| | |  | | Home » Ford County: Stories | | | | | | | Description: | | In his first collection of short stories John Grisham takes us back to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his first novel, A Time to Kill.
Wheelchair-bound Inez Graney and her two older sons, Leon and Butch, take a bizarre road trip through the Mississippi Delta to visit the youngest Graney brother, Raymond, who's been locked away on death row for eleven years. It could well be their last visit.
Mack Stafford, a hard-drinking and low-grossing run-of-the-mill divorce lawyer gets a miracle phone call with a completely unexpected offer to settle some old, forgotten cases for more money than he has ever seen. Mack is suddenly bored with the law, fed up with his wife and his life, and makes drastic plans to finally escape.
Quiet, dull Sidney, a data collector for an insurance company, perfects his blackjack skills in hopes of bringing down the casino empire of Clanton's most ambitious hustler, Bobby Carl Leach, who, among other crimes, has stolen Sidney's wife.
Three good ol' boys from rural Ford County begin a journey to the big city of Memphis to give blood to a grievously injured friend. However, they are unable to drive past a beer store as the trip takes longer and longer. The journey comes to an abrupt end when they make a fateful stop at a Memphis strip club.
The Quiet Haven Retirement Home is the final stop for the elderly of Clanton. It's a sad, languid place with little controversy, until Gilbert arrives. Posing as a lowly paid bedpan boy, he is in reality a brilliant stalker with an uncanny ability to sniff out the assets of those "seniors" he professes to love.
One of the hazards of litigating against people in a small town is that one day, long after the trial, you will probably come face-to-face with someone you've beaten in a lawsuit. Lawyer Stanley Wade bumps into an old adversary, a man with a long memory, and the encounter becomes a violent ordeal.
Clanton is rocked with the rumor that the gay son of a prominent family has finally come home, to die. Of AIDS. Fear permeates the town as gossip runs unabated. But in Lowtown, the colored section of Clanton, the young man finds a soul mate in his final days.
Featuring a cast of characters you'll never forget, these stories bring Ford County to vivid and colorful life. Often hilarious, frequently moving, and always entertaining, this collection makes it abundantly clear why John Grisham is our most popular storyteller. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| John Grisham | | Hardcover:
| 320 pages | | Publisher:
| Doubleday | | Publication Date:
| November 03, 2009 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0385532458 | | Product Length:
| 5.74 inches | | Product Width:
| 1.1 inches | | Product Height:
| 8.6 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.01 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.7 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.1 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.0 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 240 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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188 of 197 found the following review helpful:
 In the grand storytelling tradition...Nov 03, 2009
By Jason Frost
"RubiconReader"
John Grisham is a storyteller. For all the flack he takes for being a "pop" author, this man knows how to tell a tale. The only thing this book was missing was a rocking chair and a porch. These are stories that might have been told on a lazy Sunday evening while sitting on grandpa's lap listening to the cicadas playing a tune composed by Mother Nature. These stories run the gambit from touching, to sinister, to the unthinkable, to heart-wrenching to, "yep that's what you get", to my favorite... the "illegal yes, but I'll bet it felt so good"!
Until Grisham's `Playing for Pizza', I avoided his non-lawyer novels. Well, I ended up enjoying that one and I really enjoyed this one. Like I said earlier, John is a mesmerizing storyteller and, although these stories are not related in any way, they flow like they are.
My favorite story, by FAR, was `Fish Files'. (Think of the movie `Falling Down' without the violence and caffeine). Maybe it's because I wish for this sort of thing to happen to me or maybe because I love living vicariously through a story. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed reading about Mack because he didn't hesitate when opportunity kicked down his door. Be a good man... bah! Sticking with good southern values... whatever! Doing what your Sunday school teacher said... yeah ummm... I think I'll pass. I simply loved this story!!
`Casino' came a very, very close second. Each one of these seven stories creates a different feeling, gives birth to a unique memory, speaks to hidden emotions, and, in a small way, enriches the human spirit. His pop success made him famous, but it's his ability to grab and never let go that makes his books unforgettable. As a book lover/fanatic, I really enjoy authors' who have that ZING it takes to grab my attention and that indescribable POW that keeps me reading. This is a wonderful, classic, short story collection.
72 of 78 found the following review helpful:
THE BLITZ REVIEW OF FORD COUNTYNov 03, 2009
By Bruce A. Sperber
America's greatest contribution to literary forms is the short story. Just refer to a strange looking gentleman named Poe. So why is it that so many prominent American writers today seem to have forgotten the short story?
John Grisham to the rescue! His recently published collection of short stories, "FORD COUNTY", is one of the best books of 2009.
The book is composed of seven beautifully written tales from Grisham's roots in Mississippi. Each story is a gem! The mostly contemporary plots range from hilarity ("Blood Drive") to heartache ("Michael's Room"). By the end of the last selection ("Funny Boy"), the reader wishes there were seven more.
This is a great writer at his best, and one hopes that in the future Mr. Grisham will bring us more tales from Ford County. Get the book and enjoy every word. "Ford County" is superb!
BRUCE SPERBER
64 of 70 found the following review helpful:
Grisham fans: Welcome back to Clanton!Nov 04, 2009
By Amy Y.
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?-- Mary Oliver"
Wow! I was at the bookstore this morning to check out the new releases and this was on a display so I picked it up. You know those books that you pick up out of curiosity and then read a page or two? And then another couple pages? And pretty soon you are all the way through the first story? This is one of those. I had to buy it because I'd gotten engrossed in Raymond's story, an inmate on death row who has written his memoir. I went home(the kids are sick today) and settled in with the book and started over from the beginning.
Clanton, the town where Grisham's first blockbuster "A Time to Kill" takes place is now the setting for a number of unique characters, something a bit of an island of misfit toys. The book is a composite of seven stories- and yet, maybe because of the setting and the writing style, the stories flowed into one another and gave me a sense of a bigger picture than just a collection of individual stories.
I haven't felt terribly compelled by Grisham in recent years, yet, these stories are good- really good. They felt warm and comfortable. His writing style reminds me of pulling on a pair of well worn jeans. His characters are robust, real and sympathetic. The themes are common and even if one can't relate to all of the characters, you will find something for just about everyone here.
Some of the scenes are a little far-fetched and yet, I think it is the characters and the sense of humor with which Grisham write that makes me not just believe, but want to believe. You can almost hear the drawl of the South and the world slowing down as you get deeper into the stories.
Plenty of intrigue and, of course, what Grisham is so well-known for- writing about the law and those who exact it. I don't think his usual legal thriller readers will be at all disappointed even if the pace is a bit slower- the writing is compelling enough to hold. A good collection in a somewhat neglected genre of short-storytelling, I recommend it wholly. I think it is some of his better work in recent history.
41 of 50 found the following review helpful:
 Ford County Stories are Enjoyable, Not ExceptionalNov 10, 2009
By T. Karr
"mild-mannered accountant"
FORD COUNTY is just "okay." Two of the stories stood out more than the others for me.
I enjoyed the humorous "Blood Drive" that features three Ford County lads that embark on a trip to Memphis to donate blood. They allow themselves to get distracted a few times between home and the big city with hilarious results.
There is nothing funny about "Funny Boy," a story featuring an AIDS victim that returns to his boyhood home in the south for his final days. This story about prejudice and fear is ready-made for a weepy Movie of the Week.
All of the stories are easy to read, but none of them are exceptional. None of the tales are page-turners, but they do make for an afternoon of enjoyable, light reading.
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "SEVEN CREATIVE NEW MISSISSIPPI SHORT STORIES."Nov 09, 2009
By Rick Shaq Goldstein
"*SHAQ*"
This book contains seven new short stories by the legendary John Grisham. All are built around Ford County Mississippi where the novel that launched his career "TIME TO KILL" was set. While Grisham's recent novels have been met with mixed emotions... I found these seven stories interestingly mesmerizing. As a reviewer it's a little tougher to give potential readers an overview of short stories as compared to a full Grisham novel because the reviewer has to be more careful not to give away key spoilers... which in a short story is very easy to do. What I found compelling was the ability of the author... even with the limited pages for each of the stories... to create quick... detailed... enthralling character studies... seemingly with the "flick" of his wrist... despite not having his normal availability of a full book's canvas in which to paint his characters nuances.
It's within these character depictions that the author deftly... and almost intrinsically... is able to tug at the reader's heart and have tears begin to form one minute... then lightly chuckle as he quickly carves out ludicrous delineations that frame the lesser hanger-ons that dot society.
Within all these stories there seems at first to be numerous good versus evil scenario's... but at times... the evil and good can't be separated in such a black and white lens. A sampling (in random order) of some of Grisham's plots include rumors growing and changing... trips to a blood bank that starts off with the best of intentions and yet winds up in a bloody strip club brawl... a kidnapping of a lawyer who is forced to see the result of his defense work from the wretched side of the victim... a family trip to an execution... a marriage gone bad and the bending of the legal system in an attempt to turn a nightmare into a dream... a character in a nursing home that allows larceny and empathy to exist in the same soul... a husband scorned who starts playing his "cards" right which leads to a serendipitous turn of events... and a look back at a dying 1980's AIDS patient and his effect on a Mississippi town.
The titles and page lengths of the seven stories are:
1. Blood Drive (44 pages)
2. Fetching Raymond (50 pages)
3. Fish Files (46 pages)
4. Casino (36 pages)
5. Michael's Room (34 pages)
6. Quiet Haven (54 pages)
7. Funny Boy (43 pages)
The communicational power of Grisham's words that target and hit the bull's-eye of life's characters quickly and adroitly... lead me to believe that despite the short nature of these stories... a number of them can easily be made into full length motion pictures.
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