Ford County
Stories
4.00 based on 26 reviews.
Media:
Hardcover Book, 320 pages
List Price:
$24.00
You Save:
$5.02
(20.92 %)
 |
Marketplace books are used or new books sold and shipped by independent booksellers. They may take longer to arrive than books shipped directly from Better World Books. Eco-Shipping is free in the USA, and $7.97 worldwide. Marketplace copies of a book do not qualify for our "bargain bin" pricing.
Learn more.
|
| Price |
Condition |
Purchase |
| $21.47 |
New (999 Copies). Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. -Great Buy! -100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
Ships from BargainBookStores, MI, USA
|
|
|
|
| $21.63 |
New (198 Copies). New 0385532458 Item is Brand New! !
Ships from Winchester Books, TN, USA
|
|
|
|
| $21.73 |
New (3 Copies). New in new jacket Brand new, not opened, gift quality, first edition, full number line, retail copy, no remainder marks, s110809.
Ships from THENYBESTSELLER, NY, USA
|
|
|
|
| $22.34 |
New (4 Copies). New in new dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 320 p. Audience: General/trade.
Ships from CAPSHKY-ALEXVACDSANDBOOKS, VA, USA
|
|
|
|
| $27.75 |
New (1 Copy). New New store stock.
Ships from Cover to Cover Books & More, MS, USA
|
|
|
|
| $28.11 |
New (1 Copy). New Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time.
Ships from UniversalAthenaeum, CO, USA
|
|
|
|
| $41.94 |
New (1 Copy). BRAND NEW HARDCOVER 8.3 by 6 inches. [allow 1-2 weeks transit to europe]. (00320 pages) grisham returns to ford county, mississippi, the setting of his immensely popular first novel, "a time to kill. " this wholly surprising collection reminds readers once again why grisham is one of america's favorite storytellers. lang=english accessory: no accessory (Hardcover )
Ships from Quartermelon, Warks, GBR
|
|
|
|
| $43.70 |
New (1 Copy). New in new dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 320 p. Audience: General/trade. COLLECTIBLE. STATED FIRST EDITION & FIRST PRINTING WITH FULL 10 DIGIT NUMBER LINE. Brand New hardcover with dust jacket. Excellent condition. Nice tight bright book. Text is clean and unmarked. Your order processed and shipped promptly with a tracking number in the US.
Ships from Denton Quality Books, TX, USA
|
|
|
|
Product 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
- Subtitle: Stories
- Media: Hardcover Book, 320 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday (November 03, 2009)
- ISBN-10: 0385532458
- ISBN-13: 9780385532457
- Dimensions: 5.8 x 8.3 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 lbs
- Note: Some of this information came from Amazon.com
You're Getting a Fair Price on the Books You Want
Some customers tell us we're the best bookstore on the Web, but we're not the only
one. We show you other bookstores' prices so you know you're getting a fair price.
Amazon sells this book for $15.98 including shipping. Usually ships in 24 hours.
Customers who bought this item also bought
$21.48 new
True Blue
David Baldacci A mysterious high-profile homicide in the nation's capital collides wi...
|
Customer Reviews
-
In the grand storytelling tradition... Nov 3, 2009 (63 of 66 found this helpful)
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.
-
THE BLITZ REVIEW OF FORD COUNTY Nov 3, 2009 (30 of 32 found this helpful)
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
-
Grisham fans: Welcome back to Clanton! Nov 4, 2009 (20 of 21 found this helpful)
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.
-
Evidence... Nov 6, 2009 (9 of 11 found this helpful)
"Ford County" is quite simply proof that John Grisham can write. Obviously, he gets a lot of grief from those who dismiss his work as plot-driven fluff. But there is and always was more to his work than that. Writing in the more confined forms of the short story--where intricate plot twists and long-built tension are impossible--Grisham shows us he can be as entertaining with tools such as interesting characters and truths about human nature we can all recognize.
It's also his funniest work. I'm glad he wrote it. Not that it will change the literati's impression of fiction that is meant to entertain an audience (heaven forbid). But I can practically guarantee that, had Grisham used a pen-name for these stories, the critics would have hailed an important new voice in Southern literature. Go figure. Good for you, John.
-
A Quick Read Nov 11, 2009 (2 of 2 found this helpful)
See numerous summaries above.
Okay, I normally don't read short stories, but when I saw Grisham's name on this one and some advanced reviews I decided to give it a shot. Didn't short stories usually have some sort of surprise at the end? While these seven shorts were easy and entertaining enough to read they didn't give me any "Wow!, I didn't see that coming" surprises. Quality writing and interesting characters chronicling a county in Mississippi gave this a passing review.