Moja trzecia inglisz buk do kolekcji. Fajnie się czytało, tylko z nikim nie byłem w stanie się utożsamić. Jeden był super bogaty, inny super biedny, jeszcze inny super buff. THAT'S NOT ME. Morał książki dało się wywnioskować już po pierwszych 50 stronach. Miała chyba być 'otwierająca oczy', ale ja ciągle miałem je otwarte, więc mnie tylko szczypały.
Jako nowela ciekawa. Plot powoli się rozwijał i wszystko smooth się działo. Autor umiał sprawić by czytelnik przewrócił stronę. Oceniam to tak, jak Janiak 2,67.

Fairly flat the whole way. Interesting to read about the state of DC back in that time.

Just like the last Grisham I read, overlong and boring. There is zero suspense, and Grisham doesn't even pretend there's a topic here that might be suspenseful. The courtroom scene did seem very realistic, though....dry as dust. Why is this scribe so popular?

Grisham might have some female issues. The women characters tend not to have last names. The protagonist's wife, a chilly workaholic surgical resident, has a goal "to become the greatest female neurosurgeon in the country, a brain surgeon even males would turn to when all hope was lost."

p. 244: "I arrived at Claire's lawyer's office promptly at four, and was met by an unsmiling receptionist dressed like a man. [Like....a pantsuit?] Bitchiness resonated from every corner of the place. Every sound was anti-male: the abrupt, husky voice of the gal [Gal alert!] answering the phone; the sounds of some female country crooner wafting through the speakers; the occasional shrill voice from down the hall....The magazines on the coffee table were there to make a statement: hard-hitting female issues, nothing glamorous or gossipy....

[Jacqueline Hume's] name struck fear into every unhappily married D.C. male with a nice income. I was anxious to sign the papers and leave."

And gay issues: "At 2 a.m., I found myself at Dupont Circle, ignoring catcalls from the queers...." (It's 1998.)


Errata: p. 63, "Reservoir Street" (a well-known thoroughfare in Georgetown) should be "Reservoir Road."

Nel suo genere di “legal thriller”, questo romanzo pubblicato da John Grisham nel 1998, rappresenta uno dei migliori esempi di narrativa sociale, legando in maniera magistrale la vita pubblica e privata del giovane avvocato rampante Michael Brock legato professionalmente a uno dei più grossi studi legali di New York alle problematiche personali, sociali e legali dei “senzatetto”, una realtà che comincia ad essere un problema molto attuale e di non facile soluzione anche da noi. Poco incline a leggere la saggistica e le riviste d’attualità, ho trovato questo romanzo semplicemente perfetto per comprendere questo tema e nello stesso tempo apprezzare il racconto degli sconvolgimenti personali e professionali del protagonista, sballottato suo malgrado in una realtà fino a quel momento da lui ignorata.

If I had to describe "The Street Lawyer" in one word, the word I would choose is propaganda.

It tells the tale of a yuppie lawyer named Michael Brock who reorders his priorities in life after he's held hostage by a homeless man for an afternoon. He quits his high-paying job even though he's only a couple of years from making partner - and goes to work for a free legal clinic that helps the homeless. He thinks his old firm was partially responsible for the deaths of a homeless family, so he commits a crime on the way out the door that will help him figure it out. And so the rest of the book is him trying to get his old firm before they get him.

It wasn't really a thrill ride. I think Grisham just wanted to write a book about homeless people.

****SPOILER ALERT!****

The resolution of the conflict is that they settle out of court. Wow! What a climax!

****END SPOILER ALERT****

There was a subplot where Michael's marriage to his yuppie wife is coming to an end. She keeps popping up in the story here and there and I was half expecting them to maybe reconcile but it just gets to the point where she isn't mentioned anymore. Kind of a letdown. Instead he likes this other homeless crusader who has about one line in the whole book.

I didn't like the main character at all. He was a major league dumb-bunny. I didn't like him when he was a rich lawyer and I didn't like him when he was a poor lawyer.

The book was just okay. It didn't really fall into the Grisham "legal thriller" genre. Nothing thrilling ever happened - it was kind of like "The Chamber" in that respect. At the end, I was just sort of like, "I spent how many hours reading for that?"

In conclusion, we should take care of the homeless. Otherwise, they will turn on us. I think that was the point he was trying to get across in this book.

[from Fantastic Fiction:] Michael was a top lawyer at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. firm when a chance, violent encounter with a homeless man with a secret knocks him off the corporate ladder and leaves him in the streets, a poverty lawyer and a thief.

This is not my favorite Grishem, but it's an enjoyable enough book.

THE STREET LAWYER (Legal Thril-Michael Brock-Washington, D.C.-Cont)
Grishem, John - Standalone

The quintessential Grisham novel, its a transformation story of a successful attorney at a prestigious law firm in Washington, D.C., whose encounter with a homeless man during a traumatic incident prompts him to reevaluate his priorities.
Downsides were the predictability (at times) or that the somewhat idealistic resolution.

I think Grisham should always write in the first-person. His stories are livelier and more realistic from the first-person perspective. This novel is somewhere in the middle of his works, and it shows signs of becoming formulaic, but it still feels fairly fresh. The only reason that I'm giving it three stars and not four is that I didn't appreciate the racism implicit in ideas about homelessness in Washington D.C. Obviously, facts are facts, but there is a way to handle them without being sided one way.
However, I really like Michael Brock, the main character from whose perspective the story is told. I like Mordecai Green, the street lawyer from whom Michael learns, and I appreciate Grisham's obvious respect for the "real Mordecai Greens" as he calls them in his thank yous. The book is entertaining, but it's also educational and eye-opening. Working at a public library located downtown in a suburban city, I encounter homeless people and poor people often. I've become familiar with some of their ways and their struggles. I both empathize and sympathize. I'm sure, though, that most of Grisham's readers, like him, never knew much or understood much or even cared much about the homeless. This book is a way to show people the truth about the plights of the homeless around the country, starting with the nation's capital.
I recommend this book to Grisham fans, to readers who enjoy books about lawyers, and to anyone interested in learning more about the homeless and the people who work for and with them.

3 measly stars compared to what it could have been.

************

First off, I think this would have been a great book, not great as in ‘gonna be a classic one day’ or a ‘bookshelf must have’, but great as in ‘an abrupt reality check right up close and personal’. But it wasn’t. What put me off was:

1. Michael’s apparent racism which Candice, a fellow goodreads reviewer, had aptly put it:

What was particularly disgusting was the protagonist's racism. There were remarks about a jury consisting of "12 black faces" ('cause there can't possibly be any white people in DC, right?) and the incredulous thought "a handsome white boy thrown in the pit!" and "the shoes in question were old Nike cross-trainers. They were not basketball shoes, and should not have appealed to [him.]" (because ALL black people play basketball, right?) Ugh.


I can’t say if Grisham had intended his guy to be such a jerk, I doubt it though. What if he just stated what he did (refer to the quote above) for descriptive purposes because later he befriends a coloured lawyer who for years has passionately advocated people who can’t afford much representation at all. Then again he, Grisham, is supposed to be this kick-butt writer of courtroom action and by now think he should be an expert at this sort of literary maneuver. Or fact is he might not be all that kick-butt after all but I can’t judge as yet because this would be the second book of his that I’ve read so far.

2. and lack of character development and Candice once again seemed to have read my thoughts:

Michael Brock may have developed a conscience by accident after the incident at his office, but he failed to develop a personality. He was a flat and boring character who babbled and whined incessantly. Was I supposed to feel sorry for him? I didn't. Not for a second.


Okay, maybe I felt a little sorry for Michael but it’s negligible. I’m glad that he was woken up from that crazy cycle lawyers run in almost like hamsters in suits and expensive haircuts. Also about the ‘accidental conscience’ otherwise we wouldn’t have a story and he actually advanced as a good human being. Yay, Mikey.

Something what I suspect Grisham got almost right was the poverty, the glimpses of the life of street people seen through Michael’s eyes. The corruption. The profits that are being raked up at the expense of the less fortunate whose voices are leaves in the wind. Michael became didn’t really become that voice because it was already there, what he did was add to it and made it stronger and brought down the hand of justice. At the end of the day he might not be making much as he had before but it’s worth it. I liked him more for it.

I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who wants a thriller because it isn’t, doesn’t really come close but I wouldn’t tell anyone not to read it either, for me it fell in to the ‘okay’ category.

Outstanding! I couldn’t put it down.

While I was browsing my Goodreads account, I came across one of my first book reviews. Thinking of rereading it again because this is one of the books that inspired me to become a lawyer.

Felt slightly embarassed reading the reviews I wrote almost 7-8 years ago. Haha. But anyway, now that I am a lawyer, have I found the purpose of my chosen profession? Guess it’s too early to tell.

——
Review posted on April 1, 2010:

“Privileged people don't march and protest; their world is safe and clean and governed by laws designed to keep them happy.”
--J. Grisham, The Street Lawywer

This is the first John Grisham book I've read. The novel is about a rich lawyer trying to find the purpose of his job as an attorney. It describes a life of a RICH LAWYER WITH A CONSCIENCE.

I LOVE THIS BOOK.

It's always my dream to be a lawyer and this book had been useful to me because it settled my character and belief as a future attorney -- That "MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING AND MONEY DOES NOT DEFINE WHAT A LAWYER DOES" ;)

Very well-written (the courtroom scene was the best). I like the message of the story—the importance of protecting and enforcing homeless rights. However, it was a bit overlong and dull.