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yorugua1891 's review for:
The Racketeer
by John Grisham
"I know the identity of the murderer, and I know his motive."
It is really hard to rate this novel, because I experienced different feelings while reading it and the variance was wide. It started out pretty interesting, with the main character, Malcolm, telling us the story of why he is in prison and we soon find out he has some knowledge that can help him get out early in exchange for information on the murder of a federal judge. The set up definitely gave me high hopes for this to be a great book.
Then things started going a little awry, since the story slowed down and I felt like Grisham was actually repeating himself in order to make the novel longer. Every other chapter we would get an introduction that once again goes over the process by which Malcolm was going to get out of prison. I understand that it's the character's own narration, and this may have been occupying his thoughts, but do we really need to read this over and over?
Luckily, right before the middle of the book, things picked up considerably and I could not put the book down until I was done. There were some holes in the story line, and some of the logic is twisted to say the least, but I cannot deny that it is entertaining. I usually hate when authors use an unreliable narrator, and in this case there are plenty of indications that the description may apply to this book. But even with that fact hanging over my head, I have to say that the final result was mostly satisfying. Whether the narrator was really unreliable or not, you will have to find out for yourself, and there are also plenty of twists and turns for you to try to figure out.
It is really hard to rate this novel, because I experienced different feelings while reading it and the variance was wide. It started out pretty interesting, with the main character, Malcolm, telling us the story of why he is in prison and we soon find out he has some knowledge that can help him get out early in exchange for information on the murder of a federal judge. The set up definitely gave me high hopes for this to be a great book.
Then things started going a little awry, since the story slowed down and I felt like Grisham was actually repeating himself in order to make the novel longer. Every other chapter we would get an introduction that once again goes over the process by which Malcolm was going to get out of prison. I understand that it's the character's own narration, and this may have been occupying his thoughts, but do we really need to read this over and over?
Luckily, right before the middle of the book, things picked up considerably and I could not put the book down until I was done. There were some holes in the story line, and some of the logic is twisted to say the least, but I cannot deny that it is entertaining. I usually hate when authors use an unreliable narrator, and in this case there are plenty of indications that the description may apply to this book. But even with that fact hanging over my head, I have to say that the final result was mostly satisfying. Whether the narrator was really unreliable or not, you will have to find out for yourself, and there are also plenty of twists and turns for you to try to figure out.