The Partner | John Grisham | Grisham at the top of his form

The Partner | John Grisham | The dark side of Grisham

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The Partner

	The Partner John Grisham Delta, 2005 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 890 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Grisham at the top of his form

Sometimes I wonder if other reviewers read a different book from the one I did. "The Partner" is a case in point. In my view this is one of Grisham's best, and I've not always been pleased with his novels, e.g., "The King of Torts."

The plot of "Partner" had enough satisfying twists to hold my interest, to keep me reading very late into the night. A seemingly impossible situation has been created for the protagonist, his female counterpart and the lawyer/friend who represents the central character. Ninety million dollars has been stolen and the thief has decamped to Brazil, only to be caught years later and brought back to America. There is a dead body in a burned out vehicle, so the thief is charged not only with theft but murder. The trap for him has no apparent escape hatch. Ah, but that is the crux of the story.

The characters are many and varied. Grisham, a lawyer, apparently has little regard for his profession. Most of the attorneys here would sell their grandmother down the river for a little gold and glory. Still, there is considerable empathy for the central characters.

The atmosphere includes Brazil, Mississippi's coast cities, with a few sojourns to France, England, etc. While not intrusive, the atmosphere is always appropriate as background to the plot.

Add up the plot, the characters, and the atmosphere, all fine, and this is a first rate pot-boiler. Some reviewers apparently were displeased with the ending. I thought it was extremely good--appropriate and satisfying. It leads me to wonder what was expected by those who didn't like the finale.

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The dark side of Grisham

If you are familiar with Grisham's fare -including the movies, you'll be surprised by the tone of this entry. Not only was I surprised, but I found it completely unpredictable and refreshing. The story begins with what one would assume the climax would be (catching the runaway attorney.) The story then unfolds in retrospect with a final small twist that made me an even bigger fan. -I with this one was made into a movie!

best one yet

this is my 4th grisham book and i think this one is the best one so far. the story picks up very quickly and it keeps you interested the whole way through.

i really enjoyed how the story unravels. highly recommend this one!

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Fantastic page-turner with something to say

I have always enjoyed this book immensely. The way Patrick orchestrates his crime is phenomenal and you find yourself rooting for him to somehow pull it off - even if you have moral qualms about whether you really want him to or not. Grisham constantly keeps us on the fence about whether Patrick is the good guy. He has moments of humantiy and compassion, especially in his ultimate treatment of the child who isn't his own, as well as his friendship with Clovis. But we're then confronted with his smugness, his "f- you" attitude for the establishment, and the moral ambiguity of stealing "dirty" money.

**Spoilers to the end** It almost seems that Grisham is testing the reader's morality - should Patrick really live happily ever after or not? And the way he tests us is through the ending that people hate so much. If we believe that Patrick was justified in all he did, then we're angry that he couldn't ride off into the sunset with the girl. But if we find ourselves a little uncomfortable with the way Patrick played everybody, then we'll accept the ending because it's what he deserved. The only problem I have with the ending is that it does come out of nowhere. We never see any foreshadowing or motivation for her to run off with the money. The only explanation is that she was planning it the whole time - she never loved him, she never intended to run away with him, but she needed him to be in the clear so no one would come looking for her (they found him, so they'd find her). So ultimately the player got played. What goes around comes around.

Personally I feel like the ending completely justifies the book's existence - otherwise it's just a flashy story about a guy who steals a ton of money, gets away with it, and lives happily ever after. Kind of pointless and a little troubling. But Grisham had more to say than that. He probably could have said it better, but it was fitting that Patrick ultimately paid a price for his deeds.

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One of the best John Grisham novels

In this book John Grisham introduces his main character by having him captured and tortued in South America. Then as the plot progresses, we find out he is a thief and possibly a murderer. But the reader senses that he really is a good guy and relys on the ever more complicated plot to come to his rescue and justify his actions for us.
John grisham doesn't disappoint us. As the plot becomes more appearent, made believeable by the writters' obvious familairarity with the Gulf Coast and building the readers understanding of the rest of the characters who weave in and out of the plot. The reader can't help but place judgements on all of the actions of the players.
But, of course, things never turn out the way you think they will. Mr. Grisham, with a brilliant ending, turns everything around, making us think we may have had that suspicion all along. This reader also feels that a "sleepless in Seattle" sequel would be very welcomed.
The Grisham fan club will call this one of his best.

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