The Rooster Bar
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3.8 • 230 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pull up a stool, grab a cold one, and get ready to spend some time with this “buoyant, mischievous thriller” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times).
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 . . .
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In The Rooster Bar, John Grisham examines not just lawyers but the schools that train them—in particular, substandard for-profit law schools that prey on their loan-burdened victims. As four classmates stare down graduation and recognize the worthlessness of the degrees they're about to earn, the emotional and financial pressure pushes one of them over the edge. What follows is an unpredictable slalom through the world of dehumanizing, bottom-feeding legal behavior. We especially enjoyed Grisham’s jittery jolt of Ocean's Eleven-esque plot twists.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Inspired by an Atlantic article, this insightful, if flawed, novel from bestseller Grisham (Camino Island) highlights the disturbing world of for-profit legal education. Friends and third-year law students Mark Frazier, Todd Lucero, and Zola Maal are deep in debt. All they want is to endure their last semester at Foggy Bottom Law School in Washington, D.C., and never return. But their world changes when their friend and classmate, Gordy Tanner, commits suicide before he can reveal publicly the conspiracy he's unearthed: FBLS admits unqualified students in order to profit from their student loans, and the school's owner, a Wall Street lawyer turned investor, owns a bank that specializes in student lending. When Gordy's suicide leads Mark, Todd, and Zola to realize that they are victims of a scam, they decide to drop out of school, change their identities to avoid creditors, and practice law without a license. After they make a series of missteps, their disgruntled clients and creditors start to close in, but they still manage to pull off the perfect crime and finish what Gordy started. Mark and Todd feel like the same person at times, and what drives their choices isn't always clear. This intriguing story has some suspenseful moments, but thinly constructed characters dilute the impact.
Customer Reviews
Real life fiction at its best!
I very much enjoyed novels by John Grisham. I start off casually reading then just can’t put them down until I finish. I love the way I can identify with the main characters and actually believe that I am then. Thank you for allowing me to indulge in my dreams.
Doug rafters
Rooster Bar
My first Grisham book. Totally disappointed. Painfully slow to evolve. Interesting premise but could have been condensed into about 25%.
Suspense filled
You’d love it, trust me