We are just back from our neighborhood library having borrowed (or checked out as they say here) John Grisham’s new book The Associate.
Like a lot of people with lots of time on their hands, we’ve probably read all of Grisham’s novels (though we’d be hard pressed to recollect the plot of most now except vaguely for Pelican Brief, also made into a movie featuring Julia Roberts).
At the center of Grisham’s novels is usually a young lawyer or law student, who’s caught up willy-nilly in some deadly crime/corrupt activity.
Yale law student Kyle McAvoy is the protagonist in The Associate.
Two FBI agents are talking to Kyle McAvoy, who’s sweating as they bring up an old incident……
Here’s an excerpt from the early pages of the above book:
For a twenty-five-year-old law student with no criminal record and illegal habits or proclivities, the presence and the attention of a man who gave all indications of being employed by some branch of law enforcement should have caused no concern whatsoever. But it never worked that way with Kyle McAvoy. Street cops and state troopers didn’t particularly bother him. They were paid to simply react. But the guys in dark suits, the investigators and agents, the ones trained to dig deep and discover secrets – those types still unnerved him.
….An hour earlier he had been famished. Now his digestive system and his excretory system and his nervous system were on the verge of a meltdown. He was struggling to breathe normally as he desperately tried to appear unfazed. He removed a disposable pen and a note card, and with all the nerve he could summon, he said, “I’d like to see those badges again.”
We’ll update this post once we finish the book.
Update:
Not worth reading.
There’s very little drama or suspense in this book that’s anchored on a five-year-old rape incident and theft of some corporate secrets from a law firm.
Neither Kyle McAvoy, nor the blackmailers Bennie et al or the law firm Kyle joins at the behest of the unknown blackmailers following his graduation from Yale come to life in Grisham’s latest novel.
Don’t waste your time.
Reading John Grisham’s The Associate added by SearchIndia.com on
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How about “The Runaway Jury”??? I liked the book and the movie. I felt the way they changed tobacco companies from the book to gun manufacturing companies in the movie was cool. One of the very few movies that kept the essence of the original book intact. My favourite for adaptations from excellent literary works is “Gone with the wind…”
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Doubt we have seen The Runaway Jury.
We’ve seen The Firm (Tom Cruise), Time to Kill and Pelican Brief.
Out of the movies made from John Grisham’s books, “The Firm” seems to be the most successful by a huge margin.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=johngrisham.htm
I like this sorting feature in BOM.. imdb needs to enhance its sorting capabilities.
A Time To Kill seems to be the most critically acclaimed Grishamovie.. but I am not sure if that translates to “best work” of Grisham..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
The Firm was often on TV some years back.
We remember Tom Cruise weaving a case out of ‘mail fraud’ and talking about sweating each time time he turns the car key in the ignition in future (referring to a potential car bomb).
imdb proved that I am retarded
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001300/filmorate
Haven’t even heard of the movie, ‘runaway jury’.. it is ranked higher than ‘a time to kill’. Cusack, Hackman(who seemed to be appearing in all 90s movies – a la Namitha), Hoffman, Weisz, Piven.. powerful cast.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Rachel Weisz is good, real good. Watched her in The Constant Gardner (she won the Oscar for her role).
Maybe we should watch Runaway Jury again.
On a different note.. Did you guys watch “Wallstreet”? I enjoyed it thoroughly for candid dialogues. Please watch and review.
Also, I happened to borrow a B/W movie – “12 Angry men”. Again I enjoyed it – what a simple story and entire movie is shot in a room – But it was so gripping that I didn’t get bored.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Yes, we’ve seen ‘Greed is Good’ Wall Street.
Maybe, we should see the movie again and review it given the current economic woes triggered by Wall Street (the real one, not the movie).
I have read most of his books. I just finished “Family” by Puzo. Got to read James Patterson too. Some of his books were really good, rest were predictable while 1 was really bad as he did not know how to complete the ending.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
James Patterson seems interesting.
We’ve seen them a lot in our library and may have even read one of his books in part or full. Not sure though.
We’ll try to read Cross, Double Cross, Cross Country, and Cross Fire (coming in Nov.2009).
James Patterson novels’ Pop goes the weasel and big bad wolf are really great.
I read The Partner recently.. He has a knack for twisting the end, and I was really disappointed at this one! Great book, n the end was uncalled for
james patterson is really good.his alex cross books are good.i also like daniel silva.his books like the kill artist the confessor are also good
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We’ve read Daniel Silva’s The Messenger and The Secret Servant. Not bad.