A nice enough read, a wild-goose chase and some immersion into the Italian language and culture (the bit I liked the most)
It’s been a while since I’ve read a book of this sort and having spent most of last year reading books by non-white authors, I can see the stark difference in narratives. It’s interesting but I much prefer the value of small, everyday stories and characters.

That said, Italian is going up a little on my list of languages to learn.

I really enjoyed this John Grisham novel. After just finishing a book with a difficult and quite detailed plot it was nice to read a John Grisham book that flows so easily and so well written. Maybe I am been a little generous with a 4 rating but I always enjoy John Grisham's novels and it is nevertheless a very a good read.

I'm digging into all those books left on my doorstep during the strictest part of lockdown. This was one such read.

At about page one hundred, I started waiting for the plot to emerge. At about two hundred and fifty, I'd given up hope. But, I'd gotten attached to Joel so kept reading, hoping I'd understand his motivations and figure out if he was the good guy or the bad guy. Now I'm finished and am still uncertain.

Of all of the Grisham books I've read, this is my least favorite. Sure, a few bright spots emerged: The Italian tutor and her mother provided much needed light and energy, as well the professor took me out of the humdrum of Joel's samey same days. Though his story arc was not sewn up. Was he a plant or not?

Anyway, if you see this one, if it shows up on your doorstop, don't bother. Seriously. Grisham has written better.

Kadangi esu perskaitęs visą krūvą Grishamo knygų, galiu labai užtikrintai ir pagrįstai teigti, kad ši - viena iš prasčiausių. Visų pirma, šnipų trileris, kaip žanras, šiam autoriui ne itin pavyko. Akis bado keisti siužetiniai sprendimai ir elementarios racionalumo bei logikos klaidos. Antra, kas man dar labai užkliuvo, yra vėlgi autoriaus noras paimti šį šnipų trilerį ir permaišius su krūva Italijos padaryti iš jos pusiau šnipus, pusiau kelionių gidą.

Nesupraskit neteisingai, viskas, ką Grishamas čia rašė apie Italiją, ką joje veikė pagr. herojus, yra gerai. Bet taip sujungta knyga tiesiog neveikia. Jei tikrai, kaip subžanras įdomu paskaityti apie tipinio amerikiečio kultūrinį šoką Italijoje - to paties Grishamo Playing for Pizza yra labai fun, smagi ir daug labiau pavykęs projektas nei šis. Drąsiai rekomenduoju.

O grįžtant prie "Brokerio", desertui dar primeskim nevykusį vertimą (jei jau man jis užkliuvo, tai tikrai "pasistengta" kaip turi būti) ir, objektyviai žiūrint, nelabai simpatišką pagrindinį personažą bei apskritai silpną siužetą... Vaizdzialis nykoks, kaip ir pats šios frazės autorius. Vienintelis privalumas, kad perskaičiau greitai ir be didelių kančių. Bet šiaip, kaip Grishamui, rezultatas labai nuviliantis. Sėsk, du.

I have to say the plot line in this book actually had a lot of potential. The characters just sucked I don't know how I was to explain it. Which is sad because I usually love John Grisham books.

I'm relatively new to Grisham's work, but even I could tell that this book was not up to his standards. The story follows Joel Backman, a high-powered broker who gets himself into a lot of trouble and is sent to a federal prison to be kept in solitary confinement. What that trouble is exactly we don't find out until about halfway through the book. When we are first introduced to Backman, he is described in such terms that make you glad he got caught. Surely, he is the bad guy in the book, right? As events unfold so painfully slowly, I thought perhaps that Backman would turn out not to be too bad and perhaps he was framed or something. Nope. He did everything and got everything he deserved. But yet by the end of the book, I got that feeling that I was supposed to like him, despite being the sleazeball that he is/was.

The story is set in Italy where the U.S. government has decided to hide Backman until they deem an appropriate time to leak his whereabouts to foreign nations in order to see who kills him first. I thought perhaps this was going to turn into a story of how Backman kept having to hide from either the U.S. government or foreign governments. Instead, way too much of the book is spent on Backman learning Italian or eating some lovely Italian delicacy or visiting some wonderful Italian architecture. The pace does pick up when the time actually comes for Backman to run, but even that doesn't make up for the rest of the book. The professional, government-paid assassins sent to whack him are seemingly a side note, even though the whole premise of the book is that Backman is hiding from them and is supposed to be on the run.

It's evident, as Grisham points out in his author's note, that he greatly admires the Italian culture. I'm sure quite a bit of research went into describing the various Italian cultural tidbits. But reading how to greet one another in Italian over and over again is not the stuff a person usually wants to read in a Grisham book. Overall, it was slow and disappointing.

First attempt reading books written by Grisham. The stories reminds me from Patterson hand The President Is Missing, because the plot concerns the link between the Middle Eastern, Western and Asian countries.

The story is quite complicated with a variety of characters that aren't small, one character has several names as a disguise.

Its story in it Joel Backman as a reliable broker who has an office in Washington D.C. made a mistake buying and selling satellites with the Saudis and it turned out that the satellites were considered stolen by the Chinese who considered them to be the makers of the JAM satellites. Three college-young-student, killed by China, and so one of his colleague, Backman prefer admits his mistakes and chose prison as a rescue of his back.

JAM still recognizes as a diamond. Curious who the killer of those cases made CIA moved away to ask White House giving their idea. President gave legal forgiveness Backman to be exiled to Italy, was given a language lesson to be quickly learned by him and waited for anyone who moved quickly to kill Backman. Don't be lose Backman could be Marco Lezzeri, Giovanni or whateva it will be.

Well, though the beginning half of the book was slow paced, and I was afraid I would give up to continue, but it came quickly told the stories between Marco and Francesca, yes Marco, it was his name during his 'travel' on Bologna, Italy.

4 / 5

First time reading one from John Grisham. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Will be looking for more!

John Grisham throughout his career had this weird affinity for Pakistan/Pakistanis, many of his minor characters featured in his books have been Pakistanis. Like for example in his holiday novella Skipping Christmas, the nonwhite residents that were driven out of the community by a zealot nosy neighbor were Pakistanis. And this fixation continued to this novel. But in it, Pakistani characters graduated to the main plot. That was nice. Considering he is popular and read widely in Pakistan.

The novel was serviceable, although more drama than a thriller. But ever since the Rainmaker Grisham has forgone the thriller format altogether and writes mostly in a contemporary general style entirely, that's fine. Speaking of this book, like him I like all things Italian too.

Two things, the dude on the cover is John Grisham and in this book, he makes this really funny crack about Dubya that had me laughing.

I relish his sheer contempt for incompetency. hehe.

My husband has been reading John Grisham novels for years, and I just was not interested. Then, while we were on a beach vacation, our son and daughter-in-law asked if I wanted to join in their reading-aloud of a Grisham book they found at the house where we were staying. I was hooked after the first page, and now plan to read the large stash still sitting on our shelves at home. The Broker is full of political intrigue, curious interactions between people, intimate observation of life as an Italian, peeks at a dysfunctional family trying to help one another, and so much more. Great read.

Marco jestes kozak
akcja we wloszech podbila moje serce

La trama è spesso improbabile, ma la lettura risulta comunque piacevole. Apprezzabile la descrizione di Bologna, pur prevalendo una visione da turista americano che rende alcuni particolari di vita italiana non realistici.