Book Review: The Rooster Bar, A New Novel from John Grisham

I recently finished reading the latest novel from John Grisham, The Rooster Bar, and I must admit to being somewhat disappointed. Grisham is one of my favorite authors and I’m pretty sure, I haven’t missed one of his novels yet. I was anxious to read this one and completed it in less than a week.

Grisham, in my opinion, is a great storyteller. His narration is solid and his stories tend to be fast paced and compelling. Somewhere around high school I gave up my dreams of becoming a lawyer, but I love movies and books about the law. Grisham handles the legal aspects well without slowing down the story and I would highly recommend him to anyone not familiar with this work.

In The Rooster Bar, the author introduces us to three young law students with an interesting problem. Lured by the promise of a lucrative career in the legal profession, Mark, Todd, and Zola have spent their last several years attending a “third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar, let alone get good jobs.” Deep in debt with no future prospects, the friends begin taking desperate measures to escape the situation.

I won’t go into the details and spoil the story, but it is an interesting ride with the usual twists and turns one would expect from Grisham, a master of the legal thriller genre. My disappointment comes from what I would consider a lack of sympathetic characters. I want to pull for Mark and Todd and Zola, but I can’t quite ever get past the idea that they are the victims of their own bad choices. Sure, the law school is run by a corrupt billionaire exploiting the system, but does that justify all the other poor decisions the three pile up in response?

Another problem I have is with a subplot involving illegal immigration. I don’t mind contemporary works bringing in current issues and events, but the liberal leaning rubbed me the wrong way. Of course, when your protagonists are running around committing illegal acts throughout the book, why should a little illegal immigration on the side bother anyone?

Finally, I didn’t like the ending. Only my opinion, of course, but it felt rushed and abrupt. There was a lot left unresolved and up in the air, and I was left with plenty of questions. In conclusion, I will say that I liked the book, but I would not consider it one of Grisham’s best. (My two favorites are still The Testament and The Rainmaker. And Bleachers, if you want to include a non-legal novel.)