The Summons

Rating:
Summary: I Couldn't Put This Book Down. It Kept Me Curious.
Review: The first Grisham Novel I read was "A Painted House", and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminded me of my childhood, dreaming of one day playing professional baseball. Before reading "The Summons", I asked my parents, who are avid readers, what they thought of this one. My mother read it twice and my father
told me I wouldn't be able to stop reading it once I started.
He was right. I plowed through The Summons in five hours flat,
which made the time fly by while I was at my quiet uneventful job. Grisham makes you want more, and he does so by lengthening the story to the point of driving you crazy with curiosity.
His mention of certain characters who loved the greasy southern food, like fried egg on a hamburger, made me feel southern, which I'm not. But living in Memphis, I understood what he meant. His use of words made things very simple to understand.
The only time I felt the need to move on with the story was
after reading enough of Patton French, which continued a little more than it should have, but it's a very important part of the book, not to be overlooked. I highly recommend The Summons.
You won't be disappointed!

Rating:
Summary: Can't I give it zero stars?
Review: I usually like John Grisham's works- funny, complex characters, page-turner, etc. But this book was so anti-climactic and the characters never really seemed real or interesting. At the last page, I turned to the next page not realzing that the book was over. That's bad. It's not that I felt like putting it down, but after it was over, I was like "ok". Read this book if you want, but it's far from great- had this been a new author, it might have gotten two stars, as the author would have had promise, but for John Grisham, it's a total let-down, especially considering he hasn't written a legal thriller in a few years. And by the way, this really isn't a legal thriller either, so to let you know.

Rating:
Summary: S P A C E, T H E F I N A L F R O N TI ER
Review: The

Summons

by

John

Grisham

isn't

as

long

as

it

looks.

Rating:
Summary: A return to the real John Grisham
Review: This one will take you back to the likes of "The Firm" & "The Client." Gave me renewed faith after the pathetic "The Brethren," "The Painted House" and "Skipping Christmas." I keep reading Grisham despite the recent track record, hoping his talent will return. It has with "The Summons." Ray Atlee and Forrest are characters to believe. Life isn't sweet or trite for either of these guys. Eccentric Dad and a hidden $3mm make for interesting games among the brothers. But in the end...who knew! That's what kept me reading...and it was well worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: Relativity
Review: Everything is relative. A less than full effort Grisham "legal thriller" is still better than many other writers' best effort. We have come to expect more from Grisham - and don't get it this time. There isn't a whole lot of legal wrangling going on, nor is there the thrill ride of his earlier works.

As some previous reviewers have said, there are errors of law and fact. I, too, kept thinking - "Hey! Save stress! Stash the cash in a domestic Safe Deposit Box or Swiss Bank while figuring out 'the rest of the story!'"

"The Summons" has its moments - but overall, it's a mediocre effort. Worst of all, we get an ending with no end. The fat lady never sang. If you are a huge Grisham fan, you have doubtless already rushed to buy this book. If you haven't purchased it yet, I recommend that you wait for a library copy and spend the money on a couple of his earlier paperbacks instead.

Rating:
Summary: The Summons
Review: Unbelievable!! Absolutely unbelievable!!

I can't even begin to express my disappointment with this book. Grisham has always been a master storyteller, and this book contains shades of that ability. However, there is no substance whatsoever.

As I was reading, I decided that I wanted to find out to whom this less than inspiring piece of work had been dedicated. Guess what, it hadn't been. Several of his recent works, most of which have been disappointing relative to his earlier works, have not been dedicated to anyone. Hmmmm....

Another thing that I noticed was that this book contained absolutely no acknowledgements. Could this be because it is so light, fluffy, and lacking of substance that there was no research done? His earlier, and much better, works do contain acknowledgements. While still light reading, those works at least had a little bit of substance to them. Those books could actually be considered a legal "thriller".

This book only took me a few hours to read. Quite honestly, I can't believe that this book is written at more than a 7th grade reading level (no offense meant to 7th graders!!).

Mr. Grisham is most certainly taking full advantage of the fact that anything he puts his name on instantly becomes a best seller. This, along with his last few "legal thrillers", have been very disappointing.

Truly, an incredibly lazy effort by Mr. Grisham!!

Rating:
Summary: An attempt to portray Raskolnikov?
Review: I had high expectations as I began this book. I figured I would find an interesting plot, an entertaining style, making some moral point about the legal profession without being dry about it. The entertaining style is very much there, but the plot falls short. Shortly before Judge Reuben Atlee dies, his two sons, Ray and Forrest, are summoned to his home, where Ray finds $3 million in cash. The mystery of where it came from is secondary to what Ray goes through as he tries to hide and protect the money. I was reminded of Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, in which the entire plot is Raskolnikov kills someone, then tortures himself with worry and guilt for the remaining 900 or so pages. Grisham is no Dostoevsky, and perhaps he should stick to what he does best, writing action-filled legal thrillers.

It would be more fair to compare this book with other popular fiction. Even if it is somewhat disappointing compared to some of Grisham's other books (my favorite was The Pelican Brief), it is a good, interesting read. Well worth the few short hours it took to read it.

Rating:
Summary: Plus/Minus
Review: Grisham's writing continues to improve, especially in the area of character development, however the resolution of this plot is not very satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointed
Review: I have read almost all of Grisham's books and really enjoyed them. The Summons was so slow and never really got started.
I stayed with it thinking it had to get better. It didn't.
The characters were weak and the plot didn't have much to offer.
I ended up skipping parts because they were so boring. As I turned the last page, all I could think was what a waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: Just glad to have a new Grisham book to read!
Review: Count me in with all the other disappointed Grisham fans. He is still a master storyteller. But if he wants to continue writing good stories, (and I pray he does!), Grisham needs to challenge himself a bit-maybe he could place his main character in a different setting (outside the south at least!) and spice it up with a bit of violence (ala Pelican Brief...was that his only true page-turner, characters-on-the-run thriller?) Are there any other authors writing good legal thrillers these days? I feel as though I've gone through all of the good and not so good ones (and there sure are a lot of Grishamwannabees out there who have no idea how to set up a scene and dialogue). John Grisham: please get inspired and write another Pelican Brief type thriller!