Fetching Raymond (short story) by John Grisham
Dell, 2013
Inez Graney and her two older sons, Leon and Butch, take a bizarre road trip through the Mississippi Delta to visit the youngest Graney brother, Raymond, who has been locked away on death row. Going back to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his first novel, A Time to Kill, Grisham brings the Graneys and their world to vivid life, making it abundantly clear why he is a popular storyteller. “Fetching Raymond” is included in John Grisham’s collection of short stories titled Ford County.
“Fetching Raymond” fascinated me. Maybe it was because I hadn’t done any advance research into what the story was about, so I was delightfully drawn in with a slow dawning of understanding.
Right away, John Grisham drops clues that the Graney family’s visit to Raymond is monumental. And as the story progresses, readers are positioned uncomfortably close to an undeniably dysfunctional family in a genuine, defining moment.
Reader, I’d love for you to experience “Fetching Raymond” the same way I did, without knowing much about the story ahead of time, so I’m being intentionally vague in this review. However, I want my sensitive readers to know that a section of this story was graphic enough to bring me to tears—and we’re talking sobbing, multiple-tissues-required tears. Grisham has artfully positioned a controversial societal issue where the reader must grapple with it. That’s quite a feat for fifty pages of fiction.
Have you read this memorable short story? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about it.
