BACKGROUND
Anybody who was kicking around during the 90's was hit over the head with John Grisham. He was one of the biggest authors during the decade, and he was especially beloved by Hollywood given the string of book-to-film adaptions he had.
Now most of my "reading" includes pictures of robots, aliens, or ultra-rich orphans who battle evil with punching. I will, however, occasionally stray into the realm of the "word book". One of those times is when I'm traveling, especially by air. I have no idea when I actually bought The Street Lawyer, but I feel pretty confident this was one of those times. I also feel pretty confident that the flight was pretty quick, because I never read this thing at all.
I started cleaning out my bookcase a few months ago, and I found a number of books that I had never gotten around to reading. And, because my life is just that exciting, I decided to finally crack this bad boy open.
THE RUNDOWN
The story is similar to other Grisham novels ... only in that it involves a lawyer. The similarities pretty much end there.
The story resolves around a DC attorney named Michael Brock. We begin as some random homeless guy (called "Mister") waltzes in and takes a conference room full of attorneys hostage. When SWAT eventually puts a few rounds through Mister's head, the entire roomful of lawyers is saved. Brock, however, is deeply affected and decides to track down who this guy really was.
Once he learns about the plight of the homeless, he decides that he'll throw it all away and become a volunteer attorney/advocate for them. As a complete side story, he starts looking into Mister's past, and determines he may have been unlawfully evicted. After some research and digging, he ... you know what? I'm getting bored just writing this. Let's just say things happen that you won't care about, and we'll move on.
THE GOOD PARTS
It wasn't horrible. That's about the best thing I can say for this. I've tried to get through some dreadful books before, and this wasn't really one of them.
I guess Grisham also managed to make me somewhat care about minor, boring legal crap. Legal rules of eviction? Methods to ensure receipt of VA benefits? These are not exactly pulse-pounding subjects, and yet I was mildly interested in them as the story progressed.
THE CRAP PARTS
Most of Grisham's stories transcend the law. The Firm involves the mob. The Pelican Brief includes assassination, political corruption, and a crazy billionaire. The Chamber and A Time to Kill have the KKK. These are legal thrillers in the truest sense of the word. The law is a backdrop, but not the crucial element. You could have made those stories about journalists or cops and probably not lost a beat.
The Street Lawyer completely left the "thriller" part out of the "legal thriller." The story involves proving whether or not an eviction was legal. Seriously. That's it! While I'm sure an illegal eviction is horrible when it happens in real life, it's not exactly about to elicit a high speed chase.
The key "defendants"? They're all dead. There's a giant lawsuit planned, but none of the victims will likely get any money. Again, why should I care?
The other major plot point is that Brock gets the evidence by stealing a file from his old firm. This isn't a new concept, as The Firm had something similar. However, the lawyer in The Firm was concerned about getting killed. The lawyer in The Street Lawyer is trying to avoid getting disbarred and possible jail time. That's it! There's no bomb to defuse, no daughter who needs an operation, nothing. Just some rich lawyer in DC who may have to get another job and do some time FOR A CRIME HE COMMITTED! My apathy was palpable towards this guy.
FINAL JUDGEMENT
Grisham is pretty well-established as a bleeding-heart type, which is fine. He weaves anti-racisim, environmental concern, and opposition to the death penalty into his novels, and they still work. He's typically not too preachy - it's just an element of the story.
The Street Lawyer was apparently written after he was exposed to some homeless legal defense centers. The story is maybe a little more preachy than normal, but not so much that it's annoying. The bigger problem, though, is that Grisham forgot to actually write a plot.
Listen, the man's books aren't fine literature. My children aren't going to be reading these for a Fine Arts class, and no one is going to confuse these with Hemingway or Steinbeck. Still, they're amusing. I'm not going to mistake Captain America for Casablanca, but that doesn't mean Captain America was a bad movie. (Side note: it's pretty awesome!)
Grisham managed to leave the parts of the story that were uninteresting (the law) and took out the good stuff (the action or suspense). What's even more frustrating is that it didn't have to be like this. Are you telling me he couldn't mold a story where some homeless guy is being hunted down because he witnessed a crime, or he used to be a hitman, or something like that? When I read John Grisham, I have a certain expectation. This thing did NOT meet it.
Overall, I'm pretty ambivalent about this book. My suggestion would be don't bother to buy it, but if you're bored, and it's the only book around, it might be worth your time. That's probably about all I can say for it - it allows you to waste some time!
(Maybe they should put that quote on the cover for the next printing.)
Well, that's it for now. I know I'm behind schedule, so I'll try to get another post soon in order to catch up.
Later!
