Books: The Appeal by John Grisham

In the hyper-reality world that John Grisham usually portrays in his legal thrillers, most (if not all) lawyers are crooked, evil and only care about money. Even in his Author’s Note in The Appeal, Grisham defends his home state of Mississippi, but does say there is a “lot of truth” in his story about how to rig an election. The blow-by-blow account sounds sadly way to real, and could make someone like me further question politics on both sides of coin.

And while, in typical Grisham fashion, his characters are all stick figures, his talents lay in creating a plausible story of corruption at the heart of the American judicial system. He lays out how easily, it seems, Americans can be duped into supporting candidates without really understanding -or even caring - what they truly stand for. All it takes, it seems is just throw out a few fear inducing ideology Easter eggs like gay marriage, gun control and the death penalty (which Grisham writes is ironic that the ones on the Right, who fight abortion, will also be the first to support the death penalty) and people ignore that maybe, just maybe, their candidates rise to power has nothing to do with up holding the Constitution, but to be in the pockets of people who have way too much money and time on their hands.

The Appeal is Grishman’s best book in years and gets the sour taste left out of my ,mouth by the atrocious Playing for Pizza.

Books: Playing For Pizza

Leaving the courtroom for the football field, John Grisham gives us Playing for Pizza, where we meet Cleveland Browns third-string quarterback Rick Dockery, who is lying in his hospital bed unconscious from a severe concussion. Rick, it seems, took the field at the end of an all-but-sewn-up game that would have propelled the long-suffering Browns into the Super Bowl. With Cleveland about to go bonkers, Rick throws three interceptions in the final quarter – the last resulting in the massive hit that sends him to the hospital and gives the game-winning touchdown to the Denver Broncos.

With his career at the crossroads, his agent decides a year out of the country may help Dockery. He sets him up in Italy, as the quarterback for the Parma Panthers -thus the novel already a football story, becomes a fish-out-of-water tale as well.

I had some huge problems with this book, as the many hallmarks of his - the tightly written, page turning scenes - where dropped for an almost parody take on those a Silhouette romance novels. It's that light and airy.

Plus, while this is suppose to be a football book, it resembles more part Tuscan Under the Sun style look at Italy, plus a culinary dictionary from the Food Network, and Frommer's travel guide to the country.

I'm unsure what Grisham was trying to do here, after all, I did enjoy is non-thriller novel The Painted House. I finished because I had too, but find it lacking in every regard.

poop.