Reading novels during exams

Don't ever start a John Grisham. It keeps you hooked till the last page meaning you can kiss good results bye-bye. And this happens even if the story isn't good. You throw the book down in the end and curse yourself for ever picking up such a time-waster. But reality remains. You have only two hours left to study for that certain Dr. Mahnaz Fatima exam and you know that things aren't going to be pretty for you now. "Why didn't I pick up a classic?", you ask yourself. Even though they're a thousand times better than the sleazy fiction nowadays, they don't leave you hanging at every chapter forcing you to go on. Your results are safe.

I made the mistake of starting Grisham's The Rainmaker just two days before the mid-terms. The reviews I got about it from my friends were, in one word, extreme. People either hate it or love it. Within the space of half-an-hour one person told me that 'it was one of his favourite books' and another said that 'it's one of the worst books Grisham has ever written'. Who do I believe? I can't blame myself for beginning to read it the same day. Hey, I was curious.

My diagnosis after finishing it? Not so extreme. The book was a huge waste of time, and Grisham has written better, in fact much better. But he's written much worse as well (The Client a case in point *gag*).The story was going good at the beginning, a young lawyer trying to find a job two months before graduation. These parts hit home, mostly because I'm two months away from graduation and without a job too! I could definitely relate to the ways that he employs in getting employment. I just hope I'm not as unsuccessful as he was.

By the middle of the story you're hooked. The lawyer finds a client who is suing a huge firm which has similarly proportioned lawyers (i.e. equally as huge). Now the rookie has to fight the big guys. David versus Goliath. Interesting?

Not really. You keep waiting for the action to start, and realize at the end that what you were flipping over was the action. The novel ends with the classic Grisham twist-attempt. Something absolutely unpredictable happens in the last few pages, but it's too late for the story and seems forced. Not even close to the shocks produced by The Partner or The Testament. All in all The Rainmaker lives up to the reviews I received of it, an average between Awesome and Junk. After the last page, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, and mountains of Managerial Policy chapters to read. Yikes!

Azma Humayun