The King of Torts (2003)

Read a lot of Grisham's books in past years - before I started keeping track .....
Enjoyed this one.
His are always a recommend - until . . . . you get tired of the genre . . .
Read in 2005.
( )

this started out badly and got better but it never got really good. kept me relatively entertained, though. but if i wasn't on a plane for 6 hours without the distraction of my cats and the internet, it would have taken me a lot longer. ( )

First let me say that I am a big fan of John Grisham. This was the 5th book of his that I've read, and I have 5 more at home waiting for me to read them. I really like his style: fast-paced legal thrillers that keep me on the edge of my seat and flipping pages like a cartoon flip-book. So far, all of his books have been that way for me. Except this one.

In Washington D.C., a random street-killing lands on the desk of Clay Carter, who is working as a public defender for minimum wage. Enter mysterious stranger, Max, with inside info in hand, and good things start to happen to Clay. A huge class-action lawsuit is practically handed to him and he rakes in the millions. This book follows his short-lived but meteoric career.

Sounds interesting, right? You'd think, but from the start this book never really grabbed me. I didn't really care for Clay, to be honest. I didn't like the choices that he made, and couldn't identify with him. He made all the wrong decisions and paid the price.

One good thing can be said about this book, and that is that Grisham has once again opened my eyes to the things that I see every day without a thought. "If you've ever taken {prescription drug X} and have had any of the following side effects: {enter ridiculously long list of side effects}, please contact the {prescription drug X} hotline. You could be entitled to compensation!" I've probably seen at least 2 of these commercials a day (more if you watch daytime TV or late night TV) for as long as I can remember. I'd just never given them a single thought. But now I'll never look at them the same way again.

Anyway, back to the book. There wasn't really anything entertaining about this book. I watched Clay rise and then fall, but nothing really happened that I didn't expect. BORING! On top of that, there was a surprising number of exclamation points in this book, which gave the writing a "juvenile" feel. I felt like Grisham really phoned this one in. I wasn't terribly impressed, but on the upside, I've read several other Grisham novels before so I know he's capable of better writing than he showed here, so I won't hold this one against him. ( )

Big companies suing for big money in scams. Is this real or what?????? ( )

Classico libro d'evasione, la storia c'è (anche se prevedibile), è narrata anche bene. Solo che è una lunga sequenza di fatti, eventi, con una visione superficiale delle persone. In pratica è un telefilm, molto ben confezionato, che, una volta visto (letto, in questo caso) si è già dimenticato. Io non riesco a immergermi, in questo modo di raccontare. Non c'è magia in queste pagine. Non riesco a comprendere i perché dei personaggi. Ho l'impressione che le cose accadano solo per "fare trama", non perché abbiano un'intrinseca necessità. Conseguenza logica, non soffro e non gioisco con loro, non c'è quell'attimo di riconoscimento che ti fa intravvedere la vera umanità di ciascuno. E qui è un peccato perché l'avvocato Clay sarebbe stato un gran personaggio, e anche coloro che lo circondano, tutti tipi che mi sarebbe interessato conoscere. E invece son rimasti un cartonato, quel che interessa all'autore è raccontare una storia che metta in luce i guasti di un sistema giuridico. Ma, per quello, potrei leggere un saggio.