صانع الأمطار

محامٍ .. يحاول ان يكون محامياً في عصر الوحوش
كان يعرف ان طرقه وعرة و مليئة بالاسلاك الشائكة لكنه قرر المتابعة .. الاستمرار بدافع الواجب الإنساني الذي أصبح شبه منقرض في حياتنا الحالية وسط مجتمعاتنا المليئة بالحوش المفترسة و المعروف عنها ككل وحوش الغابة .. تتغذى و تعيش على الكائنات الصغيرة الضعيفة المهمشة حياتياً .

محامٍ .. مثله مثل كل من يدرس الحقوق
يحلم بالمجد و الشهرة في عهد الذئاب ولكي يصل لمبتغاه عليه تعلم القيام بنصب بعض الفخاخ و صنع بعض المصائد و شراء دفتر جديد للاكاذيب بحيث يكون غير متداول او معروف

لكن .. هل حقاً يحتاج المطالبة بالحق و الحصول عليه السير في هذا الطريق؟؟
هل نحن بحاجة حقاً إلى وجود هذا النوع من البشر في حياتنا و اعتبارها كنوع من الغطاء المؤقت توفره لنا الحياة كفرصة لاسترداد ما هو على وشك ان يسرق منا؟؟؟

عن تجربة شخصية .. جوابي هو " نعم"

John Grisham gives me hope that someday my writing will become noticed and that I will be able to make a living as a novelist. I say this because The Rainmaker made it to number one on the New York Times best seller list despite the fact that it is only an average book.
The writing was good enough to keep me turning the pages, but the story lacked and the characters were painfully stereotypical, except oddly enough for the main character. For a good guy, Rudy Baylor was unlikable, not in an anti-hero fashion, but in a the-guy-is- kinda-nothing-special- fashion. I just didn't care for him, but as the book unfurled he became surrounded by people who were even more unpleasant so it began to seem he was changing, but not so much that I began to care.
Now the main problem with the book was with the story itself. It's a court case drama, but there is a definite lack of drama. You expect that there is going to be some sort of obstacle to Rudy winning this case and it helps to keep you interested, but after like three hundred pages,nothing. He wins and you know it long before it happens. Every fact, every witness, everything goes his way so that you know the evil insurance company is going to lose and it won't be close. But surely, when the defense has their chance there will be fireworks...no. Nothing on cross examination, no surprise witnesses. The bad guy are still bad and they still lose.
Oh, did I tell you the bad guys are evil? Yes evil corporate suit types just like you see in every movie and yes they have evil lawyers who are rich and powerful, but for some reason in this case they seem not to know which way up is, dazzled by this complete rookie. Yeah Rudy has never tried a case before. It's not believable.
Now two more bad parts. Sorry. The side stories are a complete waste of time and could be cut altogether. Lastly, the anti-climatic trial ends and then stuff happens that I don't really care about. Rudy kills some guy who's been domestically violent and for some reason, he decides to quit being a lawyer. Did you read that? Sort of out of the blue especially after sticking it to all the evil. I mean he just kicked evil's ass and then he quits lawering to become... you guessed it, a teacher. I had to shake my head and wonder if I missed a chapter somewhere.
My review might suggest that I hated the book, but that isn't true. It started slow, but picked up steam with good writing and the possibility of a court room brawl and for that I give it two and a half stars.

Fresh out of law school and facing a lack of job opportunities, Rudy Baylor finds himself stuck. He volunteers alongside his professor at a nursing home, providing pro bono legal advice to the elderly. He stumbles upon two cases, which capture his attention. Rudy decides to take them for further investigation. Read and learn, how the stories of a wealthy pensioner and a couple with a terminally ill child unfold.

Despite being unfamiliar with legal thrillers, I found myself thoroughly enjoying this book. What struck me most was the determination of the main character who kept fighting for his clients until the very last breath and did not give up during the minor setbacks. Having said this, I was truly fascinated about the end resolution of the book. I would not have expected it, but it may be attributed to my unfamiliarity with the genre. I will definitely plan to explore more books in this genre in the future.

“Like a snake creeping through the undergrowth, I sneak into the law school well past noon and hours after both of my scheduled classes have broken up.” I like this quote for a couple of reasons; one is because it’s so well described and descriptive. John Grisham left me wondering what was about to happen every time I was about to turn the page. I couldn’t really predict the book there were constant twists and turns throughout the book, as was curiosity and excitement. I didn’t have a least favorite character in this book, they were all good, but my favorite character was Booker Kane he’s a problem solver, I can relate myself to him. The first few chapters were really captivating and exciting. John Grisham wrote this book for all trial lawyers, and he likes to write about court and trial issues. If this book was to made into a new movie I would want Tom cruise to play Rudy Baylor the main character and Derek Luke and Booker Kane. This is a book for anyone, and anyone who enjoys reading. This was really my first book that I started reading outside of school, and got to finish it for a school grade.

“I'm alone and outgunned, scared and inexperienced, but I'm right.”
n  n

Smooth, savvy, satisfying…I think this is my new favorite John Grisham novel. While not heavy on scholarly nuance, it has some depth and is crisp, right-hearted, expertly paced and reads like ice-cold lemonade on the porch in summertime.*

*Please feel free to mentally substitute the simile ‘hot toddy curled up in front of a fire in winter’ if you prefer.

While this page-turner is a very easy read, I wouldn’t call this light as Grisham does a good job infusing the narrative with a sense of importance and emotional attachment vis a vis the characters and the central plot. Grisham knows his subject and has a knack for dispensing highly digestible tales that quickly suck his readers into the middle of the story where they remain engaged until the end.

I can think of worse ways to spend time than reading this author's work.

PLOT SUMMARY:

We meet Rudy Baylor when he has not yet finished his third year of Law School at Memphis State. We get a scratchy taste of the less than glamorous job market search for non-elite students as Rudy is smart, but middle of the pack.

He’s an everyman and we can relate to him and the choices with which he is confronted.

n  All students enter law school with a certain amount of idealism and desire to serve the public, but after three years of brutal competition we care for nothing but the right job with the right firm where we can make partner in seven years and earn big bucks.n

Through a series of missteps, bad luck and the realities of more lawyers than legal positions, Rudy finds himself working for J. Lyman “Bruiser” Stone, a shady, shark-like ambulance chaser who makes serious bank not-so-secretly owning most of the topless bars and nightclubs in Memphis.
n  n

Tip of the cap to Grisham as “Bruiser” is a great character.

Rudy gets teamed up with another wonderful, morally lenient character named Deck Shifflet. Deck has failed the bar six times and basically practices law without a license as a “paralawyer.” Together, we watch two very struggling guys trying to scratch out a living in the overcrowded, lawyer-eat-lawyer world of Memphis Law.

There is a well done blooming romance between Rudy and an abused wife and some comic relief involving a nettlesome grandma out to re-write her will to cut off her ungrateful kin. However, the steak of this meal is a bad faith claim against an insurance company, Great Benefit. The whoreporation wrongfully denied coverage for a bone marrow transplant that would have save Donny Ray Black, a young man dying of Leukemia. We watch Rudy’s trial by fire as he is thrown in the deep end battling the evil insurance company and its massive team of $1000/hr litigators from the “Pole-in-the-Keester” mega law firm.

THOUGHTS:

The inner-workings of the courtroom and legal proceedings are handled lightly with sparse details and the concatenation of circumstances leading to the final verdict do not always rigorously following the realistic as the expense of entertainment. I didn’t have an issue with this because it kept the pacing brisk without bogging the story down in details that I think most readers would find tedious.

The law is not an exciting place.

However, Grisham, to his story-telling credit, creates excitement by populating his tale with a bevy of Southern-flavored characters that feel alive and genuine. I don’t think Grisham gets the credit he deserves for this as it a real gift. In this outing, we have:

**The aforementioned “Bruiser” Stone and Deck Shifflet add much color to the proceedings.

**Dot Black, the chain-smoking, embittered mother of Donny and her husband Buddy, a war veteran who is quietly drunk 24/7. This description may not make them sound likeable, but they are and they are devastated by their son’s illness.

**Kelly Riker, the smart, beautiful 19 year-old trapped in a horrible marriage with her drunk, abusive husband who’s angry at the world because his dreams of being a pro athlete never materialized.

**Judge Tyrone Kipler, the sympathetic judge who hates insurance companies and provides Rudy with valuable assistance and advice.
These characters elevate the novel above the “just another bag of popcorn” legal thriller. I enjoyed myself reading this and will certainly pick up another Grisham book in the future.

Before I wrap up, a quick word on the film/movie comparison.

I had previously seen the movie adaptation of this novel and, like _A Time to Kill, I think the movie outshined its source. Very little had to be cut from the movie and Coppola did a great job of translating the tone of the story. Plus, with casting like Danny DeVito playing Deck Shifflet and Mickey Rourke as “Bruiser” Stone, the book had a pretty big uphill stroll to compete.

Even years later, I remember the scene in the movie where Shifflet (DeVito) is pressuring an auto accident victim in traction and a lot of pain to sign up with him as his lawyer. When he finally gets the gut to relent (mostly to get rid of him) Shifflet walks away with an air punch saying, “Were gonna get you a bunch a money.”
n  n

What a classic, classic lawyer line and I was happy to see that line was in the book as well.

Anyway, the book is still very good and I did prefer the novel’s ending more than the movie. The endings are not significantly different, but Rudy Baylor’s outlook on the legal profession is put in much starker light in the book and I found that to be superior to the somewhat ambiguous handling of the film.

In sum, if you’ve seen the movie, you are not missing much by not reading the book…not much except a well-written, entertaining story. You can decide. For me, the book was worth it and I enjoyed myself.

3.5 stars. Recommended.

This isn't the most exciting, nor the most intriguing John Grisham novel, but it certainly stands out. Maybe it's the picture that he skillfully painted, it captured something so real that you are thoroughly taken. Maybe it's the characters, maybe because for once it wasn't all dazzling and shining. Maybe, it's the haunting love story between Rudy and Kelly. Maybe, it's the idea of escape as a solitude. Maybe, just maybe. But this I'm sure of, you'll love it like you love sunshine. The tone's different from Grisham's other works, it's more relaxed, more realistic. The story is more complex, sub-stories are interwoven with the main plot. The ending was such a beauty that you couldn't ask for more. The Rainmaker didn't go with a bang, it went with a whistle, but it's a whistle that you would appreciate and hear for quite some time.

I recently read something about how John Grisham has sold the staggering amount of 275 million books. I thought that I had read more by him, but when I looked back I could only remember having read The Firm. I started on Rogue Lawyer but gave up after only a few pages of what I thought was pure tripe.

I understand that bestseller and good are often not the same thing, but I felt I owed it to myself to read at least one more of his books. I chose The Rainmaker based on reader reviews here on Goodreads.

What I was trying to discover is just why people find John Grisham’s books so appealing. He didn’t luck out with one popular book like The Da Vinci Code or The Girl on the Train. He’s probably had over a dozen bestsellers.

At 129,000 words (or thereabouts) it seems even longer now that I’ve finished. This isn’t to say that the novel was boring, not even a little, it just seemed to ramble, especially at the beginning. It almost comes across as a saga, like David Copperfield, as it tells the story of the young student’s struggle through his last few months of law school, his initial attempts to find work, his first job, the bar exam, and basically starting his career.

The actual court case takes quite a while to get going while we are dragged through the like of Rudy Baylor, but when we finally get to the case it’s a whopper. In what will be the brand spanking new lawyer’s first trial he will be facing an enormous insurance company with a tribe of the best lawyers in their corner.

The novel is entertaining enough. It’s a solid story with a few well-written characters. The insurance company is almost comically evil and the opposing lawyer isn’t one of those well-written characters I mentioned and he sort of falls apart after the initial description.

I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. There is so much made over the bazillions and bazillions dollars the lawyer makes on the suit against the insurer, and during all this time I was constantly thinking about the other people they screwed out of benefits. If Rudy really would have received his share of $50 million, how much would have been available to all of the patients who needed the money? I remember little about The Firm which I read the year it came out, but I think the protagonist gets away with a huge pile of mob money (the movie had a more noble ending).

So why is John Grisham so mind-bogglingly successful? Of course, if I knew that I could duplicate his sales, at least on one novel, at least that’s what you would think. If anyone reading this has any theories, I’d love to hear them.

I really really like this book. The story is well written and keeps readers hooked till the end.

Second time I've read this one. It really is a fun, quick and easy lawyer thriller/legal drama.

The Rainmaker is, in my opinion, one of John Grisham's best novels. This page-turner follows an aspiring lawyer Rudy, who, after being screwed out of a job he was promised after graduation from law school, finds himself desperate for work in Memphis where there are already too many lawyers as it is. Rudy, to put it simply, has a lot of issues throughout the book, but he finds his ultimate redemption and salvation taking down a corrupt and immoral insurance company and helping the woman he loves escape from her abusive husband.

تاني قراءه للعمل العظيم ده
تأليف الكاتب الرائع جون جريشام وترجمه المبدع الراحل الدكتور احمد خالد توفيق
وصانع المطر هو المحامي الي بيملك القدره على جلب العملاء أو المال
واحداث الروايه عن رودي طالب كليه الحقوق والفقير أوي ويمسك قضيه ضد شركة تأمين ويحاول يثبت فسادها ضد إبن موكلته

المزايا
1- مقدمه تعريفية للكاتب هايله
2- فيها قصه جانبيه متعلقه بعجوز غنيه تكره عيلتها
3- أسلوب سردي جميل وسلس
4- رتم تصاعدي وأحداث تشد القارئ لآخر صفحه
5- page-turner

العيوب
1- نهايه مش بمستوى الروايه
2- الفكره مبالغ فيها حبتين

I'm legitimately torn on this one. It is somewhere between a 2 and a 3 stars for me. What tipped it down was when Grisham forced me to read a male attorney questioning how a woman could be sexually harassed in quid pro quo situations because he doesn't believe she is attractive. And this is after really digging into how horrible she looks when he is interviewing her for the first time. Just, ugh.


I like the main story line. It is his typical David v Goliath, lawyer v evil company legal plot. But it is so bogged down by 2 extraneous plot lines that don't seem to ever actually correlate with the main plot that I was left scratching my head as to why they didn't get cut. It is rewarding to read and the only real reason I have ever read Grisham. Sometimes you just want to read the underdog winning.


The portrayal of females in general is disappointing. Both of the extraneous plotlines follow women who are victims and *need* this protagonist to help them. An abused wife who turns into a love interest and just needs to be walked step by step out of the relationship. And the old landlord who was supposed to be a client but is a victim of her family and needs him to save her.

It would have been so much better if we had ditched or cut a decent amount of extraneous material about his failed search for a job, living with the old woman, and especially that dumb love side-plot. We didn't need it. He's already the "hero," I don't know why he needed to save two additional women.