The Appeal by John Grisham Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Appeal
Book Review: Been There Done That
Summary: 5 Stars
I have bought and read every book John Grisham has written. The one exception is the most recent which I am ordering today. I was in a bookstore browsing many years ago and picked up the first Grisham book that I bought which I believe was The Firm. I loved it as I have all the others he has written. But I especially enjoyed the The Appeal. I have been a paralegal and worked for lawyers almost all of my life. I wondered when I read The Appeal if many people would understand the significance of this book and I see, based on some of the poor ratings, that they did not understand the process at all. Work through an appeal in a law office, pour your heart and soul into it, cut and paste, before computer days, write and re-write only to have go down the tube so to speak and then read the book. Of course Mr. Grisham has probably taken some dramatic license with the book but it still is a signicant writing. I think the aftermath of what happens to a small practice when you lose an appeal speaks volumes. I have worked may weekends helping several different attorneys working on appeals some of whom couldn't actually believe that I enjoyed doing it. As long as he keeps writing, I will keep buying. I still have all my hardbacks in spite of lending them out, but some of the paperbacks have gotten away from me. I liked the Pelican Brief too. But then I liked them all.Book Review: Boring!!!!
Summary: 1 Stars
When I first started reading this book, I was excited because I thought it was going to be along the same lines as Erin Brokovich. I actaully read over 100 pages before I couldnt stand it anymore. I started skipping pages and I realized I didnt miss anything. This book was very boring and a huge waste of time.Book Review: Boring, not worth reading
Summary: 1 Stars
I have resisted buying Grisham's books lately as I felt he wasn't putting out quality work, but after picking this book up and reading the first few pages I decided to give him another try. Bad move. The beginning of the book is very good and gets you interested in the characters, but then it bogs down in worthless pap, and the ending left me feeling like an idiot for even wasting my time on this, let alone my money. This guy has just lost touch with his readers, or has writers block, or something because he just cannot put out a readable book anymore. I will no longer buy or read any of his books as I think he is putting them out simply to make money. Do not buy this.Book Review: Can't believe it
Summary: 2 Stars
I really can't believe that JG wrote this book. If you read the first chapter and then the last chapter you'll know the whole story. So why waste so many pages and ink in the book? You'll have to plod hard to find the main plot. You'll have to struggle to keep your eyes open while you read. You'll... it doesn't matter just skip this one.Book Review: Cardboard stereotyped characters, slapped on ending..Did Grisham write this or was there a ghost writer? + some expert insight
Summary: 1 Stars
I usually love Grisham. I get the feeling that Grisham came up with an idea and a basic story line, then had a writer (maybe a high school student) flesh it out into a book.
Creative writing teachers at any high school would have sent this back to the student at chapter one and said, give me a real character. These are stereotypes made out of cardboard!
Grisham has committed a breach of trust with his readers that no author should ever do if he wants to maintain a loyal readership. If an author takes you through a long story and winds you up, he needs a creative and exciting ending. This ending was tacked on, artificial, and insulting to the reader. I saw that the story was getting weak and was hoping against hope that he wouldn't do that ending. The sad thing is that I predicted the ending because I saw how poorly this was written and, in the spirit of the rest of the book, this was what my high school daughter would have ended it with...
Now, a quick bit of insight (warning: spoiler: There was a problem with part of the simplistic ending. The ER doc read the wrong CT scan. Besides the fact that ER docs don't interpret CT scans, Radiologists do...we'll let that one pass.. Think about it..if they read the wrong one for the boy in question, then they would have diagnosed someone without a bleed with a bleed. (when you switch a very abnormal scan with a normal one (and it does happen), the other scan isn't just lost in the ether, it results in someone else getting a wrong diagnosis as well. With a bleed in the brain, it would quickly become apparent that the truly normal patient didn't really have a bleed and the mistake would be realized. Yes, that could be a problem in the short run, but over the time period described in the book, it would have been noticed. This is a flaw in a critical part of the book (as I said before, a crappy ending storyline..but critical nonetheless) and any medical expert with true experience would have immediately realized this. It cheapens the book further.
One other note, this story was a weak echo of the Firm.... similar outline... the clean cut young lawyer gets caught up in something unexpectedly evil as we watch in horror.. He did it much better the first time.
Small grammatical notes: Grisham's editors should know that myriad doesn't translate exactly to variety. You never say "myriad of" as in myriad of problems. You say "myriad problems." He used the word 4 times. Twice he used it wrong and twice correctly. Not that important but again, he is letting down his readers if he is using incorrect grammar.
I think Grisham has run out of steam. Loved the Innocent Man. Maybe he should stick to nonfiction.