The Street Lawyer

A few weeks ago, I did a post about how I hadn't read any John Grisham titles for several years. So I checked one out of the library.

If I had to describe "The Street Lawyer" in one word, the word I would choose is propaganda.

It tells the tale of a yuppie lawyer named Michael Brock who reorders his priorities in life after he's held hostage by a homeless man for an afternoon. He quits his high-paying job even though he's only a couple of years from making partner - and goes to work for a free legal clinic that helps the homeless. He thinks his old firm was partially responsible for the deaths of a homeless family, so he commits a crime on the way out the door that will help him figure it out. And so the rest of the book is him trying to get his old firm before they get him.

It wasn't really a thrill ride. I think Grisham just wanted to write a book about homeless people.

****SPOILER ALERT!****

The resolution of the conflict is that they settle out of court. Wow! What a climax!

****END SPOILER ALERT****

There was a subplot where Michael's marriage to his yuppie wife is coming to an end. She keeps popping up in the story here and there and I was half expecting them to maybe reconcile but it just gets to the point where she isn't mentioned anymore. Kind of a letdown. Instead he likes this other homeless crusader who has about one line in the whole book.

I didn't like the main character at all. He was a major league dumb-bunny. I didn't like him when he was a rich lawyer and I didn't like him when he was a poor lawyer.

The book was just okay. It didn't really fall into the Grisham "legal thriller" genre. Nothing thrilling ever happened - it was kind of like "The Chamber" in that respect. At the end, I was just sort of like, "I spent how many hours reading for that?"

In conclusion, we should take care of the homeless. Otherwise, they will turn on us. I think that was the point he was trying to get across in this book.