Finalmente tive oportunidade de pegar no "The Firm" de John Grisham e, no final de contas, não me desiludiu. A história cativa, é simples de acompanhar, tem o seu nível de suspense e deixa o leitor agarrado até ao fim. Os fãs do género vão ficar satisfeitos. Como negativo destaco talvez a introdução de informação quase aleatória e desnecessária sobre alguns personangens, a pouca e deficiente profundidade dessas personagens e o "crescimento" da própria personagem principal (e consequente twist na história) também não funcionou tão bem para mim. No entanto, custa-me um pouco perceber a pontuação e/ou reviews feitas aqui no Goodreads. Expectativas demasiado altas ou algo contra o próprio John Grisham?

Wow. Great action, mystery and suspense. Can a smart young lawyer overcome unbelievable odds and outwit the Mafia and FBI?

STORY BRIEF:
Mitch is graduating from Harvard Law School in the top 5 of his class. He has several job offers from top wall street firms as well as a 40-man law firm in Memphis. The Memphis firm offers him more money and perks than the others, so he takes the job. He does not know that the firm is run by the Mafia. They have listening devices in every employee’s home, car, office, etc. No one ever leaves the firm except by death. Five lawyers were killed during recent years under vague circumstances. After a few months, the FBI approaches Mitch asking his help in getting evidence against the firm. Mitch refuses, but he is now suspicious and curious.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
One of the best books I’ve read. It’s a little slow at first, but worth it. About half way through I couldn’t stop reading. I was obsessed with staying with it until the end. There is a lot of suspense, danger and risk. Mitch is smart and does a lot of neat things in unbelievably high risk situations. The only caution I have is that it was hard for me to sleep for a couple of nights, because I kept reliving parts of the story. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

After reading the book I watched the movie directed by Sidney Pollack. I couldn’t believe it. They changed many events from the book, which I did not like, for example. In the book A does something, but in the movie B does it and with different motivations. The ending in the book was great; in the movie it was totally different, not even close. In the movie, they added a supposedly clever conversation that didn’t exist in the book. I expect movies to cut scenes due to time limits, but to create a conversation that never happened in the book? It didn’t feel right to me. It was the scene in which the firm gives an envelope to Mitch with his salary inside. In the movie, they want him to guess what it is. Bottom line, if you see the movie, try not to link it to John Grisham, he is much better than that.

DATA:
Setting: current day various cities in the U.S. plus Caribbean islands. Copyright: 1991. Genre: mafia mystery suspense.

This is a re-read, so no rating. that would be like stuffing the ballot box. I didn't mean to make this book currently reading. I'm just reading it again because I'm about to see the movie, which, believe it or not, I've never seen. Sorry friends, I won't do this again.

I'm FINALLY done! Jeeeeeez! So, the half part of the book is a bit boring and you're just waiting to see what's going on with the Law Firm, but boy oh boy, once you find out... you can't put the book down. No, really. You can't.

As a lawyer myself, I found the book extremely interesting, particularly because it deals with what exactly you should NEVER do in your legal practice.

I loved Mitch McDeere (main character). Though flawed... his intelligence really got him through and that's just admirable. And his wife Abby? Equally badass, equally awesome.

Definitely, two thumbs up.

Great book, didn’t love the ending

This is quick, because I can't imagine anyone who has never read a Grisham novel/watched a 'film' adaptation of a Grisham novel/read a book review of a Grisham novel/watched that episode of 3rd Rock From the Sun all those years ago where the family goes into Witness Protection for some reason and they're all reading different Grisham novels, and when they realize the plot is exactly the same, they switch books and continue reading and sure enough, the plot is exactly the same. And yes, I've just spent about ten minutes searching the interwebs for the clip that apparently only I can remember, because I have an inordinate amount of brain sludge in my cerebral cortex.

ANYHOODLE. For the four people in the world who may not have ever read a Grisham 'legal' novel (because sometime in the early Aughts he went and branched out), here are the requirements:

I. An idealistic lawyer – the fresher out of law school, the better; or,
II. A lawyer who has become disillusioned with the system, but will give it one last try.

He/She discovers:
A. The case he's currently working on has ties to the Mafia;
B. The case he's currently working on has ties to the KKK;
C. The case he's currently working on has ties to the highest of government; or
D. The case he's currently working on has ties to the evil health care industry.

With the help of:
1. His friends;
2. The FBI; or
3. No one, because he's an IDEALISTIC LAWYER,

He:
a. Is able to win his case;
b. Is able to turn the Mafia over to the FBI;
c. Is able to prove the conspiracy.

As his life is now in danger, he must:
i. Escape to the Caribbean or South America;
ii. Enter into the Witness Protection program;
iii. Face the reporters and live to fight another case;
iv. Retire from law.

Usually, he also manages to swindle the Mafia/Government/Whatever out of a tidy sum of:
*$10 million.

The Firm is I, A, 2, b, I, $10 million.

Enjoy.

Good one.

I saw the film prior to reading the book!! It was an amazing experience!! Based on this book I saw many films in different languages!! But this plot is very gripping!! JG's regular ransom and legal aspects r very interesting!!

The characterization of the main lead from a recent college passout to a leading lawyer was very nice!! Narration is very gripping!!


Mr. Grisham writes with such relish about the
firm's devious legal practices that his novel
might be taken as a how-to manual for
ambitious tax-law students.

I read this book since Stephen King mentioned it in "On Writing" as a particularly good concept.

I completely agree with Stephen King that this book has an A+, great concept, but the execution is extremely lacking. When I heard the plot (a young lawyer accidentally joins the law firm for the mafia) I was really excited about the book. Unfortunately, there are major problems with execution. Everything below this is going into spoiler territory.

The protagonist, Mitch, despite being a very young professional, isn't much out of his depth; I'd have think someone that green should have more of a "in over his head" kind of feel and he didn't. He instead becomes this grand genius who's outwitting both the mob and the FBI at the same time, aided perfectly by his assistants. Another major plot point, that Mitch had cheated on his wife and the Firm had the pictures, was picked up and then never used again. All the characters were one note without much in the way of personality or flaws or meaningful characterization. The mob side was shown too much, which killed whatever mystery or suspense there was. The plot finally speeds up toward the end, but it was too little, too late. What should have been a taunt thriller was boring for most of the book.

All in all, I was thoroughly disappointed and felt like the concept deserved much better execution. To be honest, the Firm has soured me entirely on reading other John Grisham novels.

I read The Firm many years ago when it first came out. I was gripped from the first chapter. I was working at a law firm at the time & I actually started looking for cameras, microphones, or was my phone tapped!?! OMG were there cameras in the elevator!? Crap - I shouldn't have given the finger to my boss behind his back! Well, there were other girls on the 22 floors that this law firm owned who were reading this book & when I'd run into one of them, we would have the same discussion of paranoia (not wanting to give each other any kind of spoiler). It sure made me think, being that it was a law firm in NYC similar to "The Firm". When the movie came out, I couldn't wait to see it. The movie was a let-down, but the person I was with thought it was great. Needless to say, he didn't read the book. I guess the imagination is worth a helluva lot more than a movie ticket! Lol. After a lot of my friends read it & saw the movie, they agreed the book was so much better, but we also agreed that if they were going to make a movie exactly like the book, it would have been a 5-8 hour movie.

Excellent read! suspenseful,entertaining,great plot twist,good character development and nice depth..recommend to all (paperback!)

Wow! That's all I can say about The Firm, I can't believe I didn't read it sooner, it's what I called a classic edge of your seat thriller, it was a lot better than the movie I thought, John Grisham does a great job explaining the legal system, this is my second book by Grisham and it certainly won't be my last. Anyone that's looking for a good legal thriller I recommend The Firm if you haven't read it already.