Customer Reviews

Grass Roots

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I do not think that Stuart Woods has ever disappointed me. "Grassroots" is intricately plotted with absorbing parallel stories that work their way to the same bad guys. Mr. Woods writes in a way that makes the pages fly by. It's easy to pull for the good guys and it is impossible to work up any sympathy for the villains. The protagonist (Senatorial candidate Will Lee) is scheduled to reappear in Mr. Woods' next novel ("The Run"). After reading "Grassroots" I shall be first in line when "The Run" hits the stores sometime in May. Mr. Woods has a most entertaining series currently going with bon vivant lawyer Stone Barrington that I find to be great fun.

I really did not expect to like this book by Woods, but as I began to read it, it was wonderful!!! I was so intrigued by the plot and the introduction of the new characters, it was impossible to put the book down. Will Lee happens to be under extreme pressure during this campaign, while at the same time, Michael Keane, retired cop, is under pressure trying to find a ruthless killer. Unknowingly, these two men are very closely tied to each other......I would very much recommend this book for a very good weekend read

Other reviewers have reported this book as Grisham-like. I agree. The characters are neither developed nor particularly likeable. Reference to the main character's (Will Lee) love interest throughout the book is by first and last name. This is indicative of the real emotional attachment. Stone Barrington isn't the greatest character in crime fiction, but he certainly beats Will Lee.

Having an avowed addiction to the "bestseller wall" at the local audio book store, I haven't missed much of Stuart Woods' work. But I could have missed this one. I hate it when fiction writers begin to take themselves so seriously that they use their work to spout their own political and social beliefs, as if we the reader could care. It's o.k. to have some characters believing one way, and some another, that's just good characterization. But in this "Clintonesque Manifesto", all the bad guys are Republicans, or religious, or both, as if those traits alone are villainous. Don't get me wrong. I have no problem if all the bad guys are characterized as Republicans from the "right wing fringe", that's one thing. But if ABSOLUTELY ALL REPULICANS OR CONSERVATIVES, are characterized as right wing extremists who coddle hate groups, kill pro choicers, hate all ethnicities other than white Anglo-Saxon, and are card carrying members of Hillary Clinton's fantasy "Right Wing Conspiracy", then the book becomes less enjoyable, (unless of course you ARE Hillary Clinton), not to mention, more manipulative than a campaign speech.
Continuing his exaggerated characterisations,Woods portrays all of the good guys, the smart guys, the likable guys, including the novel's hero, our old friend, Stone Barrington, as Democrats who hate the death penalty, love abortion, find all people of faith to exhibit hypocrisy and religiosity, (like the bad hair TV evangelists who really are that way) and then purport themselves to be "Moderates". Astonishingly, Woods portrays Stone Barrington as saying that he doesn't know what "family values" are, and pens one of that character's own family to believe that private Christian schools were created by racist Christians who didn't want their children to have to go to school with black children. Preposterous, manipulative garbage.
The plot is weak and thin, having be done scores of times in bad TV movies and weekly dramas. The characters are nothing but engineered stereotypes conjured from a mist of bad research, self delusion and misrepresentation. Woods should go back and read his own prior works featuring Stone Barrington. He might realize he took a good character and superimposed him over a ridiculous one, in a haplessly contrived and much overdone storyline. Now that we know your politics Mr. Woods, go back to writing.....don't give up your day job by running for office through drivel like this.

Beloved Georgia Senator Ben Carr is an icon on Capitol Hill who wants to serve one more term before using his considerable political clout to get his chief of staff Will Lee elected to take his place. But the plans go awry when the aging Senator suffers a debilitating stroke, making it impossible to speak, let alone campaign.

Lee is eventually thrust into the limelight to face off with Democratic Governor Mack Dean for the party's nomination. The winner will face-off against the evil Reverend Calhoun, the Republican television evangelist for the Presidency. A problem arises, however, when Judge Boggs commits Lee to defend a high-profile murder case that involves a young white male, Larry Moody, standing trial for the rape and murder of a black female. The racially-charged trial threatens to have a disastrous effect on the campaign of the newcomer.

Meanwhile, Stone Barrington pursues a group of white supremacists on a murder spree that targets local adult entertainment purveyors, while in the background, the mysterious Archon is pulling the strings that bring the scenarios together to an exciting finale. * * *

My Two Cents Worth

I have been a Woods fan for some time, but only recently picked up one of his earlier works of fiction, Grass Roots. I enjoyed the first half of the book, as it promised an entertaining and complex story-line, but by the time the trial was to start I grew weary of the persistent political diatribe that was blatantly slanted to the far left. If I want political commentary, it is available 24/7 on the boob tube. I do feel that in his more current works Woods has learned to tell the story and leave politics to the pundits.

I did appreciate the way the three story lines merged, and the trial was well-done and surprising. Woods is a great storyteller, who has obviously honed his craft through the years to the point that most readers can probably forgive his ego. The pace was upbeat and suffered very few lapses in the action. I must admit, too, that I was amused by the statement on the back cover offered by The State (SC), claiming " Stuart Woods is a wonderful storyteller who could teach Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy a thing or two."

Doubt it.

I don't read a lot of political melodramas, and 'Grass Roots' reminded me why. I was intrigued by the cover blurb promising a mix of down-home courtroom drama, with dashes of campaign suspense, and maybe even some 'Agency' intrigue. The quote on the back cover that 'Woods...could teach Ludlum and Clancy a thing or too' was, unfortunately, inaccurate.
Woods seems to have borrowed the most cliched aspects of both Clancy and John Grisham, along with political conspiracy thories that were 'plausibly implausible' even years before this novel was published, and which have no doubt inspired several more recent entries in the ever-expanding 'Da gummint is out ta GIT ya!' genre of suspense fiction.

This book contains every stale genre-fiction cliche about political dynasties, idealistic candidates, genteel southerners, understanding love interests, fork-tongued televangelists, and murder-trial defendants who really screw things up for their attorneys, and boils it all down into a book that, at 600 pages, paradoxically manages to be both concise and long-winded(but made me wish some of the longer scenes were shorter, and vice versa!)At least he toned down the southern dialect, so that we didn't have to see too many of the 'traditional' dialectical phrases and misspellings..except, of course, those uttered by the 'traditional', old, black, housekeeper who knew his place. At least, even by 1989, the author saw no need to have an elderly white character use the word 'negro', just to show their age.
Political novels set in specific eras, in the author's version of 'the real world', become terribly dated after a short time, although this seems to have done a good job of capturing the trend in the last 20-odd years, of candidates from 'lowly' backgrounds, with somewhat dubious character and qualifications, who manage to [...] their way to a series of elections to public office.
The courtroom thriller side of the story, when not buried and neglected under 'our hero Will's campaign misadventures, is actually not that bad, and if Woods had left the politics out almost completely, and developed the case a lot more, he might have been on to something. I enjoyed the first few chapters, but as the cliches mounted, and the story became a series of interludes that the author miraculously remembered to actually connect to Will before he tied it all together(except for the stuff he conveniently saved for the sequel), I found myself skimming the more hackneyed scenes.
I've since learned that this 'secret society' returned in Woods' next book in the series, but that one(and some of the subsequent entries) haven't done as well in this site's reviews. That's convinced me not to 'root' through any more of this series!

I agree with what one reveiwer said - Stuart Woods is a slam-bang storyteller! I've read all his books and have enjoyed everyone of them. This book seems so realistic, you can just picture the characters in your mind. For a fast-paced page turner, that you don't want to end, read Stuart Woods.

The service was great and I received it very quickly. The book was in the condition they said it would be. Very satisfied.

the last time i checked stuart woods has written 48 novels. i am going to read all of them which is 21 so far. the whitney library has probably most of them and what they don't have i buy, read and donate. like all of woods' books grass roots was very entertaining, twists and turns and just good reading. everyone should read it.

You can't go wrong with a book by Sturat Woods. Can not put them down. Fast and great read.