Jim Cherry's Blog - Posts Tagged "john-grisham"

Sparring Partners by John Grisham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


John Grisham’s latest, Sparring Partners revisits Grisham’s Ford County in three novella’s that while are page turners one truly stands out.
Ford county is Grisham’s fictional counterpart to Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha county. Ford county made its eponymous debut in Grisham’s 2009 book of short stories, Ford County. Grisham aspired and inspired by Faulkner wrote a book of short stories that demonstrated a greater range and depth than his legal thrillers. He succeeded in those tales and Sparring Partners is a follow-up of sorts, while the stories are Grisham’s usual page turners only one lives up to the promise of the original stories of Ford County.
The first story, Homecoming, is a lawyer’s fantasy, maybe a fantasy for any walk of life, to chuck it all in and take off for some tropical paradise. The story is a genuine page turner as Mack Stafford after a mysterious disappearance three years earlier with lots of rumors of bilked money and walking out on his family tries to affect a return and the unintended consequences of his actions, past and present. The third story, Sparring Partners, tells the story of a warring family, Kirk and Rusty Malloy and their disintegrating family that is mirrored by the dissolution of their law firm. The second of the novellas, Strawberry Moon is truly the standout story in this collection. It’s the story of death row inmate, Cody Wallace who is living the last three hours of his life waiting for a reprieve either from the Governor or the Supreme Court. Cody’s dilemma is palpable as is the arc his character experiences in those three hours and perhaps even in the arc Grisham takes the reader through.



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