Ford County Stories by John Grisham
ISBN: 9780099545781
Description
Ford County: a place of harsh beauty where broken dreams and final wishes converge. From a hard-drinking, downtrodden divorce lawyer looking for pay-dirt, to a manipulative death row inmate with one last plea, Ford County features a vivid array of attorneys, crooks, hustlers, and convicts.
Reviewed on 1st July 2012
John Grisham's first collection of short stories set in and around his fictional town of Clanton is a mixed bag of generally depressing tales which seem further from life as I know it than if they were set in rural China.
There are seven separate stories which each took me about half an hour to read, however I found it difficult to read them back to back and had to take breaks between every couple to read something else, just to lighten the mood. As I discovered though, the first two stories were the most annoying, and once I'd forced my way through these things picked up.
In order, the stories are appalling, depressing, immoral, mildly amusing, disturbing, morally ambivalent and sad but poignant. Three out of the seven seem like initial ideas for full novels that Grisham rejected for that and wrote a shorts, one is too similar to one of his previous novels, one reads as a put-down of the American justice system, one pointless filler and the final one a very clever take on the parallels between racism and other forms of discrimination.
Overall, I can't really recommend this collection. Ford County is presented as a very strange backward place and it's hard for a Briton to actually believe that anywhere is actually like the place Grisham describes.
Description
Ford County: a place of harsh beauty where broken dreams and final wishes converge. From a hard-drinking, downtrodden divorce lawyer looking for pay-dirt, to a manipulative death row inmate with one last plea, Ford County features a vivid array of attorneys, crooks, hustlers, and convicts.
Reviewed on 1st July 2012
John Grisham's first collection of short stories set in and around his fictional town of Clanton is a mixed bag of generally depressing tales which seem further from life as I know it than if they were set in rural China.
There are seven separate stories which each took me about half an hour to read, however I found it difficult to read them back to back and had to take breaks between every couple to read something else, just to lighten the mood. As I discovered though, the first two stories were the most annoying, and once I'd forced my way through these things picked up.
In order, the stories are appalling, depressing, immoral, mildly amusing, disturbing, morally ambivalent and sad but poignant. Three out of the seven seem like initial ideas for full novels that Grisham rejected for that and wrote a shorts, one is too similar to one of his previous novels, one reads as a put-down of the American justice system, one pointless filler and the final one a very clever take on the parallels between racism and other forms of discrimination.
Overall, I can't really recommend this collection. Ford County is presented as a very strange backward place and it's hard for a Briton to actually believe that anywhere is actually like the place Grisham describes.
The Final Detail
The Never-Ending Sacrifice
No Deals, Mr Bond
Not Dead Enough
The Amber Spyglass
The Reptile Room
The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure
A Storm of Swords (2: Blood and Gold)
Laughing Gas
Mortal Causes
The Accused
The Leopard
The Mystery of the Hidden House
Ghost Ship
Diamond Solitaire
The Red Dahlia
Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens
After the Funeral
Snakehead
Hey Nostradamus!
The Mermaids Singing
The Black Echo
Storm Front
Dragonflight
The Magicians' Guild
The Watchman
Redshirts
Eragon
Don't Touch Anything
Gone
Death Comes to Pemberley
The Case of the Missing Books
Ordinary Thunderstorms
The Way of Kings (part one)
The Way of Kings (part two)
Elantris
The Grave Tattoo
Blood at the Bookies
Pulling Up Stakes (part 2)
