Fast paced best seller, action, suspense, government--CIA. Good Grisham.

Typical Grisham novel. Fast paced, fun to read, good pop culture. ( )

It's always good to write about something you know something about... John Grisham doesn't know about modern technology, and after reading a book that illustrates it, he even states it at the very end. ( )

Might be my favorite Grisham novel. A pardoned broker is set free, but as a target. He gets to know his small Italian town, the people, and the food. Very nice setting. ( )

oel Backman, the broker, is granted a pardon by outgoing president, to draw out ? For the CIA. Lots of Italian lessons...
Fun easy read, but not the usual depth expected from JG ( )

John
Grisham, always readable and this is no exception. Joel Backman, pardoned from prison by president is set up with new identity and then CIA sits back and waits to see who will kill him. ( )

John Grisham has brought us a succession of nail-biting thrillers including A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Partner (3.5 stars) and The Street Lawyer (4.0 stars). The Broker, however, turns out to be a thriller without very many thrills. There are a couple moments of tension, but they are so mild and scattered that they don’t provide any real trepidation. This seems strange considering the plot of the book has nearly every intelligence agency in the world intent on killing the main character. As if that were not enough, Joel Backman’s own CIA handlers want him dead. To top it off, Joel has little money and even less training, yet he appears more than capable of strolling right past everyone with surprising little effort even though everyone knows where he is. I never felt like he was in any kind of real jeopardy even when he should have been in all kinds of real jeopardy. Instead, most of the forces against him just fall out of the story without any explanation. At one point, Grisham describes in detail one of the most diabolical assassins in the world, only to leave him out of the rest of the story. I suppose he must have gotten lost.

Instead of a thriller, the meat of the book is really a character piece where we watch Joel try to blend into the northern Italian college town of Bologna. Taking the name ‘Marco,’ he learns to speak, dress and – more than anything – eat like a native Italian. This turns out to be the strongest part of the book. Grisham does a nice job of painting a picture of the northern Italian lifestyle and giving a guided tour of its history that feel very organic to the story. In fact, if he had written something akin to A Painted House, it might have been a fascinating character study in a beautiful location. Unfortunately, he stuffed it inside of an espionage thriller that simply didn’t come off. The plot holes and anticlimactic ending certainly didn’t do the story any favors, either. But while I can’t say that I really liked the book, I can’t say that I disliked it either. There was something about the character of Joel Backman and his attempt to integrate with Italian life that made the story tolerable. Also, Grisham’s polished writing moves along easily which prevents the story from becoming a monotonous bore. If it is already sitting on one of your shelves and you want to learn some things about northern Italy, it might still be worth sitting down with it. However, it is not one of Grisham’s better books. ( )

Not a bad story, but reading all the Italian dialog (followed by English translations) got annoying after awhile. ( )

I've never been much of a Grisham fan, just never thought I'd enjoy his books. About a year ago I picked up a pile of Grisham books for cheap. It's taken me a year, but I've now finished my second Grisham novel. I must say this was enjoyable. Only thing wrong with this, is the ending. While it wrapped up nicely in once sense, it left a lot of dangling threads. This seems more like book 1 of a trilogy or something instead of a standalone. But nevertheless, I enjoyed this and will read my way through the rest of the Grisham novels sitting on my shelf over the next year or so. ( )

I have read fewer than a half dozen Grishams. This one is quite engaging. The protagonist Joel, Marco, whoever, is likable in spite of the fact that he is a confirmed criminal and a traitor. Lik...e so many people, when he personally experiences the fear he generates, he has a change of heart. Like Playing for Pizza much of the story is set in Italy, giving something of a Ludlumite authenticity to the spycraft. The book is entertaining, though it is nobody's classic. A fun read. ( )

Een Amerikaanse topadvocaat die veroordeeld is tot twintig jaar gevangenisstraf, wordt plotseling na zes jaar vrijgelaten. ( )

Joel Backman, The Broker, est un avocat dont la spécialité est le lobbying auprès des députés à Washington. C'est un homme riche et puissant jusqu'au jour où il essaie de mâcher un morceau trop gros pour lui en tentant de vendre au plus offrant les secrets d'un réseau de satellites espions. Il trouve finalement refuge dans une prison. Déconsidéré, ruiné, traître à sa nation il attend avec appréhension sa mise en liberté.
Celle-ci intervient plus tôt que prévu car la CIA veut l'utiliser comme appât et le fait libérer par le bais d'une grâce présidentielle. Il est alors envoyé secrètement en Italie où il va devoir essayer de s'adapter avant que la CIA ne laisse filtrer quelques informations auprès des assassins potentiels. Commence la traque. ( )

I’m relatively new to Grisham’s work, but even I could tell that his book, The Broker, was not up to his standards. The story follows Joel Backman, a high-powered broker who gets himself into a lot of trouble and is sent to a federal prison to be kept in solitary confinement. What that trouble is exactly we don’t find out until about halfway through the book. When we are first introduced to Backman, he is described in such terms that make you glad he got caught. Surely, he is the bad guy in the book, right? As events unfold so painfully slowly, I thought perhaps that Backman would turn out not to be too bad and perhaps he was framed or something. Nope. He did everything and got everything he deserved. But yet by the end of the book, I got that feeling that I was supposed to like him, despite being the sleazeball that he is/was.

The story is set in Italy where the U.S. government has decided to hide Backman until they deem an appropriate time to leak his whereabouts to foreign nations in order to see who kills him first. I thought perhaps this was going to turn into a story of how Backman kept having to hide from either the U.S. government or foreign governments. Instead, way too much of the book is spent on Backman learning Italian or eating some lovely Italian delicacy or visiting some wonderful Italian architecture. The pace does pick up when the time actually comes for Backman to run, but even that doesn’t make up for the rest of the book. The professional, government-paid assassins sent to whack him are seemingly a side note, even though the whole premise of the book is that Backman is hiding from them and is supposed to be on the run.

It’s evident, as Grisham points out in his author’s note, that he greatly admires the Italian culture. I’m sure quite a bit of research went into describing the various Italian cultural tidbits. But reading how to greet one another in Italian over and over again is not the stuff a person usually wants to read in a Grisham book. Overall, it was slow and disappointing. ( )

Definitely within the realm of a John Grisham novel. Lots of legal stuff, intrigue. I enjoyed the book in the fact that it gave me ideas for my own writing. It offered insight into what people consider good writing. The person reading the book sounded interesting. Maybe if I get a book published, he'll read mine. :>
I do say it is a worthy listen. ( )

Joel Backman blir benådet av den avtroppende presidenten i USA, etter å ha sittet seks år i fengsel for å ha forvekslet den amerikanske drømmen med grådighet. Det viser seg at det er CIA som står bak det hele, fordi de tror Joel sitter inne med sensitiv informasjon om verdens mest avanserte satelittovervåkningssystem. Joel blir smuglet til Italia, og blir tvunget til å leve et nytt liv der, med en ny identitet. CIA lekker informasjon om Joels nye liv til israelerne, kineserne og saudi-araberne, de som hater han mest. Så lener de seg tilbake og venter på hvem som dreper han først.

Jeg var egentlig ganske skeptisk da jeg begynte på denne boken, den høres gørrkjedelig ut. Men da jeg kom i gang, synes jeg det ble mer interessant, og jeg ble positivt overrasket. ( )

really enjoyed it, and I read it in one evening. ( )

Joel Backman is "the Broker"--a Washington power broker-lobbyist. Then his empire collapses when a deal collapses involving a hacked spy satellite that nobody acknowledges, and Backman ends up in jail, broke.

Six years later, he's pardoned by a lame duck President, and whisked away to Italy by the CIA. Everyone's after him, including the CIA, though they're more interesting in finding out who kills him than in either killing him themselves or keeping him safe.

So Backman is completely out of his element, under constant surveillance, and kept deliberately short of money and paperwork so he can't run far, even if he tries. But he didn't get to be "the Broker" by being stupid, either.

This was a fairly low-key suspense book, but I enjoyed the transformation from wealthy cold-hearted power broker to someone who's dependent on others for everything, and who's learning to reevaluate his priorities. It was also quite lovely to revisit Italy. ( )

Grisham has been a bit off his mark with the last couple of books, but
he's back in stride with this one. It's a thriller and has lawyers in
it, but it's not his typical legal thriller.

Joel Backman was a power broker, a high profile lawyer turned lobbyist
in Washington who has clawed his way to the top, living hard, spending
much, and leaving broken lives and marriages in his ruthless path. But
when three young Pakistani men come to him with a discovery that will
set the world's governments on their collective ears, he peddles the
secrets to several governments at once, greedy to the end, and manages
to touch off a firestorm that leaves his law firm in shambles, a senator
dead, and indictments ready to be handed down against not only him, but
his son. He pleads guilty to lesser charges and is quietly shipped off
to federal prison to serve a 20 year sentence in solitary confinement.

Six years later, the political wheels in Washington have turned and
other power hungry men are eager for his blood. So, bargains are made
and an outgoing disgraced president grants him a full pardon at the
behest of the CIA and he finds himself spirited out of the prison in the
middle of the night, bundled onto a military plane and headed to Italy
for a new life, with a new name and a bunch of mysterious new "friends"
who will teach him to speak the language and to blend in with the people
of the city of Bolgona. But something isn't quite kosher in this new
setup and he is under constant surveillance. His own government is
setting him up for professional assassins from at least five countries
and the CIA intends to sit back and wait to see which one gets him
first, trying to solve the biggest mystery to hit the US government in
decades.

This book is fast paced and has more twists and turns than a Georgia
county backroad. It's well written and moves right along. It was good
all the way up to the last page, but it felt as if it ended too
abruptly, leaving you to imagine exactly what's going to happen next.
Still, it was pretty good and I'll give it a 4. ( )

very different than most of grisham's other books. seemed kind of like a spy novel.

Pretty good book actually. The usual thriller stuff but definitely readable. ( )

A straight-forward thriller from Mr. Grisham that just doesn't deliver much in the way of thrills. It flows along reasonably well, bogging down only occasionally for travelogue. I had it in the audio book version and it ate up its share of miles. I'd probably have given it a 3-star "well, it passed an afternoon" except for the very unsatisfying ending: abrupt, more than a bit unbelievable and, once one thinks about it, inconclusive. ( )

Grisham takes a break from his usual legal thriller to give us a just plain thriller. The broker is Joel Backman, a former high stakes DC lawyer who went to prison for trying to sell control of a spy satellite system to the highest bidder. He took prison when several of those in on the conspiracy with him died. Now, four years later, he's released on a last minute presidential pardon so the CIA can figure out who the buyer was when they try to kill him. Joel is sent to Italy where he is immersed in the culture and language and tries to blend into his new life.

As usual, Grisham writes a page turner. I chewed up large chunks of this one in a relatively short amount of time. That said, this is not his usual legal thriller. Grisham seems to want to try and just write a thriller and, for the most part, it's not that successful. There are long stretches of the novel where next to no action occurs and the plot doesn't move foward. It reads almost like a travel guide to Bologna, Italy for large sections of the middle of the story as Joel learns about the culture and people. And the suspense sequences aren't quite that suspenseful as there's never any impending doom facing Joel as in other cloak and dagger type thrillers.

A good try, John, but not a successful one. You've branched out before with A Time to Kill and A Painted House, both of which are far better novels than this one. ( )

Een verhaal over iemand die moet onderduiken, terwijl alle spionagediensten hem willen vinden en vermoorden.
Tot hiertoe blijft het vrij klassiek als gegeven.
Maar om te kunnen onderduiken moet de hoofdpersoon Italiaans leren, en zich italiaans leren gedragen, en krijgt daarom schitterende rondleidingen van een Bolognese lerares. Vooral dit aspect heeft me gecharmeerd.
Dus geen klassieke Grisham-advocatentriller. ( )

A well paced, exciting drama typical of the John Grisham style. While maybe not his best, it ranks up near the top as an entertaining read. ( )

4233 The Broker, by John Grisham (read 15 Nov 2006) This is his 2005 novel. It tells of Joel Backman, a high-powered Washington lawyer, who pled guilty and was given 20 years. He was pardoned on the last day of a defeated president's term (the defeated president, in typical Grisham excessiveness, carried only Alaska!) so he could be killed by the Russians, the Chinese, the Israelis, or the Saudis. Joel is in Europe--most of the time in Bologna--where he is chased by people trying to kill him. It gets exciting and tense, especially if one suspends one's preference for credulity. The ending does not contemplate Joel returning to the practice of law--Grisham's lawyers scarcely ever do. And Grisham heaps scorn on the high-powered lawyers--saying half the lawyers in Washington don't know the way to the courthouse, but do lobbying and wire-pulling instead. This was a more engrossing book than the other Grisham books I read this month. ( )