The setting of the John Grisham novel, “Playing for Pizza,” mostly takes place in Italy. Rick starts the book in Cleveland, Ohio playing for the Cleveland Browns, but when he leaves and travel to Italy, he stays, except on one occasion, in Italy for the rest of the book. The main city in Italy which he stays is Parma, Italy. When his new American girlfriend (Livvy) comes around, they travel all across Italy to places such as: Venice, Apulia, Sicily, Sardinia, Veneneto, and Friuli. The setting effects Rick because he comes to realizes that he is not in American, but in Italy where everything is completely different. The food is different,the cars are different, and even the criminal system is different. When John Grisham takes Rick out of the US and puts him into Italy, he accomplishes the fact that Rick can now start over and have no distractions. This is a brillant way to be able to block out Cleveland, Charley, and the prego case.

The genre of this book is fiction, but John Grisham was inspired by real people, towns, and events that took place while he was touring Italy. John Grisham told us in his author’s note, “There is a real NFL there, with real teams, player, even a Super Bowl. So the setting of this book is reasonably accurate… In these pages, though, all characters are fictional. I went to great lengths to stay away from real people. Any similarities are just coincidental.” The story’s plot may be fictional, but the Parma Panthers are as real as can be. This book is very realistic and that it is very possible to occur today. Now, Rick Dockery blowing the AFC Championship Game is very possible today. His situation with his ex-girlfriend is very real and has happened before.