The Testament

Rating:
Summary: Different
Review: The Testament was quite a change from Grisham's usual tales of courtroom drama and legal wrangling. There's some of that here, but most of the book is devoted to a South American travelogue that at first appears to be a subplot, but which turns out to be the main plot. The book is not any worse than Grisham's "more traditional" works, but it is a bit different, and I did not enjoy it as much.

Rating:
Summary: GO JOHN, GO!
Review: I love to see Mr. Grisham writing about incidents outside of the courtroom. I enjoyed the trip to South America a lot. I felt like I was down there with him. He described it so well. The plot was so good and I loved the ending. He did a great job of describing the greedy little relatives in the story. It made you really hate them. Please write more books like The Brethren and The Testament.

Rating:
Summary: Not the Usual Grisham
Review: John Grisham is one of my favorite authors. This story is slow moving and has little intrigue. It is more about a trip through the jungle than a legal thriller.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time or money
Review: This must have been an IOU book. That is, Grisham owed his publisher a book and threw this one at them to meet a deadline. The story starts out interestingly enough, but come to a screeching halt about 30 pages in. It goes absolutely nowhere.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Read
Review: While I'm not a huge Grisham fan, I do read his stuff once in awhile, and I would strongly recommend this book for all of you who are not die-hard followers. Grisham's ability to convey the intricate and complex manueverings of the legal system to the average lay person has been a staple of his work. This time, however, he takes us on a journey to the remote Amazon forests of Brazil, with a tired, alcoholic lawyer looking for the sole beneficiary to the will of multi-biilionaire Troy Phelan, leaving her (alone) 11 billion dollars. Grisham's best ability is to convey the personal, usually selfish and greedy nature of people, and this book doesn't fail, because Phelan's loser kids all want a piece of the pie, too. What ensues is one lawyer's struggle to find the girl, which then becomes his own personal stuggle, and the standard (but very enjoyable)legal wranglings of the Phelan clan's fight for the money, A solid read, and compelling, as well.

Rating:
Summary: read the first half then stop
Review: I couldn't put it down until the stereotypes emerged in full form. I liked Nate at first and laughed at his foolerly. Then the author told us it was time to take Nate seriosly... The organic development of this character expired and one is force-fed his 'rehabilitation.'

Rating:
Summary: What can I say...
Review: John Grisham books are the Denny's restaurants of the literary world...you always know what you are going to get! That's not necessarily a bad thing though. I enjoyed the quick, no brainer read that The Testament provided. (It was almost as easy as watching television). It's a good, sturdy read to pass the time between more strenous selections.

Rating:
Summary: What a waste of time!
Review: All right, so maybe I should have not read this book as I am obviously not the author's target market but I was curious and serves me right. No offense meant for the writer who just found a gold mine writing this type of books (he might be very good, but we'll never find out...) but this is empy "toilette-reading" that competes with the likes of Playboy which, at least, does not pretend to be any more than it is.

The story was not only boring but soooo empty of meaning. The only value added I see in this book is the opportunity it gives us to practice our reading ability.

Rating:
Summary: A Biased View of Brazil
Review: This is the second Grisham book I read. It is an entertaining page-turner, but as a Brazilian, I was set back by Grisham's inaccurate, sensationalist and rather prejudiced portrait of Brazil. He makes "Pantanal", which is where most of the story takes place, seems like hell. Pantanal is the Portuguese word for swamp and it is also a beautiful ecological sanctuary. Okay, "The Testament" is fiction, but too much exaggeration makes the story loose credibility. I also thought that the end could have been better elaborated. He builds up a good suspense, but he lets the reader down in the end. If you are a big Grisham fan,the book is still worth reading despite its shortcomings. If not, I would recommend picking another book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: For those of you who were once John Grisham fans but find his stories getting stale, I recommend switching to books on tape, which I have. On tape, the tale is streamlined down to the basic necessities of the plot and things move quickly and keep me interested.

I found the development of Nate O'Reilly's character to be interesting and though I'm no holy-roller myself, I was happy for his transformation in the end and, like him, I was in awe of Rachel.

As always, Grisham delivers a satisfying ending. The bad guys don't always get harsh punishment (but they don't walk away ecstatic, either) and the good guys don't have everything happen exactly as they would have liked (but they are content).