I shouldn't offer a review. It's not fair and would likely be in an embittered tone anyway. My frustrations w THE FIRM are partly my own.

I'm an admitted slow reader. Generally it takes me 30days to complete an average paperback. This one took over two months but that was not by way of consistent readings.

Days if not weeks went by and I'd barely pick this up. Or I'd get in 15-20min a week. That does have a little to do w my schedule but it was MORE to do w my interest in proceeding.

I simply couldn't find enough give a damn here.

What started off as a promising thriller evolved into a repetitive and uninteresting revengey, amateur espionage-esque story full of random names the reader is supposed to instantly recall. And maybe if the reading was done in a reasonable amount of time that would have been achievable.

Instead this became a burden book. I finished for the sake of finishing. I didn't care how it concluded.

I thought this was a poor book at best. Then I read this lovely headline today.





And the innocent friend?





It's a good thing he became an author. He would make a rather poor defense attorney.

I have scant memories of this thriller that was quickly turned out as a movie by the Hollywood machine. I think it was entertaining and at the time a bit of a renegade book in the US which did not really have this kind of lawyer thriller fiction at the time if my memory serves (Law & Order was not yet on TV - lots of cop shows, not so many lawyer ones) so I have no idea now, 30 years later how interesting this book would be to re-read...

The sole reason I started reading this book was that it was the only literature at hand at my new place. Can you say b-o-r-i-n-g?

Now I feel I have to slog through the remaining 100 pages or so of mindless 'furiously-paced thrills' just so that I can start on my new acquisitions (Bradbury, Pratchett, Adams, Lovecraft, Jordan, Eco ...)

Highly recommended for beginners and people who don't know what a good book really should be.

Update: I can't take it anymore. Dropped!

The Firm is a suspense. Really putting you on suspense. It was good enough. The moral sotry for morally right and wrong is being discussed within the plot. The main character is likeable enough for the plot to continue.

3 stars

It's very, um, thick. Full of detail. Like, so much detail that it's about a third of the way through before the plot actually really begins. Mitch was kinda flat, though. Everybody was treating him as though he was a much more rounded character than he really was.
I mean, I'm not complaining: John Grisham still managed to keep me reading, but maybe that was just because there were people conducting subterfuges.

Still, the lawyers not suspecting what was going on, when they had all the EVIDENCE in front of them, is so stupid. I mean, they're LAWYERS! The trickiest people on the planet! Not only that, they're lawyers who work for the MAFIA! Surely they wouldn't just take the first explanation they see of the evidence?? Surely!

Surely not, according to Grisham. So, yeah, I can see why he sells, but not why he sells that well.

Two things that also really disgusted me: one, that Mitch cheated on his wife near the beginning, and the photos of him in the act were used to blackmail him, and then at the end he never confesses. If he cared so much, why not confess to her? Sure, it would hurt her, but doesn't he love her and respect her enough not to lie to her?

The second thing was that the women in the book were constantly written as though the author was salivating over them, and wanted all the guys to join in, which I personally found really degrading.

I can't really see myself ever reading this one again, and I read everything again.

This book is absolutely wonderfull, and have an engaging plot. ♣

IJzersterk advocaten thriller. Wat doe je als je jong bent en in de wereld het wil maken?
Je kijkt niet verder als je neus lang is en gaat op een aanbod in waar je enorme spijt van krijgt.
De man krijgt een baan bij een goed lopend advocatenkantoor. Hij moet onmogelijke uren maken maar daar staan veel beloningen tegenover. Zijn jonge vrouw gaat mee. Wat eerst een droombaan leek blijkt en enorme cover up te zijn waar alle partners bij betrokken zijn. En die niet meewerken verdwijnen vroegtijdig in hun graf.

This book is really interesting, well written and absolutely irresistible. I'm on a mission to read every book that Grisham wrote, because his books never disappoint me.

I loved this so much.
4 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Published in 1991, The Firm is a novel about tax evasion.

Picked up in a charity shop in 2013, it's still topical.

It takes us inside a top legal firm, and to the Cayman Islands, a British protectorate where no tax is levied - hence a tax haven for those who can afford it.

It's a novel that paints a corrupt world where employees turn a blind eye to wrongdoings in exchange for wealth. Chilling and real.

The tax evasion story becomes a criminal drama involving the Mafia and the FBI. I was gripped but less haunted. The descriptions of motels in a resort stayed with me. Was the (*spoiler alert*) photo strand unresolved?

I don't read thrillers and this is my first by John Grisham. I liked the lack of goriness. It was straightforward and had a healthy relationship at its core. I liked the workmanlike factual descriptions.

I loved the description of the endless files, and their prominent role, as crucial as any character.

Now I am puzzled why Tom Cruise would star in this film about tax evasion what with Scientology's tax exempt status in the US, and its attempt to do ditto in the UK.

I admit. I saw the film before I read the book. What do I think? Both are five stars. They are. But I judge them as separate works of art. Because they are. To the book:

Always loved me a good thriller. This has it all. Intrigue, suspense, passion, complexity, and plenty of twists.

As with all great old works, there are plenty of long reviews out there already. So I will keep this short. Exactly.