A short story is no easy task, in fact by most writers it is considered one of the more difficult things to write. You would think since it’s shorter and less involved it would be easier to piece together the story. I mean we all have great little stories we share around the dinner table, right? Wrong. The short story is infinitely more difficult to write, and let me explain why. A writer must create a whole world, compelling characters, and provide insight into the human condition in 5-20 pages. John Grisham can create a compelling world when he has four to five hundred pages at his disposal, but give him 40 pages, and we have a whole other world of issues. This is what I discovered with his newest venture, Ford County, Grisham’s first collection of short stories.

All of the stories in Ford County are set in Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his first book A Time to Kill. There are only seven stories, almost all involve lawyers to a mind numbing degree, and all are highlighted by the quirkiness of characters one can find only in the South. While Grisham does capture the various odd people of the South well, his repetitiveness turns them into characitures after 265 pages. I found most of the stories to be too long, and only a few were very compelling.

The highlights were: “Funny Boy” which is the tale of a young gay man with AIDS who returns from San Francisco to his backwards home town to die and “Casino” about a dull man named Sidney who realizes he is more interesting than he thought after his wife leaves him. These two tales made attempts to explore the human condition in a way that was meaningful. “Quiet Haven” about an attendant in a nursing home and “Michael’s Room” about a vengeful father both had potential, and did keep my interest until the end, but then I finished them a realized Grisham didn’t have a point. The rest of the stories were forgettable, dull, or just didn’t reach any kind of potential.

Grisham’s failure is in the fact he didn’t know what he was after, and didn’t know how to sum it up within the confines of the story. For 70% of the book I felt that my time had been wasted, I had no deeper thoughts on the plight of humanity than when I began, and I didn’t care who these characters were or what they wanted. And with all of these failures in mind, all I can say is, thank goodness he is all ready an established author.

I only recommend this book if you are a diehard Grisham fan who must read everything he writes. Otherwise, it would be bearable if you were stuck in an airport or if you are bored and it was on sale in the bookstore as a paperback.

Grade: C/C-

Chanukah was a profitable book season for me. My husband bought me Under the Dome by Stephen King (at 1100 pages, it’ll few days before I finish and share my thoughts on it with you) and Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut. In case you don’t know this, I consider both men to be the two greatest writers of the mid to late 20^th century. The first book was expected (I begged for it) and the second was a total surprise. My husband spied it in B&N as he was buying gift for his holiday party. He said to me “I saw the name ‘Kurt’, walked closer, saw ‘Vonnegut’, and knew I had to get it for you.” Isn’t he just the best?

Armageddon in Retrospect is a posthumous collection of unpublished stories about war by Vonnegut. It consists mostly of war stories, each told with that unique Vonnegut poignancy. History becomes more than essential in the reading of these stories. Vonnegut was a corporal in World War 2, and spent a majority of his time in Europe as a POW in Germany. While there, he was witness to what he considered one of the greatest disasters during the war, the blitz on Dresden, Germany in February 1945. This event permanently altered his perspective, not only on war, but on humanity itself.

The collection is quite wonderful. There is no clear timeline or introduction to any of the pieces, so it is difficult to tell when they were written in the course of his life, and I find it better that way. They all maintain that Vonnegut voice which Vonnegut readers know well and love. The central theme is war, but because the stories are almost about POWs in Dresden during WW2, it can feel a little repetitive by the end.

I highly recommend this book to a Vonnegut fan. It is everything you expect old Kurt to be, even if it is several different versions of his perspective on war. I do not recommend it to a Vonnegut newbie, because it will wear on you and it won’t do him justice. If you want to know why Vonnegut is great, go read Slaughterhouse Five, then try on Welcome to Monkey House, then come back and read this.

Grade: A-