Book Review of John Grisham's Sycamore Row
Let me begin my review of
Sycamore Row by stating that I am a big fan of John Grisham,
devouring nearly book he's ever written. Sadly, this wasn't the case
with Sycamore Row
I think I would be remiss as
a reviewer if I failed to express when something didn't meet my
expectations. Given the fact that John Grisham penned this book, I
had high hopes going in. Unlike other authors, I judge Grisham's
books based on my opinions of his other work (which has been almost
exclusively good). If I were to hold Sycamore Row up to
novels written by other authors, I wouldn't have been nearly as
disappointed.
Sycamore Row is
sometimes described as a sequel to Grisham's A Time to Kill
Like
A Time to Kill, Sycamore Row is
a courtroom drama involving a lawyer named Jake Brigance. The story
opens with a very intriguing look into the suicide of Seth Hubbard, a
wealthy man who, at the last minute, cuts his family out of his will
and gives his fortune to his African American housekeeper. Thus
begins a very heated court battle. Unfortunately, the plot line
fizzles out from there, at least in my mind.
One
of the things I admire most about John Grisham is that he takes on
the issue of racial discrimination in many of his novels
http://www.jgrisham.com/
I
appreciate that Grisham is able to make a point about social
injustice without getting too preachy. However, some of that was
lost on me in Sycamore Row
because I thought the plot moved too slowly.
If
anyone but John Grisham had written Sycamore Row,
it probably would have garnered a higher rating on my GoodReads Page.
However, because I think so highly of Grisham's writing, I'm only
going to award Sycamore Row
two stars because I just didn't think it stacked up to his other
work.
Ending
on a happy note, I'm looking forward to reading what Grisham comes up
with next!
Comments
Post a Comment