Lawyering, fast and loose, like old times

Back in the day I devoured John Grisham books like candy. The “classics” I remember fondly, aka, The Firm, The Client, The Pelican Brief, The Runaway Jury, and, a departure from the thes, A Time to Kill. For no real discernible reason, it’s been about a decade (whoa) since I have picked one up and a quick pass over the “hot and new” section at my local library grabbed my attention as unsurprisingly, John is still at it. A few of my book clubs are winding down and taking a break for the summer, so I actually have some space on my docket (lawyer reference!) for picking a book so I grabbed this one.

It was, in a word, fine. It was totally in line with my expectations for 2018 John Grisham. In fact, it was oddly analogous to what I expect from present day episodes of Law and Order SVU, i.e., it has been on the air for so long that they have literally exhausted all practical plot lines and so the sharks are now jumping the sharks and there is also some detective stuff going on in the background. Grisham to me is in the same boat. He has spent a long time in this wheelhouse and thus is shoulder shrugging at reality and having fun with it.

A group of friends in their final year of a shady law school are looking down the barrel of staggering loans in a shaky job market with no prospects. Next, personal tragedy strikes and they are now struggling with grief, still no jobs, and have stumbled upon a possible for-profit law school conspiracy, which is the b plot to them deciding to, sans law school graduation and bar exam passing, practice as lawyers. Yeah. There is a lot going on here. Much of it makes little sense, much of it is a bit silly.

This is a great beach, or in my case tent read. Brain candy, plain and simple. Leave your disbelief upon entry and you will enjoy your time spent in his world.