In a minimum-security prison, three old corrupt judges pass their days away running a scam by mail, asking help and promising companionship from closeted gay men across the country. When the marks bite, the judges demand money. Meanwhile, a hawkish head of the CIA plans to engineer the presidential election of a handpicked Congressman, Aaron Lake, in a single-issue campaign based on fomenting the fear of world war.

While it may seem obvious to some at what point these two plots will converge, I was not so bright and was taken by pleasant surprise. With each new development, I enjoyed it more. This is Grisham as he is so often said to be, but it’s the first time I have seen it: terrific storytelling, perfect pacing, black humor, danger, twists, characters you love to hate, and of course nail-biting suspense. Will this trio of unpleasant but somehow sympathetic rascals get away with it? I turned the pages frantically to see how it all ended, and Grisham delivered the surprises up to and including the very last page. Thoroughly entertaining.

This book was awesome. I thought it would be one of those books where you could guess everything that happened or was going to happen, but I was wrong. The reason I thought this was because in the beginning of the book there were two different stories going on and I figured that both of them would merge eventually somehow. Well they did, and they did merge in the way that I guessed they would (I didn't want to believe it) but they did. However, when they started to get deeper in how the out come of the two merged together was completely different and suprised me. I was very happy with the ending also, it was kind of pradictable, but if it would have ended any other way it probably would have made me mad and I would not be giving such a good review. I also have to say that I do not normally read books with a lot of law and military lingo in it, but Grisham has a way of using it to where you understand it and it doesn't leave you saying "hu??" So I liked that alot because I was a little judgemental when I first started it, like great I am going to hate this book because there is going to be too much lingo in it that I don't understand. I also honestly really don't care for books that are all about cops and police work or millitary really because most of the time they are just too boring for me and I would reather watch movies. However, this book was amazing and I recommend it to anyone who loves thrillers and books that are a little law and military related.

Another Grisham novel ticked off my very long list!

The Brethren is not one of the author's best works. The pace is significantly slower, in some places, than his other novels. However, it still contains enough drama to keep the reader wanting to know what happens at the end. Grisham's books are also not easily skim read because the plot details are skillfully woven together and you might miss something important rendering the book nonsensical.

Trumble is a minimum security federal prison which houses relatively harmless (in terms of violence) criminals. Three former judges have established themselves as The Brethren and together they pass judgement on their fellow inmates, a sort-of jailhouse justice. When the opportunity presents itself, they expand to the outside with the help of Trevor, a corrupt and lazy lawyer. They begin an extortion scheme by tricking victims into believing they are conversing with young gay males then threatening to expose them to their family and friends. However, the time comes when they chance to mess with the wrong victim, someone with powerful friends who will stop at nothing to protect their client's reputation....

The novel contains the usual mixture of corruption at the heart of government, the judicial system and within the intelligence service. Unfortunately, the slightly seedy topic that has been chosen for this book leaves one feeling a little uncomfortable. Grisham does a good job of painting the victims as pathetic, helpless wretches at the mercy of their passions. He fails to consider the plight of their ever suffering wives and families because of their failure to keep their passions in check. God calls it lust, which is a sin. Grisham presents it as if they have been ensnared by life and are forever trapped, unable to move forward....poor creatures.

I note that this was published in 2000. I'm not sure whether it would receive as wide an audience now due to changing attitudes about homosexuality across the board.

That said, I always like the way Grisham draws out the deceit of wealth, and this novel is no exception:

He was selling his ethics, his standards, even his morals for money. Was his soul worth a million bucks? Too late now. The money was in the bank. He took a sip of beer and washed away the fading twinges of guilt

The reality is that burying our heads in the sand, or drinking away our guilt, won't help on Judgement Day when we all have to give God an account of our lives. In His mercy, God has given us consciences to regulate our behaviour so that we don't stack up offences against Him. It is good that Grisham's characters are fictional, but let's hope those reading them don't copy the behaviour.

This book has some swearing but it isn't strong or frequent, it has some details of lust and sexual feelings, but they aren't graphic. It has some references to violence but nothing significant.

My rating is due to the subject matter and the fact that there are better Grisham books out there.

Check out my John Grisham Shelf!

I would not say I'm a reluctant John Grisham reader. I just haven't felt a dying urge to search out his novels. Maybe I'm just afraid of any sort of legal setting and try to avoid it in any medium it's presented in. Finally, I picked up a paperback of Grisham's novel, Runaway Jury and plodded through it. Certainly he can present some very intriguing characters and situations, and his mastery of plot intricacies and how it plays out demonstrated to me why he has garnered the bestselling status he has. And yet, halfway through the book, I realized that, though all the characters were interesting, I didn't connect personally with any of them. They all seemed to be despicable, corrupted characters going about and doing despicable, corrupted deeds. Well, it's hard for me to not finish a book I've started, so I plodded through anyways, not really caring about the result. Imagine my surprise when Grisham pulled it off. He had a slam bang plot twist at the end, plus, he completely redeemed my view of a couple of the characters. I loved Runaway Jury and became an instant Grisham fan. By saying that, I don't mean, of course, that I went out and actually read more of his stuff (I mean, let's not get too carried away here), but I sure did like his one book I read. Fast forward a couple years (or a ton, I guess I'm not getting any younger). With a few minutes on hand and desperate to keep myself from using those few minutes from actually thinking in any way, I picked up the nearest book at hand in my parent's house. John Grisham's, The Brethren. Once again, Grisham reeled me in with an interesting premise and intriguing characters. About halfway through the novel, once again, I began to complain to my wife that there was no redeemable character, no one to root for, nothing to ultimately care about. As I told her this, I realized that Grisham must be pulling another one-two on me. Brilliant. He's hiding one of his good characters again and there will be a carefully contrived twist at the end. Bravo! With this in mind, I read much more enthusiastically. I even thought I figured out which character would be redeemed. I had it all worked out in my mind and wondered how Grisham was going to pull it off to match. And how did he? ... well, to my frustration, he didn't. No character redemption. No twist. The story ended, and that was it. Why? Why would Grisham do that? He had the ability ... he even had a probable character with which to do it ... but he chose the anti-climax instead. I have several theories. He was bitter that they changed parts of Runaway Jury for the movie, so he ensured that he would make this story completely unfilmable. Take that, Hollywood! Or, he was planning on turning it all around at the end, but he never figured out how to do it, a deadline came, so he just finished it and turned it in. Those are two major possibilities, but I suspect it was something different. I suspect he came up with a cool plot idea, and then decided to play it out. Then, at the end, the pay off is that the guys get away with their scheme. Ehhhh. I suppose that is a semi-forgivable offense. Unfortunately, the only way that works is if the reader isn't fully aware of some aspect of the scheme and then it is all revealed at the end and we are wowed and like the story. Not in this case. The scheme is given away, pretty much in its entirety, right off the bat. Therefore, when they get away with it in the end, I thought ... well, yeah, that's what they had planned. What's the big deal? Besides that, their big heist was something they couldn't have planned for and stumbled into by sheer dumb luck. So what do we have at the end? Unsympathetic criminals deceiving unsympathetic victims in a predictable, non-climax ending. Well, my Grisham experience is 1-1. I'm not looking for a tiebreaker, but I have a funny feeling one will end up finding me someday anyway.

I have read several John Grisham novels and this particular one did not have the usual punch that are typical in his stories. In other books of his there is suspense and intrigue, but I would not say The Brethren has these characteristics.

The dual plots are slow in developing and once the two converge it is fairly predictable from there. With a lack of twists and turns it was really difficult to stay engaged in the book. With no true climax or twists to drive the story it felt like it lacked heart. The ending seemed to attempt to be climactic, but it fell flat. Overall this story just felt clumsy.

If you are looking for a truly great Grisham novel I recommend The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Firm, or even The Testament.

Skeletons in the closet are what this story is all about.  They're actually high-powered skeletons kept by no less than the most popular candidate for the American presidency.  Skeletons that are being threatened to be exposed by conniving inmates in a federal prison.  A threat that was put at bay by no less than the CIA.

Everything was going nicely on all fronts: intriguing characters, exciting plot build up. I was telling myself this is why I like Grisham; then without warning, it suddenly ended!  The complications presented in 99 percent of the book were resolved and concluded in the last one percent.  The conclusion was not a surprise either, one could see it coming early on.  So there I was, wondering where the other pages might have gone; but it was really the end already!

Was it just me? Would I have reacted differently if I took less time to finish this book?  I haven't seen the other reviews yet, but I don't think so.

Mah, non so, mi aspettavo molto di più da questo libro, dal famoso John Grisham...
Invece ho trovato solo innumerevoli banalità...

La trama? era intuibile fin dal principio. Letti i primi due capitoli avrei potuto evitare i successivi e andare subito all'ultimo e non mi sarei persa nulla di importante. il fulcro su cui si fonda tutto è talmente banale che mi sono sentita presa in giro! ok che l'elezione del presidente americano è un evento senza esclusione di colpi, ma se si fosse saputo che uno dei candidati ha inviato le lettere a uno sconosciuto e avrebbe potuto avere tendenze omosessuali sarebbe stato così grave per l'opinione pubblica? Uno senza moglie e senza figli? Ho trovato il tutto leggermente razzista e esagerato.
Poi magari in America sarebbe stato davvero uno scandalo e sono io che non capisco lo loro mentalità, eh?
I personaggi? Dello spessore della carta velina.
Anche la CIA, qui prende alcuni tratti che non posso che definire comici.
E di tutti gli altri non mi è rimasto assolutamente nulla.

Mi spiace, ma mi aspettavo qualcosa in più.

John Grisham is one of my favorite authors, and I have a lot of respect for him. The characters in this book, however, were despicable. And thus, two stars. It's only redeeming value to me was the fact that it took place in Florida, near Jacksonville and Orange Park, where I have lived in the past. The story itself was completely and utterly depressing, and even more so because I feel that an author of Grisham's stature and qualifications will have done his research and that the premise is sound. Three judges in federal prison in Florida are running a scam. They pretend to be homosexual males and correspond with closet homosexuals on the outside. They persuade them to send money, which they deposit into an offshore bank, with the help of their sleazy lawyer. The problem is that one of their correspondents is now running for President of the United States. In comes the CIA, and they fix the situation for Teddy, the Director, who is the primary supporter of the candidate. If you believe in the American justice system, or have faith that the best man wins in a Presidential election, then don't read this book. Your ideals will be quashed. Grisham has done an excellent job of demonstrating just how far people with power can go to get what they want.

The Brethren, John Grisham

The Brethren is a legal thriller novel by American author John Grisham, published in 2000.

They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits. The third for a career-ending drunken joyride.

Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong. Or they can use their time in prison to get very rich—very fast. ...

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «برادران»؛ «اخوان»؛ «برادر خوانده ها»؛ نویسنده: جان گریشام؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز دوم ماه اکتبر سال2002میلادی

عنوان: برادران؛ نویسنده: جان گریشام؛ مترجم فریده مهدوی دامغانی؛ تهران، نشر مرداد، سال1379؛ در548ص؛ شابک9647116012؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده21م

عنوان: برادر خوانده ها؛ نویسنده: ج‍ان‌ گ‍ری‍ش‍ام‌؛ مت‍رج‍م هادی عادلپور؛ تهران، کوشش، سال1379؛ در478ص؛ شابک9646326625؛

عنوان: برادران؛ نویسنده: جان گریشام؛ مترجم: پرتو اشراق؛ تهران، جار، سال1379؛ در432ص؛ شابک9649057467؛

عنوان: اخ‍وان‌؛ نویسنده: ج‍ان‌ گ‍ری‍ش‍ام‌؛ مت‍رج‍م س‍ی‍د ج‍واد ص‍ال‍ح‍ی‌؛ شیراز، نوید شیراز، سال1384؛ در448ص؛ شابک9643582159؛

برادران یک رمان هیجان انگیز حقوقی، از نویسنده «آمریکایی»: «جان گریشام»، که نخستین بار در سال2000میلادی منتشر شده است؛

در این رمان، نبرد و رقابت پنهانی دو قدرت جهان، یعنی «آمریکا» و «روسیه»، بازگو شده؛ موضوع اصلی، رویدادهای، مربوط به بازار سیاه اسلحه، به ویژه سلاح‌های هسته‌ ای است؛ قهرمانان اصلی رمان، دو چهره ی برجسته از مقامات «امریکایی» هستند؛

شخصیت نخست، «آرون لیک» نماینده ی کنگره ی «آمریکا»ست؛ که حوزه ی نمایندگی او «آریزونا»، مرکز اجرای چهار قرارداد دفاعی است؛ وی متخصص بزرگ سلاح‌های تازه، و تئوری‌های دفاعی، به شمار می‌آید، و از سویی ریاست کمیسیون نیروهای مسلح را برعهده دارد؛

شخصیت دوم، «تدی مینارد» رئیس «سیا» است، کسی که با پنجاه سال پیشینه ی نظامی، استاد بزرگ جنگ‌های جاسوسی، به شمار می‌رود؛

نقل از متن برادر خوانده ها؛ (مثل همیشه، برای شرکت در جلسه هفتگی رسیدگی به پرونده های حقوقی، همان پیژامه کهنه و رنگ و رو رفته را پوشید، و کفشهای حمام را، بدون جوراب به پا کرد؛ از ظاهر پیژامه، معلوم بود که مدتها پیش، بلوطی رنگ بوده است؛ این مرد، تنها کسی نبود، که برای انجام کارهای روزانه اش، پیژامه میپوشید؛ ولی هیچکس غیر از او، جرات نداشت کفش «مام» به پا کند؛ نامش: «ت کارل» بود، و یک وقتی در «بوستن»، بانکداری میکرد؛ اما آن پیژامه و کفشها به اندازه ی کلاه گیس، ایجاد زحمت نمیکرد که از وسط دو قسمت میشد، و با چین و شکن فراوان از طرفین آویزان بود.)؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/10/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 08/11/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

an okay Grisham story

Possibly my favourite Grisham novel. Would love to see a film adaptation.

4,5 stele.
Frăția este mai degrabă o farsă decât un thriller, fiind extrem de amuzant pe alocuri, dar care atinge și problema influenței nefaste a serviciilor secrete asupra lumii politice globale. În plus, apare din nou tema, prezentă de nenumărate ori în romanele lui Grisham, omului care este dispus să facă orice pentru a se îmbogăți și astfel să reușească să se rupă complet de trecut. De această dată se află în respectiva ipostază trei foști judecători ce au fost închiși pentru diverse încălcări ale legii pe care le vom detalia imediat. Prin urmare, sunt trei oameni care au pierdut aproape totul, atât pe plan profesional, cât și familial, viața lor luând o turnură complet neașteptată. Dar, așa cum vom vedea, nu au abandonat speranța că mai sunt încă capabili să mai dea o ultimă lovitură și printr-o escrocherie meschină să reușească să se îmbogățească.
Dar cine sunt acești trei foști judecători, ce, printr-o ironie a sorții, mimează că împart și acum dreptatea în închisoarea federală Trumble? Joy Roy Spicer a fost condamnat pentru furtul unor sume de bani, Finn Yarber, șaizeci de ani, susține cu vehemență că este nevinovat, deși a fost condamnat pentru evaziune fiscală și Hatlee Beech, cincizeci și șase de ani, ce fusese căsătorit cu o femeie foarte bogată și ducea o viață extrem de confortabilă, de la care și-a luat adio atunci când s-a urcat beat la volan alături de o altă femeie și a accidentat mortal doi oameni: acești ratați alcătuiesc Frăția, ce se întrunește săptămânal pentru a judeca diversele litigii ale deținuților.
Într-un cu totul alt loc decât Trumble și la un nivel radical diferit, se încheie un pact diabolic între congresmanul Aaron Lake, cincizeci și trei de ani, și șeful CIA, Teddy Maynard, conform căruia CIA îl ajută pe Lake să ajungă președintele SUA, iar acesta se angajează să dubleze bugetul pentru apărare în următorii patru ani. Cum îl poate ajuta CIA pe Lake? Simplu: prin sume enorme de bani și prin instaurarea unei frici generalizate.
Problema este că, deși pare candidatul ideal, Lake are totuși o slăbiciune, iar această vulnerabilitate poate să năruie toate eforturile, legale și ilegale, care au fost investite în el. Tot pe această cale, membrii Frăției au revelația că se pot autoinvita la masa celor bogați. Dacă va avea sau nu succes scenariul acestora, trebuie să descopere fiecare cititor în parte. Lectură plăcută!