well-written thriller, containing everything one can expect in this genre, including some clichees

A compelling read but slow burn. This book starts off with such a intensity and then slows down quite a bit. I loved the characters and the story - a high prolific attorney for a major law firm in Washington DC whose firm is held hostage by a homeless man including all the aftermath. Biggest takeaway: money isn’t everything.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. I always enjoy Grisham on a four-star kind of basis, but this one went deeper and really resonated with me. Something I've always liked about Grisham is that his legal thrillers are never just that. They're deeply human and they touch the emotions. Some people might think he's emotionally manipulative, and that's fine, but I enjoy having my emotions manipulated in the right way sometimes. I'm realizing that I read Grisham because I want to feel something. Sometimes there's an against-all-odds happiness you get from his stories (some more than others), and this is one of those. The fact that the happiness is set in the context of vindication for the homeless of Washington, D.C., makes it even more fulfilling to read. I think the emotional manipulation is especially well applied here. Grisham has an agenda, which is to get you to care about the homeless. It's underlying and somewhat subtle, however, because some of the standard Grisham hallmarks are there, like the big evil corporate firm that illegally evicted the squatters who were actually tenants without giving them notice and the lawyer who, when he realized what was going on, left the firm and took them on at great personal risk. But Grisham writes deeply personal and affecting scenes, such as Brock's interaction with Orlando Burton and holding his baby brother while their mother, Lontae, got some desperately needed rest. And what happens to them will utterly destroy you and break your heart. If you're not touched by the tender moments and the tragedy, I probably don't want to know you, especially since this kind of thing can and does happen in the world we live in. The denouement of the novel doesn't all of a sudden have the homeless winning the lottery or anything like that, but it has something even better...


*SPOILER WARNING*


in that Arthur Jacobs commits all the lawyers in his firm to work with Michael Brock in contributing a few hours each week to pro bono work with the homeless. This is Mr. Brock goes to Washington-type stuff, very Capra-esque. It's an ideal picture of what those in power should do--just GIVE of themselves, just a little bit, to make the world a better place. It's a story that leaves you in tears, both sad and happy. I very much thank Mr. Grisham for this journey. His stories always have so much heart, and I enjoy being so deeply touched. It happens sometimes without me knowing, as the legal matters are intriguing enough to hold my attention by themselves.

WOW! I loved this book!! But for more reasons than the story itself. Published in 1998, before the current financial collapse, Grisham based this story around the homeless. If the homeless population was bad then, I can only imagine what it is presently. People in general look at the homeless as lazy and uneducated not worthy of their time or money. Nothing could be farther than the truth. The government talks a good talk but spends more money fighting the issue rather than helping.

I loved Michael Brock - what a great man he turned out to be. And we need more Hectors and Megans. And, as Grisham wrote in his Author's Notes, thank you to all the Mordecai's out there.

This is a great book to read if you ever wondered how people became homeless. What an eye opener. The story kept me enthralled. I didn't want to put it down.

18/2017/323

** Despite Grisham’s marvelous ability to tell stories so well, I despised this book. I nearly put it down many times. I will not go into all of my thoughts on this book because so many of the other reviews have already pointed them out. Here are my most disturbing objectives:

1) Michael, the protagonist, is a very unlikable character. He and his wife become strangers due to each working excessively. He turns into being a thief, although he truly intended on returning the file he “borrowed” without consent. After the hostage taking, Michael “sees the light” and leaves his very successful career of $120,000+ per year with a good shot of partnership within a few years, to become a street lawyer for $30,000 a year. Are you serious? This is just so unbelievable!

2) Grisham should stick to his legal writing and abandon any attempt at politics and crusades. It disgusted me. Needless to say, I did not like this book. Please be aware that this is the first of his books that I do not like after reading many of his novels. Like one reviewer said, “Prosperous people should feel guilty because there are homeless people in our cities. That is the main message in this Grisham novel.” With Grisham conveying that message, should we assume that he donated all the profits from this book to the homeless in the cities? I highly doubt it!

I’m not typically drawn to legal thrillers, but I know John Grisham is a well-respected and liked author so I decided to give him and try and I really enjoyed this book. What I wasn’t expecting is such a thought-provoking novel that is totally applicable to our society today as we have more and more homeless people in every state and community. Michael Brock is a highly-paid attorney who is met one day by a homeless man that follows him to his office. What takes place there that day changed Michael’s life (literally) forever. It changed who he was, what he did, and how he saw the world. I think we all tend to feel for the homeless, but what do we do about it as an individual? Michael did something that rather astounded me and this story really got me to thinking about what I might be able to do. Love this book and how it gave me food for thought.

A much better read than The Appeal and a great plot based on the homeless

A high-powered D.C. attorney is taken hostage, along with 8 of his co-workers. The bad guy is homeless and mentally impaired, and had recently been evicted. Through the harrowing experience, Michael starts a soul searching journey, looking at the disenfranchised through new eyes.

As soon as I finished,, The Street Lawyer” I realized that I definitely should not have been delaying with reading John Grisham’s books for that long! I must say that almost everyone in my family is obsessed with Grisham’s books and when I write obsessed I mean it. For instance, the book and the movie ,,A Time to Kill” are so beloved to my dad that he memorized almost all the dialogues and everytime we watch the film together he is casually saying the actor’s lines along with them. The culture of reading John Grisham’s books has formed in my family and I was the only remaining one who have never read any of his books. So as you can see I was under enormous pressure. It was unbearable to me, so I pulled myself together and took off with ,, The Street Lawyer”.

Long story short, this novel is about the abrupt flash of realization that money is not a thing worth consecrating one’s life for. This theme in the books doesn’t come across as very original, after reading a million netbooks about some amazing, magical spiritual transformations of character. I confess that I expected a lot from the novel as a whole, nevertheless, I didn't anticipate the plot to be surprising because the ,,big change” theme is nothing new, and only very few authors aren’t failing in writing something imaginative. I wouldn’t say that “The Street Lawyer” is original but I wouldn’t also say that John Grisham fell by the wayside. His book lies somewhere in between.

The interesting thing that dawned on me and aroused my curiosity after the read is how the lawyer's profession, where everyone participates in the rat race, happens to be toxic and extremely unsupportive. Micheal who is the character that the whole plot focuses on, is having struggles with his work, that of course fulfills his financial fulfillment, but leaves professional fulfillment unfulfilled. In my opinion, it was very brave of him to take a break from things that made him unhappy. Basically because of the changes he had made, he went down a rabbit hole. I admire him for going for something right but at the same time uneasy. I don’t think that a lot of people would choose to be righteous or honorable rather than rich. Additionally, almost everybody disapproved of the changes Mike wanted to make. His co-workers took his unhappiness as a great joke and his family wasn’t better. They weren't capable of accepting that as long as you are doing what makes you happy you are successful. Nobody can tell you that you should be unhappy with work that makes you happy or at least satisfied just because it is not well-paid. They were dead sure that a great success comes with a great money. Of course, I’m not implying that Mike hadn’t been just like them before he realized what he wanted from life, but the major difference between Michael and everyone else is that he had the mental strength to object to his parents, who imposed upon him a lot of bad beliefs, and started to consider the things that were actually important to him and not the things that he felt obligated to take as important. It is truly beautiful to pour one’s heart into an idea that one believes in and keep a cool head when everyone tells you that is not worth your efford. Micheal did such a thing so I consider him a good character.

Of all things that I like about this book, there is one that made the process of reading less enjoyable, because nothing is perfect. It seems that the action in the book does not exist or is so slow that you get the impression that it does not exist. This novel is one of those where nothing happens but somehow the difference between the first chapter and the last is colossal. I’m not saying that this style of leading the novel’s plot is bad but I don’t think it is appealing to me. Sometimes I love to read a slow-burning book, but when it comes to ‘’The Street Lawyer” I plead guilty to skipping some pages.

In summary, “The Street Lawyer’’ by John Grimshaw is a solid novel, that may leave something to be desired but not much. I recommend it to everyone who loves slow-burning books with a law background. I don’t regret reading it and I’m quite sure that it isn’t the last book I will ever read by John Grisham. Maybe now I should give it a try to ,, A Time to Kill” so I can compete with my father in quoting dialogues from the memory?

Not Grisham's strongest writing, but he was tackling a very large set of themes here (mainly systemic poverty and homelessness, as well as racism and classism). In that, he did a good job simplifying some of the biggest barriers and demonstrating the cycle of systemized and oppressive poverty. However, I did find it a little annoying that Michael had no friends or family who would even sympathize with his life choices and what led him to these choices. It's all neatly explained away, but I find it hard to believe that his immediate family didn't even want to hear him out.

Michael had an opportunity to redirect his talent into something he believed in, something bigger than himself, and something that he could grow into a powerful and impactful force for good. It was a little too much contrast between this life that awaited him and the life he left behind, the one motivated by personal and corporate greed. This is what I mean when I say it wasn't Grisham's best writing. It lacked suggestion and subtlety. Instead, it's bashed in with a heavy hammer. But because he really worked hard to bring these social issues to light with some degree of effectiveness, I give him a 3.75 and round up to 4.

O que leva um advogado bem sucedido a deixar o seu escritório luxuoso e virar advogado oficioso ??
Quando um dia de manhã Michael Brock encontra um sem abrigo à porta do prédio onde trabalha está longe de imaginar que esse encontro casual vai modificar a sua vida pessoal e profissional.
Desta vez a vertente judicial dos livros de Grisham cede um pouco para as questões humanitárias.

4.5 stars. What a great legal thriller. Mordecai Green, the protagonist’s new boss is such a great character as are Michael’s other two new office mates. This book truly educates the reader on the premise the need of Street Law.