Rating: 
Summary: Not a typical Grisham book, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Review: This isn't your typical Grisham legal thriller, but I found it enjoyable anyway.This book takes you through the life of a small Arkansas farm family as seen through the eyes of a 7 year old boy. Luke tells his tales of cotton picking and daily life in an almost Huck Finn like nature. Although I felt the story left a few lines unfinished the book was still enjoyable and made for an easy read. Try this book out today if you like Grisham, you may be surprised to find he can write something a bit different.
Rating: 
Summary: A Painted House
Review: This is the first non-lawyer Grisham novel I have read. As with most of his books, it was easy to read. But, in the end, he blew it. As others have complained, the ending goes nowhere. He had an opportunity to make a moral statement about the seven-year old boy's concealment of secrets, including murder, throughout the novel. In the end, the only thing the reader is left with is "Small boy lies, gets away with it, and moves out-of-town. Appears to learn nothing about life other than occasionally you can get away with deceit." As with too many post-modern novels, there is, in the end, nothing at all for the reader to contemplate.
Rating: 
Summary: He doesn't just write good legal thrillers...
Review: I had no idea that this book wasn't the usual legal thriller that Grisham provides. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the overall quality of the book. Grisham does a great job of developing the characters and making you see through the eyes of a young boy. I hope there is a 2nd part to this book in the future because I want to know more about the characters that I grew to love.
Rating:
Summary: Great Build--No Climax
Review: I'm becoming a little disgusted with John Grisham. This is another book that builds into a great potential story--and then has no climax. Hey John--how about tying up just a few of those loose ends? Where's the payoff?
Rating:
Summary: Written for People with Imagination!
Review: This was a great novel for Grisham. Have you lived on a farm in the South in the 50's? 7 year olds are mature there -- they see more life and death and work harder than most of us reading this book! Farm life, paticularly before mass television and "entertainment" was only routine and boring if you weren't a farmer -- or to us urbanites who are over-entertained by the world around us. The supposed lack of ending is only there to people who do not enjoy using their imagination. Think of all the possiblities that could go on -- think of writing a novel that begins where this one ends from the perspective of Cowboy or the other Mexicans that come to work each summer. Grisham gets our appetities wet to know more -- isn't that what good authors do?
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the Beef?
Review: I loved the book until I found out it has no ending. Don't read if you're the type of person who has to know what happens in the end. What a let down!
Rating:
Summary: Dealing With Life
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. I have read others by Grisham, and one without lawyers, etc. was quite a nice change. This books takes place on a cotton farm told from the point of view of 8-yr old Luke. Through out the book you can't help but become attached to him. It reminds you of the dreams you had as a kid.
It isn't action-packed, edge-of-your-seat-gripper, but defiantly a good read. It takes you back to a time where people got by with the simpler things of life, keeping their pride and heads up when time gets tough, and the neighborly friendliness that is rare today. You feel as though you are right there with Luke, the Mexicans, and the Hill People, picking cotton with the sun beating down on you and blood dripping from your fingers. You feel just as frightened as Luke when he wittnesses a murder on the bridge.
I would recommend this book to anyone who just wants to kick back and have a easy, but interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: A change of pace
Review: In a departure from his tried-and-true legal thriller genre, Grisham this time brings to life the struggles of a family of cotton farmers in circa 1950 Arkansas as seen through the eyes of its youngest member, a seven-year-old boy. I was afraid the subject matter would not hold my interest, but I could not have been more wrong. As always, Grisham does not let us down. In fact, this may be his best work. It certainly is his most moving.
Rating:
Summary: So Grisham can write a REAL novel!
Review: A Painted House marks a real departure from Grisham's legal thrillers. They are hardly formulaic, but they are certainly all in the same genre. Not A Painted House. It shows that Grisham has the ability not only to entertain with a fast-paced suspense thriller, but can also craft a real novel. Where his legal thrillers excel in plot, A Painted House excels in characterization. Grisham employs the first person point of view to have us view the events of 1952 through the eyes of seven year old Luke Chandler. Luke lives with his parents and grandparents in rural Arkansas on a family farm that depends on the cotton crop for its livelihood. To assist them in harvesting the cotton, his parents employ a truckload of Mexican migrants and a family of hill-people. For all of these members of the lower class, eking out an existence is hard work and beset by trials. The novel is a canvas on which Grisham superbly paints the scenery of post-war America through the eyes of a child, presenting events and characters from his naïve perspective. Luke Chandler's world is a small world, and the biggest parts of it are the cotton picking, the Saturday trip to town, the Sunday worship, and his dreams to play for the Cardinals that his family steadfastly follows on their radio, and the special treats: the carnival. Apparently inspired by his own childhood, Grisham successfully captures the flavour of rustic Arkansas, portraying events through Luke's eyes, from the excitement of the church picnic baseball to the whispered church gossip and the morning cup of coffee, as well as a complex social structure with memorable characters: his family, the Mexicans, the hill people, the neighbours, and even Luke's absent uncle Ricky who is in Korea in the Crimean War. In a simple but heart-warming way, Luke is confronted with issues too big and complicated for a young boy to understand: moral dilemmas surrounding a murder, an illegitimate child in the family, child-birth and financial devastation wrought by crop failure and floods. His innocence and confusion is delightful. One exception would be Luke Chandler's infatuation with a seventeen year old. Seven year olds are curious, but not that curious, and Luke's eagerness to see a seventeen year old girl naked is more typical of a teenager and perhaps Grisham's readers than a young boy of seven. The accompanying description of nudity and Luke's frank confession of lusts was in my view unnecessary and unnatural (p99-100). Grisham's portrayal of religion was also surprising. Not only were there several instances of blasphemy (eg p158,163), but the country Baptist preacher was portrayed as a fire and brimstone Bible thumper whose preaching against moralism was rather ineffective and irrelevant - surprising from Grisham who himself is a Christian. But perhaps Grisham is just portraying his Christian religion as it might be understood through the eyes of a child: oppressive in one instance, perplexing in another. In his childlike faith, Luke believes that "If the rains washed away our crops, then there was a reason for it...As Baptists we believed God was in control of everything." But he doesn't understand how this theology applies to baseball: "I was certain there was a reason the Cardinals lost the pennant, but I couldn't understand why God was behind it. Why would God allow two teams from New York to play in the World Series? It completely baffled me." (p251) The plot, in the end, is not significant, aside from the brief excitement of a baseball game, the tension between various characters, and some aspects of mystery and intrigue which are never entirely satisfactorily resolved in an ending with too many loose ends. What makes this novel are the characters themselves, and the very real world that Grisham places them in. The atmosphere is entirely authentic and convincing. The reader has the sense that this is a real world, and that this is really what life was like for many families in the Arkansas cotton fields in the early 1950s. But does that make it an outstanding literary work? It's entertaining, but is it enduring? I don't think so. It's a great read with superb characterization and realism. But while Luke's journey from childhood innocence to experience is realistic, it isn't profound or substantial. Even the metaphor of the painted house is never entirely clear, although perhaps it can be construed as a parallel to Luke's life: In the end, Luke is still a child, but as the novel closes on a chapter of his life, he is like the painted house he leaves behind - his life has been enriched by the paint of another year, and he has matured and grown. Important themes are touched on, but never really developed as they would in a true literary work. But as long as you're not expecting a legal thriller or a literary gem, A Painted House is a slower read, but still an enjoyable one.
Rating:
Summary: A slow read but I loved it
Review: It took me longer to read this book than I would have expected. There were so many great details (not boring), I felt like I was on the farm in Arkansas. I have only read one other Grishom and it was a fast read. Exciting but I would put this in a different category. Quality literature, not just a great story. I do think Luke was more like a 10 year old. I felt a bit empty when the book was over since I wanted more. What happens next? A good book leaves you wondering.
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