John Grisham Prosecutes For-Profit Law Schools in ‘The Rooster Bar’
Janet Maslin of the New York Times favorably reviews John Grisham‘s new book: “Grisham’s newly reanimated storytelling skills are what make `The Rooster Bar’ such a treat.”
Here is the abstract of the book from www.amazon.com:
“Mark, Todd, and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three know they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam.
But maybe there’s a way out. Maybe there’s a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process. But to do so, they would first have to quit school. And leaving law school a few short months before graduation would be completely crazy, right? Well, yes and no . . .
Pull up a stool, grab a cold one, and get ready to spend some time at The Rooster Bar.”
There is an immigration angle to The Rooster Bar, which is highligeted in the review by Jocelyn McClurg in USA Today:
“Grisham, who’s at his best when he brings his sardonic sense of humor to the sometimes questionable ethics of law and banking, also takes aim at the politics of immigration. Zola was born in the U.S. shortly after her undocumented parents and older brother arrived from Senegal 26 years earlier. After her family members are suddenly rounded up, placed in a detention center and then sent back to Africa, Zola worries for her own safety as well.
It’s clear where Grisham stands. `(Her parents) had worked like dogs in a country they were proud of, with the dream of one day belonging. How, exactly, would their removal benefit this great nation of immigrants? It made no sense and seemed unjustly cruel.’”
The protagonists in the book visit a detention facility — comparing it to Auschwitz — and Grisham provides much information about the modern immigrant detention machinery. The immigration subplot is pretty extensive.
I am still early in the book. So far, as is characteristic of a Grisham novel, it is engaging. But do not think that Grisham will pull any punches as far as law schools go.
KJ