Ford County: Stories
Where to buy Ford County: Tales books online?
- ISBN13: 9780739377383
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In his first collection of fleeting tales 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 ancient, 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.
Silent, 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 additional crimes, has stolen Sidney’s wife.
Three excellent ol’ boys from rural Ford County start a journey to the huge city of Memphis to give blood to a grievously injured friend. But, 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 Silent Haven Retirement Home is the final stop for the elderly of Clanton. It’s a sad, languid place with small controversy, until Gilbert arrives. Posing as a lowly paid bedpan boy, he is in reality a brilliant stalker with an mysterious ability to sniff out the assets of persons “seniors” he professes to like.
One of the hazards of litigating against people in a tiny town is that one day, long after the examination, you will probably come face-to-face with a name you’ve beaten in a lawsuit. Lawyer Stanley Wade bumps into an ancient adversary, a man with a long memory, and the encounter becomes a violent suffering.
Clanton is rocked with the rumor that the gay son of a prominent family tree has finally come home, to die. Of AIDS. Dread 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 tales bring Ford County to plain and colorful life. Regularly hilarious, frequently moving, and permanently entertaining, this collection makes it abundantly clear why John Grisham is our most well loved storyteller.
From the Hardcover edition.Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Pat Conroy Reviews Ford County
Pat Conroy is most recently the leader of the #1 New York Times bestseller South of Broad, as well as eight previous books: The Boo, The Water Is Wide, The Fantastic Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Composition, My Losing Season, and The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life. He lives on Fripp Island, South Carolina. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of Ford County:
In the mail last week, I received a copy of John Grisham’s latest fiction. It surprised me that the book was comprised of seven fleeting tales. From the time I first started publishing at Doubleday, they have permanently made sure that I received a copy of a Grisham book long before it went on sale in the bookstores. He has written 22 books, and I’ve read them all as soon as they were available in crisp review copies.
I have loved the Grisham books for the same reason that I like the works of John Irving, Richard Russo, or Anne Rivers Siddons: I get hooked by an early page, and pure habit forces me to read until I am issued my walking papers and can return to my normal life. These writers are all wish-bringers who cast spells with the bright enchantment of their tales, and the power of tale has retained its glamour and necessity for me. I’ve permanently liked it when Grisham took a sabbatical from his impressive fiction to romp in the meadow of sports or non-fiction.
John surprised me by entering the ring of danger that the fleeting tale represents for all writers. In the world of writing, the poets come first as they finger the language like worry beads and marvel where their next meal is coming from. The art of the fleeting tale writer is one of economy, concision, and the genius of trying to craft a whole world inside a mason jar. The modern world punishes the fleeting tale writer with inattention. The literary reviews keep the fleeting tale alive and finger-popping in America today, while the New Yorker tries to strangle the form with its bare hands. But a fantastic fleeting tale is a source of joy, and the reading of Chekhov, de Maupassant, Flannery O’Connor and others offer pleasures unmatched by any additional form. Since I’m incapable of writing the fleeting tale form, I wanted to see how Grisham fared, knowing the critics would sharpen their swords against him no matter how accomplished his tales might be.
Ford County is the best writing that John Grisham has ever done. One of the many things I’ve admired about his books is his intimate chronicle of Mississippi life in the generations following William Faulkner and Eudora Welty. Grisham writes equally well about the plantation south, the black south, and white-cracker south. Over the years he has used the officially authorized system as an instrument to illuminate the world of mansions and sharecroppers and everything in between as he not only defined Mississippi but also staked it out as his home fictional territory. His fleeting tales were a surprise to me. All of them are very excellent; three of them, I judge, are fantastic. Grisham has permanently had a rare gift for breaking hearts when he invokes unforgettable images of the broken, hopeless South. Some of the tales are hilarious, and Grisham’s gift of humor has never establish a showcase like this. One of these tales should find its way into the anthologies of the best fleeting tales of 2009. It might not take place, but I for one reflect the tales in Ford County are that damned excellent.–Pat Conroy
(Photo © David G. Spielman)
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Until John Grishman joins the 21st century and allows eBooks, I will never buy another one of this works. Yes, there are persons who don’t like eBooks, and will only want the real paper copy. But there are many, growing every month, who are moving to eBooks, and really like the convenience. Why John Grisham can’t figure this out is beyond me. Course, if he continues to write these silly fleeting tales that take no effort, then I’m thinking his days are numbered. By the way, John Grisham used to be my all-time favorite leader – a title I’m sure he’s had for many people, and sorry to say, a title which is being replaced.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I HAVE ALWAYS ENJOYED GRISHAM’S BOOKS.THE ASSOCIATE WAS A LETDOWN,BUT FORD COUNTY WAS A GROUP OF WHAT I THOUGHT WAS POINTLESS STORIES.I KNOW OTHER PEOPLE ENJOYED THIS BOOK.I JUST DON’T SEE IT.ALL AUTHORS EVENTUALLY RUN OUT OF IDEAS.SOME HAVE TO FILL BOOK OBLIGATIONS WITH THE PUBLISHER.I FELT THIS WAS ONE OF THOSE BOOKS.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This book is seven fleeting tales that each lack a plot. There is a reason that John Grisham did not make each of tales into a book! Don’t bother to read this book.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Grisham is a fantastic novelist as far as long tales go. I was disappointed in the fleeting tale collection.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Grisham is a favorite leader, I have every book he has written, but, I must say Ford County was not worth wasting my time reading. Additional than the first tale which was humorous, the remaining tales were just blah. Made me marvel if he has a “ghost writer” doing his work. Just didn’t sound like his writing to me. I’d like to read a really excellent Grisham book, maybe next one will be.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5