- January 26, 2006
The Broker by John Grisham

I like a good thriller as much as anyone, especially if it�s well written, and as a John le Carr� fan I certainly have nothing against spy stories. I particularly liked his cold war novels. There just seemed to be something lacking in some of his later books without George Smiley.

However, I didn�t want to talk about le Carr� but rather about John Grisham. I just read his latest book, The Broker. I can�t really call myself a Grisham fan although I have read most of his books. His plots are often a little weak in my estimate and rely too much on convoluted events that are difficult to follow. Or maybe I just don�t have the right kind of mind. One book that I really liked though was The Client and I thought the movie was mighty fine too.

Actually I enjoyed reading The Broker � as long as I was actually reading it. I thought the ending was really lame, so in the end I didn�t like the story as much as I could have. It has the same basic plot weakness as most of his other books. You have to just accept certain things and not consider how illogical or unlikely they are. Of course, the inept president, the corrupt politicians, the evil lawyers, the conniving CIA keeping secrets from the unaware FBI, the really evil Red Chinese, the superduper Israeli intelligence agency are such clich�s that you hardly notice them. Is this really what Washington and the world are like? If so, let me bury my head a little deeper in the sand.

So what did I like about the book? The whole middle section was about becoming Italian (as a disguise) with all that entails � learning the language, learning to dress fashionably, learning to eat slowly and well, learning to interpret a foreign body language, learning to book into a hotel room without a passport (almost impossible!). Most of this takes place in Bologna and it was interesting enough for me to put Bologna on my list of places to visit. We have spent about 12 weeks in Italy on vacation over a period of many years, but for some reason never visited Bologna. Of course, actually I know the reason. There are so many beautiful and interesting towns in Italy it�s almost impossible to see them all. Still, my interest has been piqued and one of these days I will retrace some of the main character�s steps. Maybe I�ll even put on a straw hat and pull it down to shadow my face and pretend the CIA, the Mossad, the Red Chinese and the Saudis are all on my trail and the only thing keeping me alive is my natural talent for deception.

previous - next

Paradise Now - February 01, 2006older_entries%%

Donating blood - January 31, 2006older_entries%%

An Eventful Sunday - January 30, 2006older_entries%%

The Broker by John Grisham - January 26, 2006older_entries%%

The Winds of Change by Martha Grimes - January 24, 2006older_entries%%