- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Waterbrook Press (May 15 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1578564654
- ISBN-13: 978-1578564651
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 2.4 x 21 cm
- Shipping Weight: 395 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #756,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Gloria Hall has gone missing in China, where she went to investigate and expose slave labor conditions. The prison camp she ends up in is a factory for a big American corporation. Marcus Glenwood is a formerly successful corporate lawyer who has retreated to a house on the wrong side of the tracks after an auto accident in which his two small children are killed. Gloria's sacrifice and Marcus's redemption are the larger themes of this moving and engrossing novel of international trade practices and personal salvation.
Marcus agrees to represent Gloria's parents in a legal battle to hold New Horizons, the world's largest manufacturer of sports shoes and athletic gear, accountable for the disappearance of their daughter. But his investigation is hampered from the beginning by his former colleagues, who represent New Horizons, and by powerful lobbyists and associates of the Chinese government, who will not hesitate to use any means possible--including murder--to keep their gruesome practices a secret. With his resources limited to a canny retired judge and the mysterious woman who was Gloria's closest friend, Marcus sets out on a David and Goliath-like battle against a mighty corporation with powerful political backers and corrupt trading partners determined to stop him.
In the wake of increasing political protest against the abuse of workers in third world countries who manufacture goods sold by American companies, the outlines of Bunn's plot are particularly timely. The theme of the burned-out lawyer taking on a mighty corporation and its anything-for-a-win legal minions, however, has been used by many others, most notably John Grisham, for nearly a decade. What makes this novel exceptionally powerful is its deep spiritual core. The scene in which Marcus painfully relives the accident that shattered his world and confronts the loving presence of the only force that can absolve his guilt and heal his soul is remarkable: "There within the church the shadow formed more clearly still, gliding on slippered feet. The shroud it carried wrapped him up so tightly that Marcus felt his hold on the church and the comforting noise slip away until he could scarcely hear anything save the frantic beating of his terrified heart. He sat there, trapped and helpless to do anything save observe the approach of his own eternal night." The secondary characters are as well drawn as the protagonists, and Bunn's writing has moments of real beauty and clarity. While the plot doesn't move as quickly as it might, and the sympathetic judge who presides over the courtroom leaves herself wide open to appellate review, neither detracts from the powerful resonance of this well written novel. --Jane Adams --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Redolent of the grits and fatback of the Carolina tobacco belt and heralded as the Christian Book Association's bestselling author's crossover to mainstream fiction, this cracking good thriller features Marcus Glenwood, an ex-high-rolling, hard-boozing young Raleigh, N.C., corporate attorney, who--down on his luck--has come home to nearby Rocky Mount to lick his wounds, and to lovingly restore his grandparents' house. Marcus has hardly unpacked when he is retained by the parents of Gloria Hall, a local black grad student at Georgetown University. Gloria has disappeared inside China while investigating slave labor practices at the infamous Factory 101, a manufacturing partnership with mega-international sportswear manufacturer New Horizons. Unwittingly, Marcus finds himself caught up in a game of "don't blink" legal chicken with spiteful old enemies from his former firm, which represents New Horizons. Professional envy, political chicanery at the highest (and lowest) levels, racial bigotry, bribery, international intrigue, socioeconomic exploitation (political pressure is brought to bear on a black female judge) and a romance between emotionally scarred lovers Marcus and Kirsten Standstead, Gloria's roommate-- all flesh out the novel as the young Quixote takes on the establishment in and out of the courtroom. Glossing over background data, the plot sometimes lacks credibility--Kirsten's psychological scarring is pure soap and Gloria's parents, a statistics professor and a dean at a local black college, are broadly sketched--and there is a tendency to play fast and loose with courtroom protocol. However, the theme of underdog vs. the system is seductive and there are enough plot twists to keep even the most unforgiving of critics turning pages. Major ad/promo; national author tour. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is worth reading!,
By
This review is from: GREAT DIVIDE-HC (Hardcover)
This is what Bunn does, and he does it very well! This is what I love about T. Davis Bunn! This book has a slightly slow start, then explodes! I think I can assure you, that if you read this, you are reading the best of T. Davis Bunn. Awesome plot, and a witness for Jesus that some people would die for.He takes attorney, Marcus Glenwood, down on his luck, and picks up the pieces from there. In the process, he's offered the biggest case of his life, and we're literally talking his life here. He puts his neck on the line for Alma and Austin Hall, who are missing their daughter, Gloria, who they think may have been kidnapped by a New Horizons factory in China. It is when he accepts, Glenwood meets everything head on, and it seems the odds are against him. You find yourself inspired by the words of his friend, Deacon Jones, and altogether uplifted by this powerful book. And then... you want more! And there is more. In this book, Bunn shows some raw nerve and then some. Awesome!
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fifteen year old perspective,
By Danielle (New Brunswick, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Great Divide (Paperback)
This novel is a book I highly recommend for the reader that likes a challenge. It was intriguing and it stimulated the mind. It had diction that was at times confusing, but later the meaning of the words were revealed to you. Bunn caught your attention at the beginning of the novel, but after the first several chapters it began to wane. Fortunately it resumed the momentious speed, that had first captured the readers attention. A gripping drama loaded with action, it was a suspenceful page turner. I give it a standing ovation.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Great Divide,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Great Divide (Paperback)
I picked the book up on a whim and could hardly put it down. A page turner that is exciting from page one to the last.
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