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A review of A Painted House

by John Grisham

Summer erupts into a web of secrets and lies for one young boy

Reviewed by: Beth Williams
About Beth Williams

A Painted House Wait! Don’t hit the back button! This isn’t your typical nitty-gritty law thriller with lots of law jargon, courtroom drama and everything we’ve come to expect from a juicy John Grisham novel. If you’re a fan who just wants a taste of another side of Grisham, “A Painted House” is definitely for you. If you’re just looking for a good read, pull up a chair. You’ll enjoy this one, too.

This is a beautifully woven story about seven-year-old Luke Chandler, who dreams of one day leaving rural Alabama and his grandparents’ cotton farm and making it big with the St. Louis Cardinals. “A Painted House” takes place in the fifties, when Stan Musial was the muscleman behind the Cardinals, and Mickey Mantle was the new kid in New York.

Luke lives with his parents and grandparents, and as the novel opens, it’s cotton picking time again, and that means the “hill people” and “the Mexicans” will take up residence on the farm, picking cotton alongside the family under the scorching summer sun.

The Spruills, a family from the hills, pitch a tent on the Chandler’s front lawn, and Luke is immediately taken with seventeen-year-old Tally. But, it is Hank, the angry, beefy Spruill son, who will play a crucial role in Luke’s surge into adulthood.

The long, hot days of cotton picking are interrupted by Saturday afternoon trips into town where Luke enjoys a coke, goes to the local cinema and, unbeknownst to his parents, occasionally watches the fight that invariably takes place every Saturday. One Saturday, however, will change Luke’s summer and thrust him into a world of secrets. He and his friend watch as Hank pummels a trio of local tough boys. Soon, Luke finds himself lying to his parents, his grandparents and the local sheriff as he’s caught up in a dangerous web of secrets.

The Chandler family is also on constant eggshells, worrying about the fate of Luke’s Uncle Ricky, who is deep in the trenches of war in Korea. The family soon learns, however, Ricky has left behind a secret of his own, one that could bring them terrible embarrassment and shame.

“A Painted House” is a quaint, charming portrait of 1950s rural America that is definitely worth a read. This novel gave me a feeling of being transported back to a time I never knew. I had the urge to pour a glass of lemonade, sit on the front porch and just feel the summer breeze against my face. Grisham does a breathtaking job of painting a portrait of a long gone era while adding twists and turns that make the novel a quick, exciting read.

Happy Reading!

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: A Painted House

Copyright © by Beth Williams, 2003

Reviewed by Beth Williams:
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