I really enjoyed this. I had grown tired of the Grisham formula for awhile- and this book is enough of a departure that I did find it entertaining

One of his best since the firm! Highly reccomended. Great twists and turns

I think this is one of Grisham's best. Not a "lawyer" book. Reads really fast.

The main character engenders no sympathy at all. When he gets his just desserts, I could not care less. Not up to the standards of The Firm or The Client!

Certainly not as good as some of Grisham's earlier works, but not the worst either. Like most Grisham novels, best suited for a long trip. The plot stalls quite a bit in the middle (you get about as frustrated as the main character does with the frequent language tutoring scenes), but does pick up at the end. Good premise, mixed execution.

One of Grisham's best works. A story of a man on top, a man broken and removed from his ivory tower. A story of a man deciding to fight back, using his skills at what he does best, to vanquish his opponents and once again prove to himself and the world, he is the master "broker" of deals.

Another exciting read from John Grisham. Our protagonist is on the run from EVERYBODY in this one. Lots of plot twists.

Very good book. Very good Grisham. More like his older stuff than some of the other "recent" books by him.

I love Grisham and his way of writing especially this book.

I couldn't predict the outcomes during the start, middle or end of the book which excites me to enjoy and finish the book. Unpredictable style is classic of Grisham and this I think will someday be a real classic.

Very much enjoyed the whole book!

I really enjoyed this one! once you start reading it you just can't put it down.

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Another fast read from John Grisham!!!

In his final hours in office, the outgoing President grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. What no one knows is that the President issues the pardon only after receiving enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems Backman, in his pwer broker heyday, may have obtained secrets that compromise the world's most sophisticated satellite surveillance system. Backman is quietly smuggled out of the country in a military cargo plane, given a new name, a new identity, and a new home in Italy. Eventually, after he has settled into his new life, the CIA will leak his whereabouts to the Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Saudis. Then the CIA will do what it does best" sit back and watch. The question is not whether backman will survive-there is no chance of that. The question the CIA needs answered is, who will kill him?

Very good book hard to get started but once you do and it a page turner like all of Grishams the ending is VERY different then I had guessed. Different then his other books not at legal but touches on the legal system but a very good addition

Typical John Grisham book.

By JANET MASLIN
The New york Times
Published: January 10, 2005

Birds sing. Fish swim. John Grisham dreams up thriller plots that begin at full throttle, then move through their early stages in a series of flying leaps. For Mr. Grisham, who is now on his 18th novel, this style of jump-starting a story is part of the natural order of things.


So off goes "The Broker," starting with a partisan swipe at a lame duck in the White House. "In the waning hours of a presidency that was destined to arouse less interest from historians than any since perhaps that of William Henry Harrison (31 days from inauguration to death)," the book begins, a president named Arthur Morgan is cashing in.

"How sad that after four tumultuous years of leading the free world it would all fizzle into one miserable pile of requests from a bunch of crooks," Mr. Grisham writes scornfully. But President Morgan is strapped for cash, so he is ready to sell those crooks some high-priced pardons.

Cut to the federal prison where Joel Backman, former wheeler-dealer, has spent six years in solitary confinement. Backman embodies everything that Mr. Grisham currently chooses to detest. He is a former power broker (see title): "He'd been the epitome of money and power, the perfect fat cat who could bully and cajole and throw around enough money to get whatever he wanted."

Worst of all in Mr. Grisham's eyes, Backman was an embarrassment to his profession. The firm that he founded "was a lobbying machine, not a place where real lawyers practiced their craft," the book explains. "More like a bordello for rich companies and foreign governments." In other words, the world is a better place with Backman behind bars.

But along come a couple of mysterious operatives. They plan to spirit Backman into a new life, 14 years ahead of schedule. They sneak him out of prison, put him in an Army jumpsuit and load him onto a cargo plane, destination unknown. Quicker than you can say "Buon giorno, Marco," Backman has been handed a new identity in sunny Italy. All he need do is follow strict orders on how not to resemble an American. "No shorts, no black socks and white sneakers, no polyester slacks, no golf shirts," he is told, "and please don't start getting fat."

From now on the broker's responsibilities will be as follows: He must lounge in cafes. He must enjoy the espresso. He must learn to ask for "panino prosciutto e formaggio" when he wants a ham-and-cheese sandwich. He must savor Italian cuisine, architecture, history and joie de vivre. Backman has effectively died, been reborn as Marco Lazzeri- "that's you, pal, a full-blown Italian now" - and gone to tourist heaven.

As Marco studies Italian, he learns to distinguish tortellini from tortelloni, and to ask "Dov'é suo marito?" ("Where is your husband?") of the beautiful Italian tutor who has been hired to help him. He walks around with surveillance equipment hidden in his shoe, but this is the only minor residue of the book's original setup. What is the Italian word for plot? Marco doesn't need to know it and you don't either. Once it hits its first picturesque little piazza, "The Broker" has effectively gone fishing.

Mr. Grisham points out that he gained 10 pounds while doing the grueling research for this story. "I adore Italy and all things Italian," he writes in an author's note, "and I have to confess that I was not blindfolded when I threw the dart." Hardly. He was in the mood for an Italian idyll, and he presents the reader with a vicarious equivalent of that pleasure. Even the cover art for "The Broker," the blurry image of a man running past a row of classical arches, is more redolent of a postcard than of an action story.

It's certainly Mr. Grisham's prerogative to try new things, and to make his own personal escape from the thriller format. But "The Broker" switches gears so drastically that it seems to be two separate novels in a single binding. The same kind of contradiction applies to Backman: he is supposed to be the embodiment of corruption, and the book jacket promises that the C.I.A. will engineer his demise. "The question is not whether Backman will survive - there is no chance of that," says the jacket copy.

But Backman is happily admiring his grandchild at the end of the story. And reports of the broker's odiousness are greatly exaggerated. Actually, Backman makes a companionable figure, if a completely inconsistent one, in ways that make nonsense of the novel's moral distinctions. Even if scales fall from the broker's eyes and allow him to see the error of his former ways, this guy's wicked side is seriously unconvincing. And by the finale, when Mr. Grisham halfheartedly returns to the intrigue plot to throw one final whammy, the reader has long since begun rooting for Grandpa Backman's new lease on life.

While "The Broker" might uncharitably be described as lazy - especially in comparison with its immediate predecessor, "The Last Juror," one of Mr. Grisham's best - it is also notably relaxed. Yes, it falls hard for stereotypical distinctions between Italians (happy, sensual, steeped in history) and Americans (scowling, hurried, crass). And it demonstrates that Mr. Grisham can barely do Crichton Lite (the cloak-and-dagger part involves encrypted e-mail messages and a spy satellite), let alone offer any semblance of Alan Furst's richly atmospheric view of Americans abroad. But "The Broker" is a novel for, by and about somebody taking a vacation. Birds sing. Fish swim. Armchair travelers like a getaway even if they can't leave home.

good read

good book. I recommend it to other people.

Very intense, keeps you on your toes, very quick read!!!! Loved it!

read the book 2 times not lot of action, but lots 1ntrigue
Dave

My parents really like John Grisham. Although my dad did mention that it takes Grisham 300 pages to set up the situation and 10 pages to solve the crime. Now that they're finished reading all of his books, they are now going on to James Patterson.

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