Book review: The Rooster Bar

Why this book by John Grisham will make you want to read more of his work.

John Grisham is an acclaimed novelist. I’m just a rookie reader with the dreams of writing something truly meaningful some day. Still, I’ll go out on a limb and say that I haven’t enjoyed any of the few Grisham books that I’ve read, until this one. I haven’t read those many as well, to be frank. Just three – Rogue Lawyer, The Whistler, and Grey Mountain. Now, I know that I’d picked the worst ones of the lot. After all, Grisham has authored over 30 books, and I judged him at 3.

I started reading The Rooster Bar on a whim and it only took the first few pages to hook me on. Now that I’m done reading it, I can’t wait to move on to my next John Grisham book.

The story begins with Mark, Todd, Gordy, and Zola – four friends enrolled in a for-profit, not very reputable law school. As their last semester approaches, they feel burdened under a mountain of debt, almost a million dollars in total. Every year, there is a steady decrease in the number of students from their college who pass the bar exam (an exam that gives them the license to practice law); they soon start wondering about their own uncertain futures and bleak job opportunities. They wonder why were they even given the chance and funds to become lawyers.

In a dramatic turn of events very early on in the book, one of these friends uncovers a scam that duped thousands of unsuspecting students like them into borrowing large sums of money from the federal government with no possible hope of returning them. On paper, however, owning a for-profit law school and depending on the federal government’s lax policies on student debt was not a crime.

These friends work towards unearthing what had really gone on behind the scenes of not only their law school but seven others functioning the same way. The book takes you through a captivating rollercoaster ride as they avoid loan collectors, work at small bars for cash, and try to hustle their way through the vast maze of plaintiffs, criminals, judges, lawyers, fraudulent banks, and class action lawsuits.

The plot is beautifully crafted, the story intriguingly narrated, and the characters are full of depth, desperation, and passion to prove themselves.

What more would you want to read before this year ends!

If you have any feedback or suggestions for books that you want me to review, drop in a comment or send me an email!