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Mar 22, 2008

Nadir rated it:

I'd say for sure that it is definitely not a great novel. A good one, maybe. But that's only because it presents a hefty, nasty world of politics. Maybe Grisham wanted it to be quite shoestring 'cause he was quite bored with the hypes and the best-seller title(I've no idea about that since it's my 1st John Grisham's). The 1st and the last third of the novel are quite good. The middle part in which Backman's roaming in Italy is the part that really bores me. The story may be better if Backman's t More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 19, 2009

Ndahdien rated it:

Di akhir masa jabatannya sebagai Presiden, Arthur Morgan yang baru saja mengalami kekalahan telak dan memalukan duduk bersama Teddy, pimpinan CIA untuk mendiskusikan pembebasan Joel Backman seorang Broker ulung yang dijebloskan dalam penjara isolasi dengan tuduhan membahayakan rahasia negara. Bagi Morgan pembebasan itu hanyalah tamparan kepada Washington yang sudah mempermalukannya, sedangkan bagi Teddy pembebasan Backman hanyalah sebuah pancingan agar pihak-pihak yang terkait kasusnya memperlih More...

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Dec 05, 2008

Ronald rated it:

The book I reviewing is The Broker by John Grisham. It's a fiction story based on the world of politics, crime and espionage.
The broker is about Joel Backman who is a broker who has stumble onto a conspiracy about a satellite surveillance system that can corrupt the power in office and the he also try to sell this satellite to the highest bidder in the world for a great profit that will benefit him. What the government does is they incarcerate him for 6 years to make sure that the secret More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 14, 2011

Awais rated it:

Another great novel by john grisham. He displays a chracter which is wealthy and rich and is basically a lobbyist.He is having all kind of luxuries and lavishness one can think of. He charge his customers huge sums of money. Owns a law firm. He is approached by a group of three scientists. whos have developed a software to hack Neptune (A group of nine satellites sent into space by chinese) by which they can not only trace the satellite by control it in a manner so that it can provide with More...

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Jul 13, 2011

Maggie rated it:

Everyone who's ever read any Grisham knows that he has the world's most convenient plots. Things that wouldn't occur under any other circumstances happen in his books. To make the suspension of disbelief even harder for me, I've worked in the U. S. legal field for 40 years, in both civil and criminal litigation. Thus, I know how it really works.

I'd actually given up reading his books when during The Runaway Jury I said to myself four times "Like that would ever happen!" More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 12, 2011

Eric rated it:

This is another novel in a long line of great books by John Grisham. You know it's going to be a fun book when the CIA is leaking someones whereabouts just to see who kills him. When I read the jacket of the book I was afraid that they may have given too much of the plot away. I was wrong. There was still plenty of suspense and drama to be had. This book had me guessing how it was going to end until it was over. I must admit that I didn't guess right at all.

The characters in this More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 19, 2011

Geun Ho - ISB rated it:

This is my second book of John Grisham. After reading the Pelican Brief, I was fascinated with how intelligently and well this author could write. On this farely recent book of his, I was not disappointed but even more amazed at how amazing an writer John Grisham is. Similar to the Pelican Brief, it seemed to me that Grisham again showed some opposition to the US government as in both books this government is the "bad guy". But his use of the idea of "space race" was very ent More...

1 comment like

Mar 29, 2011

Kathy rated it:

Reviewed at : Mama Kucing Books : The Broker By John Grisham

I have read this book a few years ago. Came across this book again when I was looking for something in the storeroom. Read the synopsis and found that I have forgotten much of the story. Hence the interest to re-read this again.

Found that the beginning and the middle are very interesting. The suspense was there. But by the ending, the suspense just couldn't keep up. Many things just seems to coincidentally fell in s More...

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Mar 20, 2011

Mike The Situation rated it:

This book was about a man who was a broker in Washington D.C. named Joel Blackman. A secret program was created that could take control of the most technologically advanced satellite in the world called Neptune. This broker was put in control of selling this program to the country that was willing to pay the highest price. He gets greedy and the situation gets messy. The CIA begins to investigate and charges are brought against the lawyer and his associates. During the trial, some of his associa More...

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Mar 05, 2011

Sarah rated it:

I liked it, but I can see why I've started The Partner about a dozen times and never finished it. Maybe it's because I'm reading a book about romance novels for one of my classes (and thus in the mood for a good romance novel), but I just didn't feel very fulfilled by this book. Don't get me wrong, I loved the story & found it very suspenseful, but part of what makes Grisham's writing so supsenseful is that he's so sparse in his character descriptions, leaving evidence for their motivations to t More...

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Feb 07, 2011

Nancy rated it:

An entertaining story with a fast moving plot.

I had an urge last week to read a story by John Grisham and The Broker was my selection. Before that I had read "The Summons"(It was a fair read). I don't read his novels in sequences which fortunately for someone like me there is no need, because each of Mr. Grisham's books will stand on their own. I thought The Broker was an easy read that was very entertaining. There was a lot of intrigue woven into a fast moving plot. I th More...

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Jan 30, 2011

Tancredi rated it:

E' il primo - e finora unico - romanzo di Grisham che leggo. Non è esattamente il mio genere, e inoltre per natura sto lontano da prolifici autori di genere, come reputo per l'appunto Grisham.
Da un punto di vista tecnico, il romanzo è ben scritto: un buon uso del ritmo e della suspence, una scrittura scorrevole, una regia di personaggi notevole. Tutte caratteristiche di scrittori di professione del calibrio di Grisham.
Insomma, ad un'analisi profonda "Il Broker" è esattamente ciò che si More...

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Jan 04, 2011

Matt rated it:

Great Book, I was hesitant to read this book because many people on this site did not speak favorably about it. The book is not like many of Grisham's other books but the story is great and the fun part is that it can go many different ways.
Joel Backman is "the Broker"- a Washington power broker-lobbyist. But his life falls apart when a deal collapses involving a hacked spy satellite that nobody knows about, and Backman ends up in jail. Six years later, the political wheels in Wa More...

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Dec 21, 2010

Stephen rated it:

I'm relatively new to Grisham's work, but even I could tell that this book 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? More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 20, 2010

Sid rated it:

Let me start by saying that I've read all of Grisham's books, and loved every one. As a struggling writer, I have been trying to figure out his secret. His books are written in a way that makes you want to keep turning pages, but I'm not sure why. He jumps from one point of view to another seemingly at random, but it still works. There's not much description, but somehow I can visualize each scene. I guess if I could figure it out, I too would be the author of many books.

The Broker More...

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Oct 26, 2010

Trennon rated it:

This book is about a power broker named Joel Backman. During his time as a high ranking attorney in Washington, three young, but brilliant, Pakistanis discover a surveillance satellite that has technology that is decades ahead of everyone else. The Pakistanis find a way to take over the satellite and manipulate it to work for them. Joel Backman decides to help them sell the program but when all three are found dead and no one accepts responsibility for the killings or the satellite, Joel becomes More...

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Aug 22, 2010

Jayesh rated it:

John Grisham's "The Broker" is about a once very successful lawyer, until he tries to broker a deal with the Saudis, Russians, Chinese, and Israelis about information he has that will compromise one of the most sophisticated spy satellite systems in the world. The deal doesn't work out, the broker get's caught, and he chooses prison to keep himself safe and alive while still not revealing the secrets he has in his possession somewhere.

Six years later he is pardoned by a Pr More...

2 comments like

Jul 05, 2010

Jerry rated it:

Fine story telling, but somewhat weak ending...

We're long time Grisham fans, despite the real duds he serves up now and then. In "Broker", we're reminded of some of the author's best story-telling books. The plot is clever but not overly thrilling: a lawyer (Backman), in jail for conspiracy, gets pardoned and is swept over to Italy in secret by the CIA, as a ploy to get some foreign government who still holds a grudge to knock him off. We then get some 200 pages of northern More...

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Jan 28, 2010

Irfan rated it:

This book is an excellent example of what an American should be. John Grisham uses his words as poetry and his descriptions as art that a person forgets that he or she is reading a book and think of themselves as a part of something larger than life. As John Grisham writes, his words and quotes act like dialogues in a movie and a person can not make themselves let the book ago.
The Broker is a riveting tale of a Washington broker Joel Backman who because of a disaster in a satellite deal go More...

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Mar 03, 2010

Patrick rated it:

Grisham tells of a powerful lobbyist aka the Broker who got too greedy and was ready to sell the an intelligence satellite system that the Chinese made and three Pakistani programmers hacked into to the highest bidder.

The book starts with the President who lost re-election and decided to pardon the broker at the CIA's request so that the foreign governments could kill him abroad. It turns out the reason that the CIA wanted to free the Broker and have him killed was so they know wh More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 29, 2011

Lauren rated it:

As far as John Grisham books go, this one made me say 'meh'. Grisham's books aren't incredibly fast-pace as far as crime books go, but they definitely go by easier than this. The sad part is that there was so much promise to his idea too: a man is pardoned and must flee the country, hidden by the CIA, to stay alive.

Grisham had the escape done well but than he got too focused on the destination: Bologna, Italy. And yes, I have never heard of it before this book either. HE got so focuse More...

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Sep 21, 2011

Matthew rated it:

The Broker, Joel Backman, is pardoned in the final hours of office by the outgoing President at the urging of the head of the CIA. Backman was jailed for his involvement in a deal to broker the controls of a secret network of spy satellites. The pardon was put into place because the CIA couldn’t kill Backman because he is an American citizen. Once the pardon was signed and complete Backman was whisked out of the country and put into hiding in Italy. The CIA would leak his location to one of More...

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Aug 02, 2011

Sanchita added it

Not even worth writing a review. John Grisham's "The Broker" was a real let down. Everything in the boon was mundane, unoriginal and very, very overdone. Uninteresting would be a mild expression to describe it.

The book begins with the CBI wanting to kill Joel Backman. The book revolves around Backman's attempts at fleeing his pursuers. There is a very abrupt love interest, but it doesn't develop substantially. It seems very vague and haphazard. I felt that Grisham was probably either d More...

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Feb 26, 2009

Weavre rated it:

I grabbed some John Grisham off the shelf for a bit of fiction, knowing I can usually count on him for a bit of solid storytelling. This work, however, was unusually ... well ... bad.

Perhaps this is because the brilliant author failed to follow the good advice to "write what you know;" unlike his Southern law sagas, The Broker takes place largely in Italy, telling a story of high-level political powerbrokers rather than Grisham's usual attorneys. The plot simply broke down. More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 24, 2009

John rated it:

Joel Backman is an American in Italy. He's there because the CIA is hiding him there, "protecting" him from the many expert killers who would like to kill him. (A moral of this book could be: If the CIA offers to help you, think twice.)
He's learning Italian because it's a matter of life and death. (Take John Grisham's word for it ... if you read "The Broker" there are a number of things you're just going to have to accept.)
In Chapter 9, we're in the CIA director's More...

1 comment like

Apr 28, 2011

Ashley rated it:

Readable, but a disappointment. Arguably Grisham's weakest book. The first quarter is all right and the last quarter is fine, but the middle section drags. The protagonist is in Italy learning Italian and Grisham forces the reader through every lesson. If Grisham had cut out all the high school level side-by-side English-Italian translations of the sentences that the protagonist was learning, the book would have been ten thousand words shorter and a hundred percent more interesting.

And

More...

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Oct 07, 2011

Kimberly rated it:

This is the second John Grisham legal thriller I've read, right after finishing reading "The Firm". I've enjoyed his non-legal-thriller books but am new to the legal thriller genre. I'm not sure this book really even qualifies as a legal thriller since the law plays only a very small role in this one. It features a former Washington power broker who set up a deal that went wrong, served six years of a twenty year prison term, and then was suddenly pardoned by the government and sent More...

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Oct 20, 2011

John rated it:

I recommend The Broker by John Grisham. I thought this book was interesting. It tells the story of Joel Backman who gets in trouble with the law. Six years into his twenty year sentence the president gives him a full pardon. They take him to another country. But people are trying to kill him. This book will keep you reading. I recommend this book to anyone who likes legal books.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2009

Lisa rated it:

Before he was sent to federal prison for treason, Joel Backman was an extremely powerful man. Known as "the broker," Backman was a lawyer making millions a year who could "open any door in Washington." That is, until he tried to broker a deal selling access to the world's most powerful satellite surveillance system to the highest bidder. When caught, Backman accepted prison as the one option that would keep him safe and alive, since the interested parties (the Israelis, the S More...

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Jul 05, 2011

John rated it:

Oh my god, this book is the pits. What happened to John Grisham since the mid 90s? I read all of his first three or four books, and I remember really liking them. Gripping legal thrillers, page turners all, this is what I remember. This one is just crap. Nothing about it makes sense. The whole premise about which the plot of the book turns is nonsensical. If the CIA wanted to release someone from prison just to see who kills him, why would they send him to Italy and spend all kinds of money teac More...

1 comment like

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