Nail-biting? My nails never looked better... (The Broker - John Grisham)

Member Name: Delicate_Orchid1

Product:	The Broker - John Grisham
Date:	25/04/06 (538 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good lead character, last 100 pages

Disadvantages: boring, long middle part that does not do much for the storyline

Imagine if you were put in a position where you know that pleading guilty to an offence that you did not commit and signing up to twenty years of jail is going to keep you safer and happier than remaining at large in the real world. This is the life of Joel Backman, a once powerful broker, who people believe has obtained secrets that could compromise the world's most sophisticated satellite surveillance system, JAM.

Backman is surprised when he is visited in jail and is informed that the outgoing President intends to grant him a pardon for the crime he has plead guilty to. Backman is suspicious of this development, but when he is put on the spot to make a decision, opts to take the pardon. Though acutely aware that something is not right about this pardon, nobody is aware that it comes as a result of the CIA exercising an enormous amount of pressure on the soon-to-be ex-President.

Backman is smuggled out of the country and halfway across the world to Italy and is given a new identity and a new name. Much to his amazement, Joel Backman is renamed Marco Lazzeri and has become an Italian national - even though the only words he knows are "spaghetti", "pizza" and "pasta".

Unbeknownst to Marco, the CIA intends to leak his location to the Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese and the Saudis at the same time - all of whom would like to uncover the secrets that he holds. The CIA's intent? To sit back and watch who will chase Marco down and kill him.

The story does sound promising, especially when reading the comments by the Daily Mail, the Independent and the Sun on the back of the cover that promise in turn "You have to know what happens next…" ; "A killer-combination of sheer story-telling nous and no-nonsense prose" and "nail-biting!". I simply could not agree with any of these comments once I embarked on this read that I wished I had never begun.

The story spans 465 pages, and it is not exaggerated when I say that I would have easily managed to edit at least 250 of those pages, cutting it down to somewhere between 200-250 pages of enjoyable material. Reading this latest installment of Grisham's was almost like watching paint dry. Sure, there was the mild excitement of why Backman was pardoned and there was the slight suspense of whether or not someone would hunt down and kill Backman - but there was a huge middle part of Backman's days in Italy that simply did not provide any excitement or enjoyment. Everything that happens in Italy happens in slow motion - perhaps a tribute to the laid-back Italian style of life?

Some have commented that this is part of the beautiful story-telling, but to be honest, I do not buy a Grisham novel or a novel with an exciting summary plot on its sleeve to then get pages and pages of a character lunching in different cities of Italy, exploring the sites and learning the beautiful Italian language. If I wanted to read this kind of story, I would buy a heavier book from an author known for such stories - not from an author who is known for writing spell-binding and gripping storylines. At the very least I would expect to be warned on the back of the book that I am embarking on a slightly tedious journey through Italy. But then again, this would probably would have dropped the number of sales by a considerable amount.

The characters in the storyline are mostly bland, though I did really enjoy the character of Joel Backman. I liked how the once powerful broker was suddenly put in a very humble place, having to struggle to save his life and having to do things he would have never done in the past. I liked how he transitioned back into this powerful character for a split second of a moment before having to go into hiding again. In many ways, he reminded me of a mix of Harrison Ford in "The Fugitive" or Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in "Series 24" - and I would only cast the former for this spectacular role due to his slight seniority.

In fact, "The Broker" struck me exactly as that - an ideal starting point for a movie script. I can see the story working on screen in an exciting way that did not work in the novel. In a film, I would spend maybe 20 minutes on the "setting of the scene", 20 minutes on the "journey through Italy" and the remaining time on what was sadly crammed into the last 100 odd pages of excitement in the story that actually kept my interest.

The last 100 or so pages are indeed brilliant, interesting, exciting and satisfying for the reader. But I simply cannot emphasise enough that to get to the tip of the iceberg, it is necessary to wade through pages and pages of junk. This is certainly not worth anyone's time. My recommendation? See if they do make a film out of this. That would be time better spent.


***Further information***

Arrow Books
Pages: 465
Price: £6.99 (new paperback)

Summary: More of an Italian travel guide than an entertaining read.