Rating: 
Summary: One star: generous
Review: I am a huge fan of Grisham. But having lent my brand new copy to another Grisham fan before I myself read it, I now feel the need to do penance, thus my first review here. Oh. My. God. This is one tedious, uninspired and plain badly written book, filled with plots and characters ripped off from other books as if they were so many bolls of cotton to stuff in that mile-long sack. I too forced myself to read it - get the darned story over with - it's Grisham after all, and the book is a hardcover - but it left a bad taste in my mouth every time. I'm convinced Grisham's heart was in it about five percent, otherwise he wrote it because it's in his contract to keep churning out books. I picture him sitting agonized and hot and bored at his desk at his bedroom window like a high school student writing that last essay for English class so he can get outside for the summer and play baseball.
Rating:
Summary: Unlike John Grisham
Review: This book was written off of the normal track for John Grisham. Though the book was written well, it came out of the blue for him. I enjoyed all of his other books and I consider myself to be an avid Grisham fan. I was however, disappointed in the off the wall story line of this book. I would like to see Mr. Grisham go back to writing books like his earlier ones.
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD BOOK BUT...
Review: I really enjoyed this book. However, I think John Grisham should stick with what he does best - legal thrillers. "The Painted House" would be a great book for another writer, but just so-so for Grisham. I can't wait to read whatever he comes up with next.
Rating:
Summary: Quite a departure from the obvious!
Review: Well, I must say, John Grisham certainly did a 180 in this book. I've been used to nothing but law dramas over the years from him, but this one really was different. It reminded me of "To Kill A Mockingbird" in one way, but with Mexicans being the prejudiced enemy here. Also, it must be overwhelming to a seven year old, like the narrator here, to witnesses the events that occur and then not be able to share them. I won't give away the story to those who haven't read it, but it will excite you.I recommend this book to anyone that likes a good story. It does slow down at times, with little action, but the story will keep you interested nonetheless. Buy it today! Read it today!
Rating: 
Summary: Reliving my childhood ...
Review: As someone who has actually been to Hardy and Jonesboro, Arkansas, picked cotton, laid awake nights praying for a breeze listening to Harry Caray and the Cardinals, this book was like a window to my life as a child. I highly recommend this book as a picture of life in simpler times.
Rating:
Summary: A most illogical book
Review: Perhaps I should use the word dumb instead of illogical.How can a 7 year old say all that he said in the first person?This little boy comes up with descriptions of tradition, makes profound analysis of Baptist theology, goes deep into intricacies of sexual relationships.Full of cliches too, a Mexican with a knife, hillbillies living violently and a general lack of civilised behavior.Perhaps baseball lovers would like the book to read about Stan the man.I consider this book one of those thrashy ones the writers come up with while imitating William Faukner and other great southern writers.And to think that this writer wrote so many lawyer books which reguired very logical thinking!A terrible disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Keep up the Good Work Mr. Grisham
Review: Really enjoyed the book..was wary of Grisham going out to new to a semi-autobiographical topic. I enjoyed and/or despised the charecters. They were well developed. As a baseball fan, I was reminded of the joy and imagination of listening to my heroes on radio, prior to every game being on the tube. Slower paced but very enjoyable
Rating:
Summary: Not a Single Lawyer, Dead or Alive
Review: John Grisham is noted for his hard-hitting, suspense-filled novels about lawyers. A Painted House is a significant departure. There is not a single lawyer in the book. Instead, we spend several weeks in late summer and early fall of 1952 with seven-year-old Luke Chandler on the family cotton farm in rural Arkansas. It is time to pick the cotton on eighty acres of rented land. The crop looks good and prices are high. If the crop can be picked and marketed before something goes wrong, maybe the family can make it another year without going deeper in debt. We go with Luke and his grandfather in the old truck to find "hill people" to pick the crop, and to employ Mexican workers from the labor contractor. We watch through this seven-year-old's eyes the tension between these two groups, and feel the tension within the family as compromises are made in order to keep the labor to bring in the crop. Everything revolves around bringing in the crop. After a long day in the fields, handpicking the cotton, we relax with the family on the front porch of their unpainted house, listening to Harry Caray give the play-by-play for the St. Louis Cardinals, playing in Sportsmans Park in St. Louis. Thank goodness the cotton looks good, because the Cards are mired in third place, behind the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. The shame of it all-losing to two New York teams. Grisham's prose is almost poetry in many parts of this book. There is some suspense, but we are not gathered into a plot, but rather into a time and place when life is much simpler, and much, much harder. Maybe the fact that I was twelve in the summer of 1952, and only one generation off of a south Georgia farm makes this book resonate to me. Maybe, too, it is because I actually saw the Cards play in Sportsman's Park in St. Louis that summer.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I haven't read all of Grisham's work, but this book was beautiful. It is very captivating and paints a picture of life in rual Arkansas through the eyes of a 7 year old, without making the story childish to read. The only problem was I couldn't put it down!
Rating:
Summary: Southern Critic
Review: Mr. Grisham, stay in the field and out of the courtroom for a while! I've enjoyed the legal novels in the past, but this book was a great change of genre. From a southerner's point of view, your treatment of the characters was very realistic. KEEP IT UP.
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