The Broker, by John Grisham is a book about a man who had it all and then lost it, and how he had to survive with nothing. The book is named The Broker because the main character Joel Backman is a huge power broker in Washington D.C. before his world gets flipped upside-down. I found this title simple and boring; a better title for this book would have been “Pardoned” because he gets pardoned at the beginning of the book, and it leaves the reader pondering the meaning of the title.
In The Broker, by John Grisham. Joel Backman a huge power broker gets sent to 15 years of solitary confinement for treason for trying to sell the most modern satellite that had been hacked. Joel is shockingly pardoned at the 11th hour of President Morgan’s presidency, as a plan by the C.I.A. to see which country kills him first to determine who’s satellite it was originally. Joel is rushed off to Bologna, Italy where he lives for the next few months staying low and trying to fit into the Italian culture and learning Italian. His identity and his appearance are changed to help him fit in, and he gets a new name, Marco Lazerri. In Bologna he is paired up with Luigi his care taker who is watching him closely, and when the time comes will have to witness his murder. Joel lives in Bologna for about 4-6 months, and when the time comes the C.I.A. purposefully leaks the information to 8 main countries. Joel begins to realize that something is wrong when he gets stopped by two Americans who call him by his real name. He makes an escape and contacts his son Neal who sends him a smart phone and begins to communicate with Joel. All of the countries who received the leaked information go to Bologna to attempt to murder him. Joel has to escape repeated attempts until he finally makes his way back to Washington and makes a deal with the Pentagon to ensure his safety.
Joel really matures from the beginning of the book to the end. At the beginning he is a ruthless broker who only cares about power and money, he never really cared about family or others. He had three kids who he rarely ever saw and he was married four times. At the end he finally begins to realize what a terrible father he was and how he never did find true love. He goes to Culpeper, Virginia were he finally sees his granddaughter for the first time. He also finds true love in Italy with his Italian teacher.
My favorite character in this book was Neal because he is a fun exciting person who even though his father was never there for him he becomes the bigger man and helps him when he most needs it. Neal is going through some hard times and is on a very tight budget, but when he gets a letter from his dad he secretly takes out $4,000 to aid his dad. “Joel was not a topic Neal like to talk about. Or think about. He had been a lousy father, absent for most of his childhood…Now he was back asking for money that Neal did not have” (238). One person who I didn’t like at first was Francesca, Joel’s second Italian teacher. At first she seemed mean and very strict, but as the book went on she became more generous and at the end she plays a key role in Joel’s escape. Joel takes the identity of her dying husband to fly back to the U.S. At the end he goes back to Italy and you can infer that he will marry her.
I loved this book and I think that this would be a great read for anyone who likes action packed books. The author did an outstanding job developing the plot and keeping the book interesting. He was very descriptive and created intricate relationships with the characters. Overall this was a great read.
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