The Rogue Lawyer by John GrishamMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Where do I begin? I work with books and one of my colleagues offered me this one after I loved 'Sycamore Row' (which was also gifted to me by her). I was still riding on the wave of Sycamore's greatness and was expecting a lot from this one.
And I got it. For about half the book. Sebastian Rudd is nothing like Jake Briggance. Where Jake will do anything for truth and justice, Rudd only cares about money and fame. And saving his hide, which is a hard task given he takes on some of his city's worst as defendants.
The book starts off with snippets of Rudd's cases; they practically read as short stories. Then, about halfway, Grisham decides he has to make a concrete story out of this character, and we now have a complete narrative. Everything that can happen, happens to Rudd (at one point I was convinced the girlfriend was going to get kidnapped too, it was that cliched). It felt like the author was dying to go down a Scorsese-esque gangsta film, what with all the skulduggery, bribery and sleaze going about town.
The book isn't even that well written. My colleagues have complained that Grisham's books aren't that literary; I think they're cool, easy reads. But this one... about halfway through he forgets how to write. There's a character, Doug Renfro, who speaks like an exposition megaphone. No one talks like that! Why would they? It is unbearable.
And let us not forget the book's worst flaw - the ladies! But of course. Here's a rundown of the women in this book:
1. The ex-wife - Judith is a crazy witch, because no one in their right mind can objectively fall out of love with their husband, concentrate on their career and worry about their son without being crazy. And, of course, she's a cheating, conniving bisexual. Well done to the author for writing in that old trope. She's still attractive, though, that's got to count for something. (note the sarcasm)
Judith is tarred and feathered by every character in the book, and the author as well. There is no love or sympathy for her. She has one arc and one mission - deny Rudd visitation rights to see their son. And since she's such a great divorce lawyer (a category Rudd scoffs at) she constantly gets denied every single time. It's surprising she has any clients.
It's also a problem that Judith works in an all-female law firm, because feminists and women are all monsters we must hide. Which year is this again?
2. The ex-wife's partner - Ava has no personality and no character. She's a former model and she's super-hot. That is literally all we know about her.
3. The schoolteacher - Naomi Tarrant walks into the story partway through. She is Rudd and Judith's son's schoolteacher. And she's super-hot! (Honestly, this book!) Not only that, she's immediately interested in Rudd and they're totally having a clandestine affair, because of course there's no way she would deny herself the chance to be with a not-at-all nice person whose life is often in danger. Match made in heaven.
4. The Judge - The sole female judge in the book is called 'Go Slow' more often than her actual name, so I've forgotten it. She is painted as someone who is insecure about her job and her figure and she is not as good as the other judges we have met because she is slow and thorough. Rudd doesn't comment on the sizes of the other male judges, but her, he makes it a point to do so. But then again, Rudd is just a mouthpiece for the author.
5. The victim - Jillian Kemp is a pretty young pregnant girl who is kidnapped and sold into sex slavery by a random idiot. This plotline is inserted just to add copious amounts of sleaze to the book, because it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. The bad guy doesn't get caught. Are we supposed to wait for another book to read the conclusion to that plotline? Do we care? I don't.
6. Random ex-flame - A woman who briefly appears to help out Rudd and is mentally ridiculed by him because she is no longer super-hot! I just... I can't even continue.
This book wanted to be great, but it ended up being annoying, stupid and pedantic. I wanted to love it, but this is just crap. It's 2016, write women better.
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