Book Review: Ford County Stories by John Grisham

Those who have read ‘A Time To Kill’ can resonate suitably with this collection of short stories. Through this book John takes the readers back to Ford County in Mississippi, a place where his first novel took place. This book consists of seven short stories. And themes range from revenge to reunion, escape plans to rob old people and so on. Though John is famous for writing legal thrillers, well this one is bit different, not all stories are set in the courtroom. For instance, the story ‘Blood Drive’ is about friends going to Ford County to donate blood to a friend, highlighting the hilarious account of their misadventures while they try to drive up to their destination.

Another story ‘Fetching Raymond’ is of two brothers going to visit their younger brother who is on a death row. Probably they would see him one last time. This story stirs up moments of tragedy and sadness. So, this way, stories of different people with different propositions come and go but their predicament and life issues remain with the readers.

Mostly, stories are placed around Ford County: Grisham’s favourite setting so far in his literary career. There is nothing much to explore, especially in short stories unless they are written by O’ Henry, but still Grisham is not someone whom his fan base can ignore without hesitation. The writing style is fantastic as usual, in novels he used to have much time to explain and play around a situation and characters but here only a few paragraphs. Only readers can tell whether he has done justice to his newly found love for short stories or he is as ever as fine with lengthy novels like earlier.

The towns featured in this book are Clanton (AL), Dodge City (KA), Tupelo (MI) and the largest city in the neighborhood - Memphis (TN), these are some of the famous or most used settings ever depicted by John and readers are aware of these many places. After reading these seven beautifully written stories, readers would feel like meeting old pals and going through a crowd of known people.

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