Review of The Associate - Novel by John Grisham

Yesterday, I had written a short post about what you are reading and had requested you to share with us whatever you might be reading. In that small post, I had informed you that I am currently reading two books; one is Gohn Grisham’s Novel ‘The Associate’ and the other one is Words of Freedom: Ideas of a nation by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s First Prime minister till 1964, until his death. The second book by Nehru is a collection of his famous speeches from 1920 till 1950s and I have just started. I think I will be taking little more time to read this book, though it is a small one, going little slow this time.

The first Book John Grisham’s Novel, ‘The Associate’, I have just managed to finish it. It is a little bulky book, of course not that big, but almost of 400 pages. It is about a lawyer, who has just passed from, rather graduated from Yale School of Law, who has been trapped by some dangerous elements of our society by blackmailing the lawyer with the threat that his past will be exposed in case he does not co-operate with the dickheads.

The Cover page of the Novel writes, “It’s a deadly game of blackmail. And, they are making him play.” The whole book is about how they make him play and how he manages to escape from there. Though the book is very intriguing and fascinating, I found its ending a rather dull and boring and our curiosity fades without giving us any answers about our excitement. The book is interesting to start and continue, but in the end, leads us nowhere and ends with dull climax. After reading the book, you feel quite dissatisfied at the ending and it feels as if John Grisham suddenly feels lazy to write.

The lawyer, who is a very brilliant one passes from Yale law School and is also an editor of Yale Law Journal decides in life that he serves the humanity being a paralegal and devotes his time in community work. His father, also a lawyer by profession from a small town, feels immensely proud when his son conveys his plan about future after graduating from law school. The father lawyer does not like Wall Street corporate lawyers who work for hours billing heavily to clients and giving up their all personal lives. He wants his son to have a busy but a practice of his own where he can decide when to work and when to rest. This is the plan but what happen afterwards, is more chilling at times and very interesting.

The boy, as he is a boy, has a colorful life in his school and colleges in addition to his good academics. Boozing, fagging, and sleeping with some hot girls are not that unusual at that time. Now, there is a special girl, with whom he has slept many times and has done everything a man and woman can do which is humanely possible. She has been described as a hot woman loving sex at anytime and in any place and many people, of course her classmates/students have slept with her is not a secret.

As so happens, one day, there is a party in this particular boy’s flat and the hot lady comes, smooches some boys, drinks, smokes and the process continues. Some boys/her classmates ride over her and she passes after the influence of alcohol. Some two boys have sex and this all will be recorded by some mobile camera by someone where our main protagonist, the lawyer is seen drinking but no clue about whether he had sex with that hot lady. Next day, the lady alleges rape and police starts investigation, but soon the matter is closed as the allegations do not hold much water. In the novel, the rape scene and allegations have been described as tale of five years back, and everyone forgets.

But, these people, who try to camouflage as FBI Agents do not forget this. After five years, the boy is forced to join a biggest law firm of New York City, and his job is try to steal the confidential information relating to one client and pass to the framers. If the boy does not cooperate, then, they threaten him that the case will resurface again, videos will be on net and the lady will be encouraged to freshly reconsider the rape charges. It may so happen that the boy will be exonerated by court but after strenuous media trial, bad publicity and may be rendered jobless even after holding him innocent. To keep that video secret, he agrees all the terms and conditions imposed on him, and start working. From here, the story is all about his meeting with these rogue elements frequently and finally the young lawyer takes FBI help to nab these miscreants. But, FBI fails and without any clue about who and why these elements were trying to trap this boy has no answer.

As I said earlier, though the story passes slowly and interestingly, at the last, it fails to meet readers’ expectations about the lead of these people. Keeping that part aside, the book overall is good and makes an average read.

You can visit to Grisham's Website Here
Read Time's Review which agrees with me.
John Grisham's Charming Novel About Nothing

Guardian's Review

Want to Buy, Visit Amazon.com