 Drama: July 04, 2012 Issue [#5132] |
  Drama
This week: Non-fiction? Not As Easy As It Seems! Edited by: Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline  
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It can be tricky business to write a non-fiction novel. For this week's Drama Newsletter I have chosen The Innocent Man by John Grisham to highlight the fact that it takes true talent to write a fascinating true story.
kittiara |
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I’m sure that most people are familiar with the saying that everyone has a story to tell. Non-fiction, though, is not as easy to write as it seems. Fiction allows for flights of fancy, for leeway with characters – indeed, you can create a whole new world in your mind and bring it to life on the page. Non-fiction is much more restricted, and it relies on facts. Although the reader may be more familiar with the settings and scenery and the way the world works, it takes great skill to turn real events into a readable tale.
I’ve recently reread The Innocent Man by John Grisham. Grisham is best known for his works of fiction, mainly his courtroom dramas. The Innocent Man, however, is probably his most chilling story, all the more so because it’s real. It is not a biography, not Grisham’s own story, but I decided to use it for this newsletter because it illustrates the talent of the author, and because it is an unusual piece of writing.
What I find interesting about this novel is that it is not actually that easy to like the main subject, Ron. A sympathetic character tends to drawn in the reader, makes them root for them and wish them well. Ron isn’t like that. His life was a mess and he had done some bad things.
Ron’s talent at baseball was evident at a young age. His other talent was getting his own way. He made many demands of his parents and sisters – he wanted the best gear, the best clothes, even a temporary relocation so that he could attend the best school for him. This was despite the fact that his family was hardworking, but not very rich.
When he became a professional player, he got caught up in the lifestyle – late nights, women… lots of women. Sleep all day, party all night. His marriage made him calm down for a short while, but when an injury put an end to his career, he went back to his old ways and his marriage was short-lived.
He couldn’t accept that his career was over. He tried to get back in the game a couple of times, but it didn’t work. Yet he was the star. He was the professional. The people of the town looked up to him, depended on him. He couldn’t move on.
His mental health deteriorated and still he partied on. He was arrested a few times for minor offences, had a couple of big cases against him that saw him walk away free, then ended up in jail for forging a check.
The state of his mental health was down to a combination of factors – his inability to stick to medication and treatment, and the fact that the treatment itself was lacking. He needed long-term help, and didn’t get it. He was stuck in a downward spiral. By the time he was arrested for the crime the novel is about, he was often wandering the streets at night, unkempt, surviving on hand-outs from his family and the occasional bit of lawn mowing.
The thing is, though, that he may have done some bad things, and may have made a mess of his life, but he wasn’t entirely responsible for the state of his mental health, and he hadn’t committed the crime he was found guilty of. The way he was treated by the system is what makes the story so chilling. People tend to believe in the system, tend to believe in justice, and justice wasn’t served in Ron’s case, nor in the case of the other three people whose stories are intertwined in the novel.
The more the story unfolds, the more difficult it is to believe that things like this can happen, that people can be treated in this manner. And yet it did happen, and the lives of Ron and the others did get messed up for no good reason.
You do end up feeling sympathy for Ron, because what happened to him is horrifying. Just because someone is a bit scary, and may act rather weird, doesn’t mean they should be singled out and treated like dirt. He should have received proper help. Instead, he ended up on death row.
The Innocent Man is not an easy read, but it is written with amazing skill, and it highlights some very important issues.
I would recommend it.
kittiara
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Here are some of the latest items in the drama genre. I hope you will enjoy them  .
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The Drama Newsletter Team welcomes any and all questions, suggestions, thoughts and feedback, so please don't hesitate to write in!
SantaBee  - welcome to the Drama NL! Hope you enjoy it. Steph
Thank you so much, Steph!
~~~
Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
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