The Street Lawyer

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Summary: The Street Lawyer
Review: Once again we see a lawyer who is about to make a lot of money but all of a sudden finds a truckload of trouble. Michael Brock is on his way to partnership in a huge DC firm but gets a little compassionate and takes a big paycut, a divorce, smaller apartment and everything that goes along with taking a 90k cut in his annual income. He goes into DC's worst streets to help the homeless and the poor in general. The novel overall is good, giving us a view of the homeless, but is a bit extensive with the confidential file. Great book but not near the caliber of "The Partner" or "The Firm".

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Summary: Not Grisham's Best
Review: I found the book quite boring and repeditive. Grisham writes books containing secretive backrooms where mysteries are revealed, a crook that's brought to justice by a nothing lawyer, and of course, a beautiful, long-legged woman in distress.

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Summary: Thought-provoking but too much details
Review: This is the second novel I've read by Grisham and this one was not a page-turner at all. Pages and pages of details that could've been omitted . . . the only thing that did was to make you think about the plight of homeless people. The Partner, on the contrary, was a much better novel. . . better storyline and better plot at a much faster pace. You won't wanna sleep until you're at the last page. I recommend that one instead.

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Summary: Entertaining but not his best work
Review: While I'm a big fan of Grisham, I must say that the last couple of his books that I've read (the Partner & this book) have not been up to the level of his earlier works. While this novel was an entertaining read it lacked the suspense and thrills of his other books. I appreciate his efforts at bringing to life the problems of homelessness in our society but at times the book felt rather preachy at the expense of the story and characters. After a great first chapter, the novel just never really goes anywhere. Still though, there's enough conflict between the street lawyer and his old firm to keep the book entertaining enough to finish.

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Summary: Amusing but trivial
Review: Just because a novel is about an important topic does not make it a good book. "The Street Lawyer" is fun to read, and it goes by very fast, but it's not a great piece of literature, even for Grisham, who can be charitably called the Clive Cussler of lawyer novelists. The characters were both flat and uninspired, and the story lacked any "oomph." Homelessness is a huge problem, here in DC and elsewhere, but don't just read a bestselling novel and say "well, now I know about this, the world is a better place." Go out and do something! Volunteer at a shelter or soup kitchen, offer someone a job, make yourself usefull !

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Summary: At the beginning didn't you kind of wish that the homeless
Review: vet would actually kill all the lawyers. I generally agree with the customer reviews I read below. Formulaic, breezy -- the two words that come to mind. I was esp. impressed by Grisham both criticizing a) the lack of affordable housing and b) criticizing the gov't for not enforcing minimum housing regulations. It takes an ignorant lawyer not to realize that regulations beget housing shortages. And it takes a lawyer to think that starting lawsuits is the way to house people.

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Summary: The Street Lawyer, an epic novel
Review: This is the best book I've every read. It displays Grishams intellect and pure skill in writing. This is a must have, the best book ever written.

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Summary: Jaw droppingly bad
Review: The literally equivalent of elevator muzak or the dreaded Kenny G. Pious concern for the homeless can't disguise the fact that this is not worth the effort required to lift it from the library shelf, let alone part with money for the thing. Appalling.

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Summary: THE TYPICAL GRISHAM FORMULA
Review: With the interesting twist of championing the rights of the homeless, this is the standard Grisham novel. Young lawyer suddenly becomes disenchanted with the law and decides to trade in his riches and fame for moralistic reasons. I used to think Grisham was capable of much more than that. Maybe he should write a book about a talented author with a commercially successful formula who decides to write something original, and not cash in on a 'paint by numbers' writing formula.

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Summary: JOHN, THEY KEEP GETTING WORSE!
Review: John Grisham has a great gift for creating page-turning chapters. Unfortunately, they do not become page-turning books. This book is bad on sooooo many levels, I don't know where to begin. The unsympathetic characters, the story line that ends up going nowhere, or the self-indulgent, preachy plot. And while we're on the subject of self-indulgent and preachy -- if I hear one more millionaire rail against the evils of money, I may upchuck.