I set foot in the library after more than 6 months and immediately realized why I had been feeling sort of lost these past few months. After working my way through the 5-6 magazines (called दिवाळी अंक in Marathi) purchased during Diwali, I was reading only the financial magazines and daily newspapers. Somewhere deep within I wasn’t happy and now I knew why.
The library seemed to have got a whole bunch of new books. I saw the next installment in Amish Tripathi’s Ramayan series. I had read his Scion Of Ikshvaku a couple of years back but suspect that I have forgotten most of the plot (I know it is a take on Ramayana, a story almost all Hindus know by heart. But there are a few twists which I am sure have gone out of my mind by now). This installment seems to be about Princess Sita. I was sorely tempted to reach for it but didn’t because to make sense of it I would have to again go through the first novel in the series. And then repeat the whole exercise when the next installment comes along in a few years. Better to wait and read everything in one go.
But John Grisham has always been a favorite. The plot outlined on the back cover seemed pretty interesting and though one of my new year resolutions is to read as many Marathi books as I possibly can, I decided to start slow. Maybe an English novel or two will do. Hence The Rooster Bar.
It’s probably safe to say that though the plot sounded interesting to begin with, I found it rather unconvincing. Who in their right mind would throw away all the work and toil of past semesters to chuck it all during the last one and head for the sure uncertainty and risk in practicing law without license or degree? I couldn’t find it in my heart to sympathize with Mark, Todd and Zola. The enterprise seemed doomed from the beginning and I wasn’t at all surprised when it all falls apart in the end. Well, sort of. But I also suspect that part of the reason why I felt the novel was such a letdown is because we all are used to the protagonists succeeding in their chosen endeavors – no matter how impossible the task, how insurmountable the difficulties and how hopeless the situation. Zola’s failure to secure any clients, the team’s mishandling of the medical malpractice case and their total ineptness, naivety, not to mention sheer stupidity in making it easy for the FBI to get on their tail made the story too close to real life. If it’s a fiction, it has to have that sliver, however thin, that separates it from reality. That sliver seemed practically non-existent here.
I am not sure if this is the first Grisham novel that I didn’t like. But I sure hope it’s the last.
The library seemed to have got a whole bunch of new books. I saw the next installment in Amish Tripathi’s Ramayan series. I had read his Scion Of Ikshvaku a couple of years back but suspect that I have forgotten most of the plot (I know it is a take on Ramayana, a story almost all Hindus know by heart. But there are a few twists which I am sure have gone out of my mind by now). This installment seems to be about Princess Sita. I was sorely tempted to reach for it but didn’t because to make sense of it I would have to again go through the first novel in the series. And then repeat the whole exercise when the next installment comes along in a few years. Better to wait and read everything in one go.
But John Grisham has always been a favorite. The plot outlined on the back cover seemed pretty interesting and though one of my new year resolutions is to read as many Marathi books as I possibly can, I decided to start slow. Maybe an English novel or two will do. Hence The Rooster Bar.
It’s probably safe to say that though the plot sounded interesting to begin with, I found it rather unconvincing. Who in their right mind would throw away all the work and toil of past semesters to chuck it all during the last one and head for the sure uncertainty and risk in practicing law without license or degree? I couldn’t find it in my heart to sympathize with Mark, Todd and Zola. The enterprise seemed doomed from the beginning and I wasn’t at all surprised when it all falls apart in the end. Well, sort of. But I also suspect that part of the reason why I felt the novel was such a letdown is because we all are used to the protagonists succeeding in their chosen endeavors – no matter how impossible the task, how insurmountable the difficulties and how hopeless the situation. Zola’s failure to secure any clients, the team’s mishandling of the medical malpractice case and their total ineptness, naivety, not to mention sheer stupidity in making it easy for the FBI to get on their tail made the story too close to real life. If it’s a fiction, it has to have that sliver, however thin, that separates it from reality. That sliver seemed practically non-existent here.
I am not sure if this is the first Grisham novel that I didn’t like. But I sure hope it’s the last.
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