John Grisham became a household name with legal thrillers, such as "The Firm" and "The Client," most of which have been made into movies. However, the prolific author seems to have tired of that genre. Last year, he tried his hand at non-fiction with his account of the real-life drama of wrongly convicted death-row inmate, Ron Williamson, in "The Innocent Man."
With "Playing for Pizza," Grisham takes a diversion from his usual crime genre to spin a likeable, but somewhat fluffy, tale about a failed quarterback, Rick Dockery. Dockery's journeyman NFL career comes to an abrupt halt when he, the third string quarterback, gets called into the game in the last minutes of a pivotal game. In just a few plays, Dockery manages to get intercepted twice, squander a 17-point lead, and become the scapegoat for a city of disgruntled fans. He also ends up in the hospital with a severe concussion.
Italian Football
A lesser man, or a smarter one, might have taken the situation as a hint to get out of football for good, but the game is all that Dockery knows. Since he's unsignable in the US after the playoff debacle, Dockery's agent finds him a summer gig playing American football in Parma, Italy. It's a far cry from the NFL, but the gig comes with an apartment and a car and he's hailed as a hero the moment he walks into the locker room. Since most of the players are Italians and play for the love of the game, not money, a real American quarterback is something of a novelty. Can Dockery live up to their expectations? Does he even care?
Rick Dockery
"Playing for Pizza" is a well-told, likeable story, but it lacks the suspense and intrigue that readers have come to expect from Grisham. The author also risks alienating Northeast Ohio readers with his slurs against Cleveland, the team for whom Dockery lost the playoff game. It's a very readable novel with a sympathetic leading character, but it's no where near the level of Grisham's early works.
About John Grisham
John Grisham is the author of twenty novels, beginning with the 1989 thriller, "A Time to Kill." His breakthrough novel was "The Firm," which became a movie with Tom Cruise. Grisham is married with two children and divides his time between homes in Mississippi and Virginia. His next novel, a courtroom drama titled "The Appeal," is scheduled to be released in January of 2008.
