Ford County Stories - John Grisham

A collection of 7 stories that form the collage depicting the setting, the characters, the lives, the beliefs and daily adventures of the people of Ford County. A blurb on the back of the book says “Take a journey into Ford County, the fictional setting of John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill.” Fictional? The place is alive and thrumming with life.

The setting of most stories is Clanton, a small town in Ford County, which is part of the ‘south’. If you have read ‘Gone with the wind’ or ‘Roots’ and recall the ethos of the land, Ford County is what it has become in the 20th Century. Small, conservative towns with old families and new, away from the bustle of the glitzy cities, laid back, populated by the whites and the blacks who lead their separate yet intertwined lives, the local watering holes, the gossips, the waitresses, the bad boys, the mammas, the churches, the marriages and divorces and the kids, the crooks and of course, the lawyers.

Each story adds new threads to the tapestry, and by the time you are done you intuitively know the place, its people and their natures. Each story is rich in detail with a pace that is just right – you have time to take in the scenery yet you are eager to know where you are going. And before you reach your destination, you can be sure of a small twist. The beauty is that the twist in the tale is just a bonus. You hardly need that ‘hook’ to read these sumptuous tales – at 50 odd pages per story, it is just the right size between a ‘short’ story and a novel. I have trouble picking out a favourite from these seven. A total treat.

In ‘Blood Drive’ three young men Agnor, Calvin and Roger set out from Box Hill in Ford County, to the neighbouring big bad city of Memphis, with the express purpose of donating ‘blood’ to one of their own - young Bailey who has had an accident. Well, there is the drive, which is an odyssey in itself, running more on beer than gas, with a chase by a police car, gun shots, a couple of visits to a strip club, more alcohol, fisticuffs, arson, cracked skulls and some edge-of-the-seat escape-from-trouble sequences. And of course, there is blood - lots of it - but very little of it is ‘donated’ to save Bailey. Seems like these small town boys don’t even know they are living life on the edge!

‘Fetching Raymond’ also involves a long drive – this time the three travelers are Raymond Graney’s 2 older brothers and his 72 year old mother. They undertake an uneventful journey, the entire family puffing away on cigarettes and talking about Raymond, who is in the infamous Parchman prison and has had several unfulfilled illustrious careers – as a poet, a writer and a musician among others – all during his long stint in prison! His mother is his lone and long suffering audience, who remains clueless about the intent and content of her last born’s literary creations, which include his letters to his mother. These provide for some outrageously humorous interludes for the reader, as the three continue on their drive. They do end up meeting Raymond and ‘fetch’ him home to rest, but after an event that knocks your breath out.

‘Fish Files’, ‘Casino’, ‘Michael’s Room’ and ‘Quiet Haven’ are about crooks of various kinds.

‘Fish Files’ is a story about the lawyer who grabs an opportunity when it presents itself, rehauls his life, trades all that is for what could be – gambling on the legality of many of his actions. Does he pull it off?

‘Casino’ is about a career crook, the wealthy and extremely glitzy Bobby Carl Leach who runs, among many things, a rapidly growing casino. Or is it about the ‘uninspiring’ insurance company employee Sidney who avenges his broken heart and marriage, transforms into this whiz at playing the odds that he single handedly ‘breaks’ the casino and bankrupts it?

‘Michael’s Room’ is again about a lawyer Wade, who comes face-to-face with his own death when he is abducted and confronted by a family that has been grievously wronged – all because Wade is such a good lawyer that he has long forgotten the difference between law and justice. Michael’s room helps him see this difference, his follies and his imminent punishment.

You enter ‘Quiet Haven’, a retirement home, along with Gilbert, who applies for a job as a night-time attendant, taking up the job for a paltry pay. He can’t stand most of his colleagues, but has always liked the inmates – or does he really?

The last story is about a ‘Funny Boy’ – a young white homosexual man who contracts AIDS and has come back home to die, but his own family won’t have him back. He finds compassion and care ‘on the other side of the tracks’, with an old black spinster who ends up understanding herself better, as she sticks up for him right till the end.

Don’t lose your mind, lose your weight – Rujuta Diwekar

Like many women, I get my quota of tips and theories on health, diet, cooking, exercise, grooming, personal care, yada yada from 3 main sources – friends / colleagues, internet and the magazines at the local beauty parlour. Left to myself, this is the kind of book I would never pay good money and buy. And if someone gifted it to me, I would have certainly treated that as a grievous error of judgement.

Anyway, I ended up buying this book last week because: (i) my colleague and boss have been quoting from this book one-too-many times and (ii) I had to buy something for the value of some items I returned at Landmark and (iii) I found this on the ‘Best Seller’ shelf!!!

I have to say that I’m rather happy I bought it. It is intriguing and engaging enough to be a single-sit read. And after that, it will still be useful as a reference book.

In this book, Rujuta talks about the dysfunctional, abusive relationship many of us have with our stomachs, our bodies and ourselves. She sets out unambiguously and with powerful reasoning, the pitfalls of the ‘short-term, quick-results, weight and dress-size’ oriented approach we have to food and exercise (the book is more about the former than the latter). She encourages us to count the ‘nutritive’ value of the food we eat and not the ‘calorific’ value. She also goes on to give a short course on the basic food groups and the importance of each in making us function well.

As expected, she takes a hard line with most of the popular contemporary approaches – crash diets, atkins, south beach, lime-juice & honey, olive oil cooking, low fat food, sugar-free food, ‘good’ food / ‘bad’ food, ….. – you name it.

Chapter 4 ‘The four principles of eating right’ is actually a quick summary of the book. (Not getting into that here – read the book! – it’s worth it). If I have to give you a short summary of the book it will be this – ‘Eat whatever you want, just change the order / sequence of your eating. Eat more often, about 3 main meals and 4 / 5 small meals a day. Think nutrition, not calories. Do not ‘punish’ yourself. Exercise at least 3 hours a week.’

The good part of the book is that it tells us ‘why’ and ‘how’, not just ‘what’. Rujuta’s tone is one of mild incredulity – as if she were saying – ‘you look intelligent, then why would you do this?’ The style is pleasantly conversational – you can almost imagine her sitting across the table smirking here, chiding there and doling out ‘gyaan’ after that. The arguments and explanations are extremely lucid. The analogies with non-food aspects like car, politics (!) etc. drive her point home.

This book is meant for the contemporary Indian reader, the food references are Indian and the examples / cases come alive – and that is very good. What is not so good, is that it has so much ‘Hinglish’ - It can ‘put-off’ a non-Hindi person sometimes, and that would sadly limit its reach.

The timing of the book and the writer have capitalized on the ‘Kareena Kapoor is size zero’ phenomenon – Rujuta being Kareena's dietician. There are many references to Kareena through the book in addition to a dedicated section in the appendix. Also, I do think the book deserved a better title. But I suppose all these are part of marketing - ‘eye-ball’ and ‘interest’ grabbing tactics. It may rankle some of us, but the content is good enough to make one overlook these.

Illusions by Richard Bach

What if you were to meet someone who casually demolishes every one of the assumptions your world stands on? Who shows you that water is solid and soil is liquid and you can suffocate in air? Who nudges you to find your questions? Who then tells you that your question is your answer?

What if this someone who is a modern messiah and a reluctant one at that, becomes the one other human being you understand the most and the least – at the same time? What if this someone is a dear friend who, messiah or not, grapples with his own existential angst?

And…. What if you yourself are more evolved than you ever imagined, vested with knowledge from many lifetimes and across dimensions of time and space?

The premise of a reluctant modern messiah is sure to pique the interest of most people. And the completely ‘undaunting’ size of the book is a further lure. The look and feel of ‘Illusions’ reminded me of ‘Notes to Myself’ by Hugh Prather. Open any random page and you have a quote or two that jump out at you – even those that are just part of the text and not meant to be quotes. I love the style – it reads so simple that I wonder if the process of writing it was as simple. Hmm. Maybe not.

I read this book over a few days, although it looks very much like an airport read. Some books need ‘soaking’ time. The beginning was promising, easy, fun. Somewhere at the middle of the book, I started wondering if it was taking a turn towards oversimplification. Or was it getting so profound that I found it terribly simple?

Is this book autobiographical? – Yes and No.
Is this fiction or philosophy? – A bit of both.
Is this a personal diary – meant more for the writer than for the reader? – hmm… maybe!

This book has left me with some insights, and I’m sure a second read would mine more. At first pass, I have crystallized a few key messages – about learning, choices and the power of imagination.

It has also left me mildly bewildered and a bit sad. I’m happy to have read it. Will read it fully again sometime – this time in one go! But before that happens I know I will often pick this one up just to turn to a random page for a reticent insight previously unnoticed.