems most appropriate to classify the novel. Espionage, moving enemies, Add to this, the CIA and the intelligence services of any nation, and here's the perfect recipe for a thriller.
The stroke of genius Grisham was to set most of the story in our beautiful country. He taught me a lot more on his habits and characteristics than many of us Italians stroll through the streets of downtown.
These people, who studied with Grisham eyes of foreigners, on the one hand highlights a number of aspects related to popular stereotypes, on the other hand, however, shows habits totally unexpected. And when it freezes, reading, and reflected for a moment, and is thought to himself, 'Wow, you're right, that's it! We are like that! ', Well, then it's appropriate to say that the author hit the mark.
To be sure, there are opposite cases (some of you have never heard that in Italy it's rude to order a cappuccino after half past ten in the morning?), But almost reviving the soul: in the end, if not commit any error, Grisham seems more "Italian" than many of us ...
This is why the plot, as full of ideas that, if handled by other authors, would bring excitement and rush to read, with winds calm, like a lazy river from the large bed, sneaking in here and there a description of the folk ways Bologna, elsewhere in a historic recall drenched with sarcasm. Often the passage of time seems to stand still: the characters sit in a restaurant to have lunch, without haste, and the protagonist is surprised by how many hours the Italians are willing to devote to food and good cooking, for him, that is the reality fast-food, this seems absurd.
With a frame entirely from our own, and charging a masterful irony even in the most delicate, the texture of the typical thriller finally gets the upper hand: the weather begins to tighten and the enemies are getting closer, in a final crescendo that accelerates the beating of heart and tickles the curiosity until the end. The reader can still enjoy a well-known author, extraordinarily self-deprecating: "It 's all fantasy, guys. I know very little about spies, electronic surveillance [...]. And if something in this novel is probably closer to reality must have been a mistake. "
And again, a tribute to our country (which apparently is more beloved by foreigners and by those who live there), "Bologna, however, is anything but fantasy. I allowed myself the luxury, having to choose a place to hide Mr. Backman, throw a dart at a map. A country was worth the other, more or less, but I adore Italy and all things Italian, and I must therefore confess that when I threw the dart had not blindfolded. "What can I say? Thanks, Grisham. Now I can not wait to buy your other book, and to visit Bologna.

Innocent - A true story - Book Review

Innocent. A true story is a novel written by the famous author John Grisham legal thriller.
On 8 December 1982 in the town of Ada, Oklahoma, the young Debbie Carter is found by a friend on the floor of their home. It is naked, covered in blood, and someone wrote gibberish on his body. Ada is a quiet town in the Midwest, where everyone knows each other and find themselves in church. No one ever thought possible so bloody murder, and even the police are unprepared for the event. For nearly five years the case remained unsolved until investigators decided not to indict Ron Williamson, already known to police for his bizarre behavior at the edge of madness.
In "Innocent" John Grisham reconstructed with the precision of the legal and empathy of the great novelist, the story of Williamson and judicial personnel. Promising baseball player, Ron leaves Ada in 1971 and moved to Oakland, Calif., as the first choice of the local professional team. Six years later, his dreams crashing due to an arm injury. He took refuge in alcohol and drugs, will come back to defeat Oklahoma, unable to hold a job or a stable relationship and any showing signs of progressive imbalance.
When the police became convinced that he is the murderess of Debbie Carter, Williamson has no way to defend themselves. It has no money to pay for a decent lawyer, his fellow citizens view him with suspicion and mental illness makes it unfit to stand trial. Despite cries his innocence, Williamson will be overwhelmed by a judicial spiral that takes him on death row, and one step from running.
The case of Ron Williamson was obsessed with John Grisham for years, since the master of the legal thriller accidentally read his story in a local newspaper and decided to tell for the first time a real event. The result is a shocking and compelling human story is pervaded with a strong moral tension, which comes to question the entire American legal system.
It is not the "usual" rather than Grisham's novel is the detailed report of a true story based on the pleadings, absurd errors, surveys and approximate a monstrous machine that brought an innocent court within a whisker of death. It is certainly a book that makes you think that is scary and makes you realize that could happen to anyone ...

Playing for Pizza - Book Review

John Grisham has once again managed to amaze and to guess another best seller of absolute success.
But this has a different taste because it really is the love letter sent to Italy Grisham ... The author takes possession of the scenarios in fact Italian, absorbing them and describing them as not even an Italian could do the same. Every line, every word exudes passion and brings the reader into a fascinating tour of Parma before and then the entire nation, even as a guide in the flesh or a virtual tour would have done.
It is in this enveloping sea of sensations that could not be better carried out the actual plot of the novel: a gripping storyline and rich of emotions, ranging from the sentimental to the desire for revenge to everyone and everything, to go to the deeper meaning of ' love and friendship ... How could it not grasp the deeper meaning of that group of boys with the spirit of Peter Pan and the desire to demonstrate in a country where their passion is almost unknown? In the same way as you can not enjoy the slow mutation of the protagonist, who has failed American promise with dreams to become the first woman leader of a group of true friends and not just a football team, complete with a final speech from the movie Hollywood?
Why do all the work of Grisham is basically the same: to really show everyone what a "professional" ... because it is not only professional who does his job well, but who does it with passion and desire, that desire that burns inside you, the same flame that we see out of the pen of the author and oozing in reading his writings. E 'therefore the foundation of the plot with its outline work that creates a delicate flavor but persistent, in which the difference between prose and poetry and between fable and reality becomes very thin.

The Associate - Book Review

The latest John Grisham's books have disappointed many readers, with excursions into the mainstream and non-fiction. Now back to the master of the legal thriller genre that has determined their luck with the new novel, the Associate.

The protagonist of this book is Kyle McAvoy, a young lawyer from York, a lad of great expectations but with a secret in his past. Strangers approached him claiming to have evidence that during his college years he was involved in a rape, the men move on behalf of a client who has strong interests in a case concerning a bomber commissioned by the Pentagon.

Kyle must agree to work in New York, the world's largest law firm to move to the blackmailers top secret news ... What will choose to make the young Kyle? Will bend to blackmail or rebel to find even his own ethics?...

A Painted House - Book Review

A Painted House is a novel by American writer John Grisham.

Luke Chandler, a child of seven years, tells the epic story of an America made up of peasant suffering and charms: the plantations, the laborers, the sunsets of Arkansas in 1952.

But by far the one that looks like an idyllic rural scene, turns out to be, close up, a place a thousand tensions: the violence of the workers, the struggle for survival, the dark fear of losing the crop, and a child who desperately clings to his innocence. It will however be forced to grow up quickly overwhelmed by the mysterious events that will forever change the fate of his family.

It is unusual for a universe of Grisham readers, so far from the world of exorbitant fees by the lawyers and the limousines of the previous books. Yet even this is a novel relentless, leaving no respite.Until - as in the verdict of a jury - and appease someone off old hatreds. Beginning with ancient gesture, to paint the facade of his house.

From the advance:
"And I caught cotton, tearing the soft capsules from plants without stopping, without the courage to extend his eyes and remember what the row was interminable, without the courage to slow down, because someone might notice it. I would have skinned fingers, I would have burned my neck, I would have destroyed my back. "

Here is the sorrow of Luke Chandler, a child of seven years which, like lightning, enters our lives and tells us America peasant suffering and charms - the plantations, the laborers, the sunsets of Arkansas in 1952.But what looks like a scene from afar turns out to be rural, close up, a place of a thousand tensions.

The violence of the laborers, the dark fear of losing the crop, the frantic struggle of a child who clings to his innocence become the antimondo of everything that Grisham had accustomed us, with his lawyers and his exorbitant fees from limousines.

There is no truce in this novel until - as in the verdict of a jury - and someone will subside, with ancient gesture, to paint the facade of his house.

The laborers of the mountains and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. Era un mercoledì dell'inizio di Settembre 1952. It was a Wednesday, the beginning of September 1952.With three weeks remaining, the Cardinals were five games under and over the Dodgers season seemed lost. Cotton taller than me, came to the waist of my father that his grandfather before supper whispering words that I heard often. Bears would be "a good harvest."

"A Painted House" by John Grisham is one of his usual legal thriller.

It seems an homage to what was the true American dream! Non quello di arricchirsi presto e senza sforzo! Not to get rich quickly and effortlessly! But to achieve their well-being and independence through hard work, commitment, patience, dedication, love for his own things and pride for your results ...

 Which, moreover, had many generations of pioneers, making America the cornucopia which had now become its "fifty."
John Grisham said that the novel is fictional, because the dates do not coincide, in '52 the writer was not even born, yet carefully read his biography one can not but notice a striking number of similarities with the plot and with scenarios in which he grew up, I think that somehow John Grisham wanted to dedicate a part of his life.

The Partner - Book Review

Patrick Lanigan, a member of a prestigious U.S. law firm, died in a car accident. After a few days after his death, you lose track of ninety million dollars that should have been deposited into an account of his law firm. A strange coincidence that will alert many people interested in that money, including the other four lawyers members of the study, and that will give rise to the suspicion that perhaps the many young Lanigan is not really dead ...

The capture of Daniel Silva in Brazil, by a group of people working on behalf of a private investigator, will be the event after which the true facts, connected with the death of Lanigan will begin to take shape.

A massive fraud that the U.S. government, a plot by members of the law firm of Lanigan which was part and which he had been kept in the dark, ninety million dollars no longer exist: these are the fixed points of a story that began a little ' intrecciatasi first time and inevitably the empty and disappointing life of Patrick when the young lawyer, discovered the scam, he decides to take advantage of it and organize a plan to change his life.

A key role in the plan also will play a young woman, Eva Miranda, herself a lawyer, who will help and support Lanigan, working hidden behind a false identity and weaving the threads of another story dall'epilogo to assume anything ...

A thriller full of suspense and twists, in which the genius of a man with a strong desire to change their lives is the architect of a plot in which the threat, strategy, love and friendship bind inevitably in a series of escapes, discoveries, blackmail, and confession, which will accompany the player until the end of dissipating all the shadows on the story of Patrick Lanigan and Daniel Silva.

From the pen of Grisham's another story that we read all in one go, that fascinates from the first page and ends with a finale that can not be defined absolutely predictable.

The Appeal - Book Review

Novel set of legal thriller genre, which is a crime set in courtrooms, or in the middle of the judicial proceedings. Grisham was a lawyer who understands the world record of U.S. courts, especially those in the south of the country: it is said that it was he who invented this genre, very popular now.

"The Appeal" chronicles the adventures of two lawyers honest and pure, the kind that we do not find it today, except in novels, who choose to stay with the widow Baker, a town of Bowmore, in the case brought against powerful companies Krane Chemical. The industry in question is accused of having poisoned the waters of the town and have killed dozens of people from cancer: the clash between then is honest and corrupt, corrupt and powerful, unscrupulous rich. The lawyers Wes and Mary Grace Payton link to this cause and give up everything to gain, large displacement cars, from luxury to life: to win in the first instance, but the bad guys pay politicians, judges, to get to their goal.

The author, as a writer in the South, was inspired by the realistic style of John Steinbeck, but the genre is suitable to turn into fiction for Hollywood: it's a real shame if perhaps the characters, including lawyers, should have more consistency psychological caricatures. While recalling the style of Steinbeck, the novel does not have the strength, the humanity of the author of fury, his raw descriptions of the poor, of losers, of the violent. The finish is amazing of course: it may surprise, disappoint or impress. To many readers, however, might not like the description of the U.S. judicial system. Anyway, we must recognize the ability to interest the reader of Grisham style with a fast, readable and attractive.