Rating: 
Summary: The Manchurian Candidate Meets the Bretheren Grim
Review: Even granting that John Grisham is a genre unto himself, his latest tale of crooked judges, attorneys and politicians and their hapless victims is not up to his usual standard. While "The Bretheren" is distinguished by the same shallow insights, stereotyped characters, cliched descriptions ("tell, don't show" apparently is Grisham's guiding stylistic principle), and plot summaries that characterize most if not all of Grisham's work, in this case, the characters are even more banal and thinly-sketched than usual, while the plot is a hackneyed blackmail scenario married to a Grisham-version of "the Manchurian Candidate." Nor does Grisham provide any "good guys" to provide a narrative or psychological counterpoint to the three incarcerated judges whose blackmail scheme intersects with the CIA's own plan to employ illegal campaign financing and orchestrated overseas terrorism to elect a presidential candidate that will serve its own political ends: the only "heros" in this story are the hurriedly described, quickly-disposed of gay victims of the three blackmailers and an equally insubstantial, wrongly-imprisoned boat-builder. While the world may indeed be as grim as all that, Grisham's novels, lacking psychological depth or narrative complexity, must rely on the struggle between good and evil to sustain the reader's interest. In this case we have a mere catalogue of bad guys who behave badly, and a poorly-drawn,uninspired one at that.Indeed, one gets the impression that Grisham had no fun writing this novel and that, having contracted to produce a book a year, he is merely, and grimly "churning 'em out". This is a shame, because some of his work -- "The Runaway Jury," and "The Rainmaker," e.g. -- is actually not bad. Maybe the answer is to take his profits, buy out his contract and, following his characters' fantasies, remove himself to a Caribbean Island, where he can write what he wants, at his leisure.
Rating: 
Summary: What was the point?
Review: I read all of John Grisham's books and consider him one of the best authors of our time. However, on this one, I think he was not up to par. I could never really understand where he was going with this one. The story seemed to take you in a certain direction, then just drop you. The ending did not pull things together, nor did it make some kind of statement. I got the feeling at the end of this story that nothing had been resolved in the characters lives and we are just kind of left wondering what it was all about. Far from his best, but still better than many other authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring brethren
Review: If you want to lose time,you should read it.This book is horrible borig and primitive.The heroes are very artificial.The story is too long and has no main idea.The best thing you should do with te book is to throw it away before reading.
Rating:
Summary: The Brethren
Review: I found the storyline to be complicated and unbelieveable. I have read everything John Grisham has written and found this book to be a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Don't take us for a ride ......Please
Review: With 'The Brethren',John Grisham has touched an all time low as far as his novels are concerned,with a wafer thin story line grisham introduces a whole set of insignificant characters,the only purpose being to fill up the pages in the novel.Read the first two chapters and the last chapter,you won't miss anything and you won't even feel that you have missed any continuity,and the ending is absolutely ridiculous,its as if Grisham wanted to end this novel and thats why the contrived ending.Go back and read the first Grisham's first published novel 'The Firm' and read 'The Brethren',you will notice the absolute contrast,after reading this novel you will feel that 'The testament' was a classic.Is Grisham losing his touch or are we expecting a lot more from him..to be frank i don't know and i am not even interested in buying one more hardcover book of grisham,and finally one word to Grisham...'Don't take the fans for a ride' and don't make a wafer thin story line into some 400 pages odd ridiculous novel.
Rating:
Summary: Bad
Review: I felt insulted by this book. The characters were not fully developed, and the sense of drama, the legalese was starkly missing. Mr. Grisham seems rather inept in the political and electioneering process, and it shows.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best
Review: I love John Grisham and will read whatever he writes, but this book was a bit of a let down. It is always exciting reading Grisham books because he fills the pages with suspense and the ending often is a surprise, but in The Bretheren, I read the last pages and wondered where the twist was going to come in. It never did. I felt empty reading the last page and questioned where I went wrong. I didn't have much feeling for any of the characters and felt the ending was not typical Grisham quality. It appeared that in writing the book he got tired and then just ended it. I was disappointed but will always be a great fan of John Grisham and continue to await every new book.
Rating: 
Summary: Intoxicating
Review: The Brethren is a hard book to put down when you start flipping the pages, quite intoxicating and full of suspense with a rich harvest of characters. Would make a good movie with Danny DeVito as Trevor !
Rating:
Summary: Grisham let me down
Review: As a diehard Grisham fan I bought The Brethren soon as it hit the streets. I read it in two nights working the two interwoven plots, and figuring how Grisham would bring this together. It could not be as elemental as it appeared. It was. I should have realized when it started on page 9 instead of page 1 something was wrong. I got to the end, and threw the book in the trash. Grisham had something more important to do then write one of his usually fantastic endings. What a waste of genius
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time
Review: Brethren was a huge disappointment. Does this sound familiar: underacheiving, greedy lawyer who wants to escape to the islands? The ending was about as exciting as kissing your sister. Grisham needs to go back to being a lawyer. Or he needs to escape to the islands himself.
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