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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
As a basketball fan, I really enjoyed Mr, Grisham’s descriptions of games and the development of the young South Sudanese ball player. The descriptions of all of the lives around him made this story even more rich. Prepare yourself for a real emotional roller coaster between Ugandan camps and mid-major east coast basketball!
For a long while, this book drags along like most of Mr. Grisham’s later books; like he phoned it in to his editor while drinking Mai tais on the beach in the Caymans, periodically receiving reports of how much his bank balance has increased.
There is a South Sudan basketball team that goes to the US and one of them ends up with a college scholarship while his family is driven into a refugee camp in Uganda. Blah, blah, blah, you would think we care about all this, but Mr. Grisham ‘s characters are so paper thin that we don’t, not in the slightest.
Sooley becomes a sensation when by sheer hard work he drives himself into the highest ranks of college players. Various descriptions of basketball games are…meah…mediocre at best.
Then with 9/10 of the book over, Mr. Grisham drops a bomb (read the book) and you’re like, “really dude? This is what you do with your main character?” It’s almost like he got to, that point in the book and the editor called him on the beach and reminded him that his manuscript was due in 48 hours. What can Mr. Grisham do but finish the book ASAP!! But how? Think “Where the Red Fern Grows.”
An awful, depressing, formulaic, terrible book that I did not like at all.
There is a South Sudan basketball team that goes to the US and one of them ends up with a college scholarship while his family is driven into a refugee camp in Uganda. Blah, blah, blah, you would think we care about all this, but Mr. Grisham ‘s characters are so paper thin that we don’t, not in the slightest.
Sooley becomes a sensation when by sheer hard work he drives himself into the highest ranks of college players. Various descriptions of basketball games are…meah…mediocre at best.
Then with 9/10 of the book over, Mr. Grisham drops a bomb (read the book) and you’re like, “really dude? This is what you do with your main character?” It’s almost like he got to, that point in the book and the editor called him on the beach and reminded him that his manuscript was due in 48 hours. What can Mr. Grisham do but finish the book ASAP!! But how? Think “Where the Red Fern Grows.”
An awful, depressing, formulaic, terrible book that I did not like at all.
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Wish I had known the story before I read it, found it so devastating.
3.5. Was going to give this a higher rating until I got to the plot twist and what seemed to me to be an abrupt ending. Liked both the basketball and non-basketball story lines.
9/10 I love JG as much as always.
This book really touched me & it wasn’t something I’d have picked for myself outside of the Author. Grisham continues to be one of the greatest story tellers of my time. Highly recommended for sports fans & basketball lovers alike.
A great story about the power of coming together.
This book really touched me & it wasn’t something I’d have picked for myself outside of the Author. Grisham continues to be one of the greatest story tellers of my time. Highly recommended for sports fans & basketball lovers alike.
A great story about the power of coming together.
This was my first John Grisham book and will likely be my last. I was extremely underwhelmed. Where to begin…
The premise sounded intriguing- a young man from South Sudan is given the opportunity to come to the U.S. to play basketball while his family is left behind to face the horrors of a civil war. I was expecting a story highlighting the culture shock an African immigrant would experience this situation, along with the agony of worrying for his family’s safety. The novel had very little of this. What did we get instead? Page after page of boring details of basketball games. This guy passes to this guy, this guy dribbles up the side, this guy scores this many points. Then if that’s not enough, we get more boring scenes of coaches discussing strategy and who should play and who should sit out. Seriously?!? There was an attempt to add a plot twist at the end to finally try to make the story interesting but it was too little too late.
Additionally, I was very unimpressed by Grisham’s writing style. How is he a best selling author? There is no beauty or eloquence to his words. No emotion. No heart. His writing is dry and dull. I’m absolutely baffled how he managed take such an interesting story idea and produce something so incredibly uninspiring.
The premise sounded intriguing- a young man from South Sudan is given the opportunity to come to the U.S. to play basketball while his family is left behind to face the horrors of a civil war. I was expecting a story highlighting the culture shock an African immigrant would experience this situation, along with the agony of worrying for his family’s safety. The novel had very little of this. What did we get instead? Page after page of boring details of basketball games. This guy passes to this guy, this guy dribbles up the side, this guy scores this many points. Then if that’s not enough, we get more boring scenes of coaches discussing strategy and who should play and who should sit out. Seriously?!? There was an attempt to add a plot twist at the end to finally try to make the story interesting but it was too little too late.
Additionally, I was very unimpressed by Grisham’s writing style. How is he a best selling author? There is no beauty or eloquence to his words. No emotion. No heart. His writing is dry and dull. I’m absolutely baffled how he managed take such an interesting story idea and produce something so incredibly uninspiring.
Basketball drama. Not my cup of tea, but Grisham always makes it good.