Rudy Taylor is the young, tenacious, courageous, intelligent, good-humored, and idealistic main character in John Grisham's novel. He is also on his own, without family to fall back on. When a conventional "good" job with a law firm falls through, he is forced to be creative about finding employment and takes a job with an ambulance chasing legal business. He ends up going it on his own, however, starting his own law firm with Deck Shifflet.

The novel becomes a David and Goliath story, as Rudy, who has never argued a case in court, champions the cause of Donny Rae, a boy who was denied a needed bone marrow transplant from his twin brother that could have saved his life. Rudy shows his courage, intelligence, and determination as he takes on—and, against the odds, bests—a big law firm equally determined to win.

Rudy also shows his courage and good-heartedness again when he defends Kelly from her abusive husband. Some might see Rudy as merely a conventional good-guy hero, but he is hard not to root for.

This is one of my favorite books--and movies. The main character is Rudy Baylor, a brand-new law school graduate who takes a job at a law firm that has a shady reputation. A "rainmaker" is a lawyer who can generate a lot of business for a law firm, and Rudy certainly does his best with his case against the Great Benefits Insurance Company.

I highly recommend the movie version as well. It is very faithful to the book. The audiobook is good as well; no one can read Grisham's books better than Michael Beck.

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