Shades of Donna Tartt’s Secret History, The Rooster Bar is John Grisham’s take on late aged college students playing truant, except Grisham takes his students to a higher leveled story. One where you end up cheering for the underdog and hoping they get away with it.
The Rooster Bar
John Grisham
Synopsis
[ Source: GoodReads ]
Mark, Todd, and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three know they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam.
But maybe there’s a way out. Maybe there’s a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process. But to do so, they would first have to quit school. And leaving law school a few short months before graduation would be completely crazy, right? Well, yes and no . . .
Pull up a stool, grab a cold one, and get ready to spend some time at The Rooster Bar.
Richard’s comments
If John Grisham rewrote a menu, it likely would be an entertaining read. He’s that good and as of yet, has not farmed out the drudgery of writing the foundation of his creations. He still writes his own stuff totally and it makes one appreciate the author’s authenticity and independence.
The Rooster Bar is light reading at best and even then, it isn’t Grisham at his finest. Yet, even a lesser quality level, Grisham outshines almost every current writer, for certain any who write legal/court room pieces.
This one is about a trio of law students studying at a dump of a law school, a cash register academia for law students. Turns out there’s a big scam behind the school and the trio set out to explode it after one of the closest buddies commits suicide over his debt and depression as an enrollee.
The circuitous strategies, frauds and scams the trio devises in order to expose the school becomes a convoluted trail of well written good reading fun.
The book is slow in parts because of the intricacies of the trio’s schemes but once caught up with the story and as the climax nears, the book becomes a page turner and becomes suspenseful and very enjoyable.
No less than a 3 1/2 stars
