the_firm

THE FIRM by John Grisham

1991. Arrow. Paperback.

I saw the excellent Tom Cruise movie of The Firm years before I got
around to reading the book. The book is slightly better than the movie
in that there's a cop-out ending in the movie that's certainly not in
the book (I'll get to that shortly).

I read this book in August 2022 during a period of paranoia about my
job in High Frequency Trading (see my review of Flash Boys at my URL
for more on that). Like Tom Cruise, I felt like I'd joined a company
without knowing enough about them beforehand, and was shocked when the
true nature of the company's business became known to me. So I felt
that The Firm was speaking to my current predicament.

"They offered him a job he should have refused..." reads the tagline
on the cover of the book which nicely references The Godfather and the
Mafia-money-washing nature of The Firm's business.

On to the cop-out ending in the movie. Mitch (Ton Cruise) meets the
Mob boss (played by Paul Sorvino) and explains to him that The Firm has
been overcharging the Mob. He gets to meet all his non-disclosure rules
and keep practising as a tax accountant while still driving The Firm
out of business. In the book; Mitch has to give it all away and go
into hiding for the rest of his life and there's no deal done with The
Mob.

The Firm is an excellent thriller and will give any reader an enhanced
feeling of paranoia for a while.

                                          22nd May 2023.

My book reviews are at https://github.com/stucooper/booksiveread