The Rackateer by John Grisham

After I finished my last book, I didn’t have any books on my to read list  so I figured I couldn’t go wrong with John Grisham’s approximately 30^th book. I had only read a handful of the previous ones but they usually kept my interest. This was no exception but on the other hand I am usually content if I catch one of the CSI episodes on TV. We are introduced to Malcolm  Bannister an ex- lawyer who has been disbarred and is in prison for getting ensnarled with racketeering charges while executing some real estate transactions. It seems clear that he didn’t deserve the bunch of years he was sentenced but there he is now functioning as a jailhouse lawyer trying to help other prisoners find out if they might get out on some technicality which they rarely do. In the course of doing this,  he hears some pretty hairy stories about crimes solved and unsolved. We also learn that there is Rule 35 where a convict can get his sentence reduced and get out of jail if he provides information that can solve an important unsolved crime. Not surprising, the plot becomes somewhat convoluted and interesting as Bannister who had lots of time to plot out his path to freedom has worked out a  very complicated scenario. Once he is on the outside as part of his plan to carry out all the details required and avoid getting bumped off by the bad guys, he has plastic surgery .He also becomes a fake documentary film maker  (shades of the plot of the movie Argo). Grisham in the afterword of the book confesses that the book is not based on any particular case or insight into prisons, the FBI or anything else. There really isn’t any moral point or lesson to be learned. Of course Grisham is a lawyer and he usually writes about legal stuff and there is plenty of that in this book. Most of all he is a good story teller. He obviously let his imagination take off and he doesn’t disappoint.

The Sense of an Ending  by Julian Barnes 

This very well written book  is the story of a man on the long  side of middle age who is looking back on his life. He is reflecting  from the perspective a a guy who is divorced has one child and achieved moderate success in his career. Most important are his memories of his childhood friends and of his first girl friend which in retrospect was his true special love but it didn’t work out. You get the feeling that he is comfortable with his memories although he understands that it is fair to say  they may not be completely accurate. Then circumstances have it that he is notified that his old girl friends’ mother died and left him the diary of his old high school buddy who committed suicide. It turns out that his friend  had a relationship with his old girl friend. The narrator  doesn’t get to see the diary but he does get to see a letter that he himself wrote a long time ago about their relationship. He also get a chance to have a few meetings with his old girl friend. There is a little more to the story than I have told  but the main value of the book would seem to be a reflection on how we remember things . It also raises the question of how we may inadvertently hurt people with what we say and what we write. A good book will stimulate your personal thinking and memories. The above scenario did that with this writer and brought back painful memories which allowed us to identify with the book’s narrator in a very real manner. This reflects the success of this book