 In "A Painted House", a novel with strong autobiographical elements, the protagonist - a seven-year old farmer boy - manifests a strong wish to become a baseball player.As noted in the foreword to "Calico Joe", Grisham gave up playing baseball at the age of 18, after a game in which a hostile pitcher aimed a beanball at him, and narrowly missed doing the young Grisham grave harm.Grisham has been a Christian since he was eight years old, and has described his conversion to Christianity as "the most important event" in his life.