Illegal route to legal success

Vikrant Parmar

Par excellence with courtroom dramas, the latest from the stable of John Grisham, The Rooster Bar is a racy novel inspired by an article the author read in a reputed publication regarding a law school scam. Once galvanised, Grisham has come up with a compelling thriller, a veritable page-turner. The plot is a roller-coaster ride along with three youngsters, who are forced to take the illegal route to success despite being assiduous students of law. 

Mark Frazier, Todd Lucero, who was ‘inspired to become a lawyer by booze-tinted conversations he’d overheard in a bar’ and Zola Maal, a second-generation Muslim refugee, are students of Foggy Bottom Law School; all in pursuit of a future they ‘could not afford’. Their young dreams are pummelled under suffocating student loans, so much so that a common friend, Gordon Tanner, can’t take the pressure and eventually commits suicide. What’s worse is the fact that the exorbitant law school is nowhere near the top-tier and chances to secure jobs in future are grim, if not impossible.  

Reeling under adverse circumstances and shaken as also goaded by their friend’s suicide, the trio decides to alter the course of their lives by circumventing the same legal route that had given them hope initially; that soon turned into misery and depression though. They take up cudgels against the law school owner, a billionaire hedge fund operator, who also owns a bank that provides easy loans to gullible students. It’s a fight with a conman who is big enough to devour them. However, the youngsters are in no mood to relent despite a seemingly no-win situation.

Together they hatch a plan at the Rooster Bar, which ‘had the look and feel of an old neighbourhood watering hole’. The bar, their common meeting ground, soon becomes the extended metaphor of their lives; especially at the denouement. They open a law firm on the top floor of the Rooster Bar, without completing their formal education and valid licenses. Though ‘the beauty of their scheme was its brazenness’, their inexperience soon lands them in a soup that is sticky enough to keep them on their toes. The scheme can send them behind bars, yet there is much more to it than meets the eye. With their back towards the wall the only option is to win, whatever the cost.

The narrative moves ahead with pulsating velocity and one seldom loses interest, despite the length. Without being circuitous, Grisham points towards the fact that ‘for-profit’ law schools can actually be financial quagmires, which can trap students as well as their families in debt for a lifetime. 

Away from legal conundrums, the novel focuses on a story that is at once credible as also impressionable. Simple writing devoid of jargon, the author keeps the reader well-glued to each page. 

Drama, action, suspense and humour; Grisham is a seasoned campaigner who impresses each time he comes out with a literary creation. This time too, it’s no different.