Camino Island

In Camino Island, John Grisham explores the myths and realities of being a writer. Through Mercer’s professional struggles, her conversations with other writers, and the advice of Bruce and others, Grisham shows readers the decisions, compromises, and pains of the writing life.

Grisham highlights several ways that writers support themselves when writing itself doesn’t provide enough income. One of the most common is teaching. At the beginning of the novel, when Elaine first approaches her, Mercer is teaching as an adjunct instructor. Teaching as an adjunct is a job that offers no security, which is why she finds Elaine’s offer so appealing. At the end of the novel, she is a resident writer at a university, an appointment that involves teaching classes on a guest basis. These positions are often available at schools and, while more prestigious than being an adjunct professor, are also only temporary. The main complaint that Mercer, as a writer, has about these positions is their demand on her time; as she puts it, “she was a writer, not a teacher, and it was time to move on. To where, she wasn’t certain, but after three years in the classroom she longed for the freedom of facing each day with nothing to do but write her novels and stories” (83). Although teaching offers a way to support oneself as a writer, it takes one’s attention away from the writing—it is no coincidence that Mercer’s novel is three years overdue, the same amount of time she’s been teaching.

As Grisham illustrates, some writers choose to approach the problem of supporting oneself by writing a different way, realizing that how much money one makes as a writer can be as easy as choosing what one writes. In order to pay the bills, some writers are forced to compromise their work, writing things outside their interest and even sometimes work they don’t respect. This issue is explored through Myra and Leigh’s careers and success. When they met, they began writing erotic romance for financial reasons, and the endeavor has been able to support them completely. Leigh continues to write literary fiction but is able to do so only because Myra is still writing romance. As Myra bluntly puts it, “Leigh did a good job of hiding behind me and dodging all the mud. Her literary reputation is still intact, such as it is” (134). In order to make a living writing, Myra has made compromises that affect other writing opportunities.

This is also made clear later, at Bruce and Noelle’s dinner party, where they stage what Myra declares a “literary intervention” for Mercer. Some genres, they all agree, make more money than others. The conversation that follows is a quick discussion assessing the various genres. When Bruce asks Myra if fiction can be both literary and popular, she says that “for the vast majority the answer is no” (204). As she puts it, “let’s assume you will probably not be able to write literary fiction that will slay the critics and also rack up impressive royalties” (204). With their frank assessment of each genre, they amuse themselves, but also provide the reader with insight into the calculations that writers engage in when they are considering how to make a living.

Yet success in the writing life is not just about the money—even when Mercer is on Camino Island, with the time and space to write, she finds it difficult, and so the novel also exposes the reality of the daily writing life. In her attempts to write while on the island, Mercer struggles with daily ups and downs. She makes progress on her novel but then deletes everything, calling it “the worst junk she’d ever written” (194). The mythology of being a writer often conveys the ease with which ideas flow, even depicting the writer as a someone possessing magical powers. But Grisham dispels such an image as Mercer seems to torture herself and no “divine muse” ever appears. By showing the various ways that writers support themselves, the compromises they are forced to make, and the daily life of a writer, Grisham, with his own extensive experience, exposes the realities of the writing life.