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rembrandt1881 's review for:
The Brethren
by John Grisham
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This might be one of the most cynical and silly novels I've ever read. Grisham is known for his pulpy legal thrillers and sense isn't always the thing that you're going to get and unfortunately in this book a lot of it gets tossed out of the window at random times and I'm not sure why.
Sometimes when characters are done well, you can see how some logic can be ignored. The characters in The Brethren aren't that. Everyone is so cynical and self serving... But only to a point. The most obvious and simple solution to the main problem in this novel is ignored as being 'too complicated' but avoiding it is way more difficult, involves way more people and is just silly.
Okay here are the spoilers because to me, this one has to be put out there. If you're a reader like me, it might help you to avoid this. For others they might not care about plot spoilers if the characters are worth it, but they're not. The only real solution is to kill the judges, the brethren. You have the CIA director who is manipulating an election, allowing an embassy to be bombed to get military funding and three judges who ensnare his chosen candidate with a blackmail scheme about his sexuality. It would be too easy to transfer them to different prisons and lock them in the hole or just kill them. They have the scantest piece of evidence at one point and could be easily destroyed or debunked. For all of the power this character has, trying to figure out the scam is pointless.
The lawyer on the outside who gets brought in my the CIA after the catch the scam, then double crossed them and doesn't follow through. There is no good reason why he does this. Then he ends up dead. Not a faked death so he can live his life. He hasn't escaped two sides that would both get him hurt. He just gets killed. It's annoying. It's loathsome. It's poor writing.
They do so much work to figure out how the scam works to let the judges go, it they kill the one accomplice outside of the jail and the guy still gets elected on a single issue but the real criminals get away. There is no lesson. There is only cynicism. And the book is pretty long but it's just a lot of meandering that comes to nothing .
Sometimes when characters are done well, you can see how some logic can be ignored. The characters in The Brethren aren't that. Everyone is so cynical and self serving... But only to a point. The most obvious and simple solution to the main problem in this novel is ignored as being 'too complicated' but avoiding it is way more difficult, involves way more people and is just silly.
The lawyer on the outside who gets brought in my the CIA after the catch the scam, then double crossed them and doesn't follow through. There is no good reason why he does this. Then he ends up dead. Not a faked death so he can live his life. He hasn't escaped two sides that would both get him hurt. He just gets killed. It's annoying. It's loathsome. It's poor writing.
They do so much work to figure out how the scam works to let the judges go, it they kill the one accomplice outside of the jail and the guy still gets elected on a single issue but the real criminals get away. There is no lesson. There is only cynicism. And the book is pretty long but it's just a lot of meandering that comes to nothing