Word: grisham
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...decade and a half later, he's sitting on a stack of 18 best sellers. He has a 1,000-acre farm outside Charlottesville with 15 horses (Grisham moved his family from Oxford, Miss., after too many fans dropped by; he even surprised a Japanese couple getting married on his lawn) and a vast office with blond wood floors, movie memorabilia and sliding, brushed-metal screens...
Williamson didn't have much luck in life, but he caught a break after his death when Grisham read his obituary. "I love the obituaries," he says. "Lot of times, that's the only thing I read in the New York Times if I'm in a hurry." Williamson's story hit him like a thunderbolt. Grisham writes on a strict and orderly schedule: he likes to start a book every August and finish it by Thanksgiving. Williamson died in December 2004, when Grisham had just finished The Broker, and he didn't want another book to write. But there...
Within an hour Grisham had placed calls to his agent, to his publisher and to Annette Hudson and Renee Simmons, Williamson's sisters, who at first assumed it was a prank call. They realized he was serious when he got them a lawyer and bought the exclusive rights to their brother's story...
...deal was done, but Grisham's troubles had just begun. Williamson's story just wasn't shaped like a Grisham novel. Structure and pacing were exactly what Ron Williamson couldn't do. He spent years frittering away time, drifting in and out of institutions, going through endless trials and appeals, and rotting in jail. And he didn't always act like a hero. He wasn't relatable. "That was the hardest part," Grisham says. "I mean, when you're writing a novel, you want people to love your hero on Page One! With Ron--I mean, he's a cocky...
...didn't fit the Theme, but Williamson was exactly what Grisham needed as a writer, for exactly that reason. His thrillers are gleaming, perfectly calibrated machines, but books don't look right unless they have a few rough, unfinished patches. They cease to resemble reality, which is nothing if not rough around the edges. The Innocent Man may not handle like The Street Lawyer. It may never be a movie starring Tom Cruise. But it is undeniably real...