Light Within: Which thieves should be allowed to steal again?

Which thieves should be allowed to steal again?
Thursday, 29 July 2010

Long time ago, I had been reading all John Grisham titles but am no more a big fan of his thrillers. He writes good but my own priorities have changed. Last night I picked up The Broker just to scan through hurriedly. The second para in the opening chapter held my attention. It reads, “They were about pardons – desperate pleas from thieves and embezzlers and liars, some still in jail, and some who’d never served but who nonetheless wanted their good names cleared and their beloved right restored.”

On the last day in office, the president of a country is faced with question. Which thieves should be allowed to steal again? And I started imagining different options the president had while I related them to situations in our own country. That forced me to read the book. It proved to be a page tuner and I could put it down after I had finished the thriller. It was 03.20 AM.

At a few instances, I could felt Italian language lessons a little too much but the mention of three Pakistani students who were computer genius and had written software that could put the most sophisticated set of satellites unserviceable. This software comes in the market for sale and everyone wants to buy. That is where the Broker comes in and handles the deal. The story is about what happens to the software and more interestingly what happens to the Broker.

Labels: Books, John Grisham

posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, July 29, 2010,

7 Comments:

At 11:50 AM PKT, jalalHB said...: We don't have the option - thieves would continue to steal
At 7:03 PM PKT, Anonymous said...: Timely contextual post. Good.
At 7:48 PM PKT, Admin said...: To catch a thief, you should hire a thief.
At 7:51 PM PKT, Anonymous said...: People of Pakistan have voted for thieves to steal again.
At 9:32 PM PKT, Anonymous said...: Which president Grisham was implicating in this ;-)
At 9:34 PM PKT, Anonymous said...: May be Clinton or some one earlier, I think.
At 10:08 PM PKT, Anonymous said...: John Grisham gets boring when he talks of small obscure Italian towns. The ending too was less biting than his other books. His Firm is the best so far.