A Painted House | 
|  | | | Title: | A Painted House | | Author: | John Grisham | | Publisher: | Delta | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 03 February, 2004 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0385337930 / 9780385337939 | | List Price: | $13.00 | | You Save: | $2.60 | | Amazon Price: | $10.40 | |
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Product Description
Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers — and two very dangerous men — came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke’s world.
A brutal murder leaves the town seething in gossip and suspicion. A beautiful young woman ignites forbidden passions. A fatherless baby is born ... and someone has begun furtively painting the bare clapboards of the Chandler farmhouse, slowly, painstakingly, bathing the run-down structure in gleaming white. And as young Luke watches the world around him, he unravels secrets that could shatter lives — and change his family and his town forever....
From the Paperback edition.
Amazon.com Review
Ever since he published The Firm in 1991, John Grisham has remained the undisputed champ of the legal thriller. With A Painted House, however, he strikes out in a new direction. As the author is quick to note, this novel includes "not a single lawyer, dead or alive," and readers will search in vain for the kind of lowlife machinations that have been his stock-in-trade. Instead, Grisham has delivered a quieter, more contemplative story, set in rural Arkansas in 1952. It's harvest time on the Chandler farm, and the family has hired a crew of migrant Mexicans and "hill people" to pick 80 acres of cotton. A certain camaraderie pervades this bucolic dream team. But it's backbreaking work, particularly for the 7-year-old narrator, Luke: "I would pick cotton, tearing the fluffy bolls from the stalks at a steady pace, stuffing them into the heavy sack, afraid to look down the row and be reminded of how endless it was, afraid to slow down because someone would notice." What's more, tensions begin to simmer between the Mexicans and the hill people, one of whom has a penchant for bare-knuckles brawling. This leads to a brutal murder, which young Luke has the bad luck to witness. At this point--with secrets, lies, and at least one knife fight in the offing--the plot begins to take on that familiar, Grisham-style momentum. Still, such matters ultimately take a back seat in A Painted House to the author's evocation of time and place. This is, after all, the scene of his boyhood, and Grisham waxes nostalgic without ever succumbing to deep-fried sentimentality. Meanwhile, his account of Luke's Baptist upbringing occasions some sly (and telling) humor: I'd been taught in Sunday school from the day I could walk that lying would send you straight to hell. No detours. No second chances. Straight into the fiery pit, where Satan was waiting with the likes of Hitler and Judas Iscariot and General Grant. Thou shalt not bear false witness, which, of course, didn't sound exactly like a strict prohibition against lying, but that was the way the Baptists interpreted it. Whether Grisham will continue along these lines, or revert to the judicial shark tank for his next book, is anybody's guess. But A Painted House suggests that he's perfectly capable of telling an involving story with nary a subpoena in sight. --James Marcus
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Customer Reviews:
• Grisham Can Tell A Story Without Lawyers 04 November, 2003
A Painted House is a languid, meandering book where big things do happen. In a departure for John Grisham, those big things are not the focal point of the story.This book is a reflection on the tough lives of small farmers and those they employ. In 1952 Arkansas, the Chandler family is eeking out a living season to season with cotton and the help of hill people and Mexicans during harvest time.Seven-year old Luke is the narrator. His world is the Chandler cotton farm, not very good low land in Arkansas that gets flooded first when there is too much rain. Living in an unpainted clapboard house with his grandparents, his mom and dad and dreams of playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, Luke is part of the operation, having hoed in the spring and put on his own sack to pick 100 pounds of cotton a day during harvest time.As they do every year, the Chandlers take on help to get the cotton crop in before the rains. Help this year is a band of a dozen Mexicans who stay in the barn loft and the Spruill family, "hill people" who camp in their front yard -- right on the spot Luke uses for home plate when he imitates Stan Musial's moves to the porch radio during Cardinal broadcasts. Both groups have characters that make the seven-year old world wise before his time. Although incidents occur which could well be the point in a suspense thriller, Grisham uses them as background in this story. In A Painted House, he is seeking to show the most difficult season (harvest time) in the difficult world of a typical farm family through the eyes of a seven year old. Grisham succeeds. Although this is a slow book, with a gentle pace (where it even has a pace), the author's handling of dialogue and description is superb. The telling of the story is what is on display here, not the story. The book is an enjoyable diversion where the reader gets a good mind's eye view of the life of one little boy in 1950's Arkansas.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A8DJ9EU2QP2JM
• Review Of A Painted House 28 October, 2003
A Painted House Written by John Grisham is a story set in the late summer of 1952 about a boy's memory of the last summer that he lived with his grandparents on a cotton farm in rural Arkansas. It is a story of different classes of people, excitement and hardship but in the end I was disappointed with the lack of information as to what happened after the farm was flooded and a large portion of the cotton crop. Don't get me wrong. I'm an avid fan of John Grisham's writing. I love the way that he describes in detail his subject. For instance, as he described the family of hill people and the poor little lame child from the hills in such detail that I could see him and felt sorry for him. He describes the Mexicans that come to the farm to help pick cotton in such detail I could these people in my mind and I felt as if I knew them. As he described the farm I could picture in my mind an old farm with the siding grayed and sun bleached. The book gives a detailed description of the life of a cotton farmers life during the 1950's and the lives of migrant workers that would show up to pick the cotton. It is a story of different classes of people and how they interact and conflicts between them. Early in the book Grisham describes a fight between one of the migrants (Hank) and some of the lower class citizens of Black Oak (the Siscos). Then later in the book there is anther fight between Hank and one of the Mexican workers (Cowboy) because Cowboy had the nerve to fall for Hank's sister, Which by the way cost Hank his life. These fights and the reasons they occurred illustrates the way that the different cultures and classes of people look down on each other. Grisham masterfully describes the hardships that were endured by not only the Chandler's when they lost the majority of there cotton crop during the flood, but also those that lived around them. For instance he talks of a sharecroppers family that was living in a shack on the edge of the river that were so poor they could barely afford to eat. He described the transient lives of those that came to the farm to work. As he described these hardships it made wonder if I could have survived living under the same circumstances? I'm glad I don't have to find out. After weighing what I liked and didn't like about the book I would have to say that the book is a good read all the way to the end. I simply feel that the book would have been much better if he had put some closure to it. Did dad get a job in Detroit? Was their enough of the crop picked for grandma and grandpa to pay their bills? What happened with cowboy and the hill girl after their get away?
- Reviewed by customer ID: AN292VU748CJG
• Review Of A Painted House 16 June, 2007
I have read every Grisham book (some more than once) and this is my third favorite book of his behind THE FIRM and THE PELICAN BRIEF. Even though I am a huge Grisham fan I will admit that some of his books are a lot better than others. Some of which I would even describe as disappointing. I am writing this because I know a lot of people who think that as of late all of Grisham's books seem to run together and not be as good as they used to be. This book is not the case!
This was such an enjoyable, entertaining and easy read that really reminded me of the innocence of being a kid. I think men will definitely enjoy this book a lot more than women. I just think men will be able to relate better to some of the events in the book better. For example the love of baseball shared between a father and son and the bond it forms between them. It reminded me of the relationship I had with my dad. Also the innocent infatuation with a girl also reminded me of how it was to be a kid along with having to painfully sit through church when you wanted to go outside and play. It is rare for me to give five stars to a book, but I just seemed to relate so well to the narrorator, a young boy named Luke.
I absolutely love Grisham's sense of humor and how he can weave it into drama. This book was a very nice change of pace from his usual legal thrillers. To me I thought this book had it all...drama, suspense, violence, humor and a hint of a little romance. You can read other reviews to find out more specifically what this book is about, but I don't think anyone will be disappointed. I don't think anyone will say this is the best book they have ever read. It is not Grisham's best, but it is a great and enjoyeable book nonetheless. I would recommend it to just about anyone especially men who want to be reminded of what it was like to be a kid again.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1ITVW3CRL8VOE
• A Painted House 10 November, 2003
I have read all of John Grisham's books and found A Painted House to be totally different from the rest of his books. If your interest is legal matters you may not like this book because it is not his usual style. Several other readers I spoke to about the book were disappointed . This book was action packed from start to finish in my opinion. It tell of a boys life living in the South on a farm where their income is in cotton picking.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AMPZNL6W7J8A8
• Another Grisham Great! 30 November, 2003
I still have about another 100 pages to read to finish this book, but I'm enjoying it so much I thought I would write an early review.The story takes place in 1950s Arkansas on the farm of cotton pickers. 7 year old Luke dreams of one daying playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, but in the meantime is stuck helping around the farm, spending most of his time in the fields picking as much cottom as a 7 year old can. But the story doesn't just stay in the fields where the family has hired mexicans and "hill people" to help with the work. Lots of new experiences for Luke take place over the next few months during harvesting season. Some good, some bad. I don't want to talk about them as it might ruin things for you while you're reading it, but there are so many things and Grisham manages to throw them all in flawlessly. I've read several of Grisham's books and its true this one is completely different then the others, but I'm loving it all the same and I can't wait to see where the final 100 pages I have to read takes me. Whatever the case, don't be fooled by the 7 year old narrator. This isn't the kind of book you would read to your kid at bedtime.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3QLS4TB7SDICW
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