Rating: 
Summary: Touching tale of hard-luck and secrets
Review: Inspired by his own childhood in rural Arkansas, this touching tale of fiction is set in 1952 where many folks like the three generations of Chandlers portrayed here, rent their land and their never-before-painted house. We see the world through the eyes of 7-year-old Luke Chandler, whose youth and innocent views are honest and refreshing. "Pappy said that Otis was very levelheaded - tobacco juice ran out of both corners of his mouth."Two families, one Mexican, the other "hill people," have been hired to help harvest the Chandler's 80 acres of cotton. Being such good Baptists, the Chandlers have always treated their help better than most. Harvest time makes for long, grueling days and is a time of endless worry. The women worry about the mistreatment of the workers by other, while the men worry about the rainy season and their beloved St. Louis Cardinals. "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." For a boy of only 7, Luke certainly had worries of his own. Some he shared with his family, like worrying about Uncle Ricky fighting in Korea, and the 15-year-old neighbor about to give birth to an illegitimate child; certainly the town scandal. But as tensions build with the Mexicans and "hill people," Luke witnesses more than any child should, keeping many secrets, some wonderful, others horrible. Among the Spruill family from the hills, there's a 17-year-old girl named Tally who watches over her little brother Trot who's "not right." She becomes a friend to Luke and he's really taken by her. Tally's older brother, Hank, a bully to stay clear of, has already beaten a local kid to death. The Mexicans are hard workers, as well, but also enjoy playing baseball, the local obsession. Just beware of the one who wields a knife. "In a world where everyone either farmed or traded with farmers, a wet season in mid-October was quite depressing." As the season begins to change, the Chandlers worry more about surviving a possible flood, losing their entire crop, and also surviving the tragedies the summer has brought. Secrets, murder and nature itself will certainly change the lives of the Chandlers and our young narrator, Luke. Such a good story with the love and treasure of a hard-working family, along with the worries, secrets and tragedies that make such a story so enjoyable. Luke it a great character as is his grandfather, Pappy. The bond they have is unbreakable. Bravo.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW !!!
Review: John Grisham needs no praise. We all know his work. Yet this novel is something of an completely different order from previous work. What The Great Gatsby is for the WWI era and the twenties, this novel is for WWII & Korean war and the fifties. Grisham brilliantly paints the transformation of American society.In our daily intercourse we have forgotten the familial and civic ties of small family farms and a life with minimal possessions. The nickel coke, the dime matinee, the evening baseball game on the radio were the treats of life. A can of tomatoes may have cost only a dime, but it was worth canning them at home as well as other vegetables. A dime meant something. How many people depended on gardens to live? How many wore feedsack dresses? When was the last time any of us patched an innertube? When was credit something between customer and shipkeeper, carefully entered in a big black ledger book? The world has greatly changed and this novel records what was once there, but like all great novels in its assertion of the particular it becomes universal. People had very little. Perhaps a change of clothes, two pairs of shoes. No closets full, no electronic marvels, no refrigerators and freezers and nearby supermarkets to fill them. Rural America, in Arkansas or Pennsylvania, Ohio or Missisippi was a way of life, now gone, and what we are today is a result of that change both for better and worse.
Rating:
Summary: "Painstakingly Written"
Review: "A Painted House" is an out of the ordinary piece of work that Grisham has written for any inquisitive reader. He has provided a plethora of suspenseful events that would keep this novel in anyone's hands. This captivating story about the Chandler family, "sharecroppers" as they are called, takes place during the summer of 1952 in Black-Oak Arkansas. This seven-year-old boy, Luke Chandler, doesn't want to carry on the tradition of his poor cotton picking family. He has a dream of one day becoming a baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals. The Chandler's mission was to find helping hands to harvest their eighty acres. They chose a group of ten migrant Mexicans and the "Hill People", known as the Spruills. The trouble started when the Spruills decided to set up camp in the farms front yard over Luke's baseball diamond. His passion in life was to play baseball and when they decided to disrupt it, the Spruills were instantly targeted as thoughtless people. Luke's father's thought of confrontation with the hired help would be out of the question because he was concerned that they would leave before the harvest was finished. His father Jesse thought only about the crop during the harvest season because it provided for their means of living. Luke was brought up in a Baptist community where truth and honesty was the only way of life. Luke begins to find himself caught up in his own curiosity. His inquisitiveness brings him to witness several incidents in which most people wouldn't encounter in a lifetime. There is one troublemaker of the Spruill bunch, named Hank, who seems to make this story very interesting. He is a large figured bully who will not commit himself to anything or anyone. If there is an easy way out, he will find it. On one occasion, you will find him at a carnival in a winner take all bare fisted brawl. Hank comes up with an ingenious plan to outwit a con artist. The description of Hank reminds me of a young boy I knew back in my childhood. Other great events happening in this tale are the mysterious painting, a murder that takes place, a boy's first view of a naked woman, and the birth of child. Conflict has been used on several occasions throughout the story, which has kept my interest of wanting to know more about the following tale of events.
Rating:
Summary: A different Grishams
Review: This story has a very different style compared to most of Grisham's books. Its a slow moving but interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Hated to see this one end.
Review: I almost did not read this story because I felt that it would not be able to measure up to Grisham's previous legal thrillers. However, I read this novel in about 2 days and it was one of the most captivating books I have read in quite sometime. It clearly shows that Grisham's writing style can take any subject and allow the reader to forget about the world around him. The characters in this novel become so real to you that I could clearly picture every scene like it was happening in front of me. It reminded me of a similar tale I read 10 years ago called "Boys' Life" by Robert McCammon. While the story's subject will not be what many Grisham fans are used to, I strongly encourage them to give it a try.
Rating: 
Summary: The painted hosue is Boring!
Review: Despite being an absolute Grisham fan, I found the painted house extremely boring! in fact, the only reason why I completed reading it was to see if something does happen at the end - unfortunately, it does'nt!! Grisham must stick to churning out nice thrilling books like the Testament and the street lawyer, rather than try his hand in this direction! Highly recommended Not to be read!
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the effort
Review: Where oh where is the real John Grisham? This is the most disappointing,boring book I have read all year. I gave it one star only because I was able to make it to the end. If you want a magical, suspenseful, gripping book about a young boy, reach for Robert McGammon's "Boy's Life". "A Painted House" was a big disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: John Grisham's "A Painted House"
Review: To me this book reflects John Grisham's versatility as a writer. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't want to put it down and I didn't want it to end. There are outcomes of events that are left to the imagination of the reader and I believe that is the way it should be; I do not believe a sequel to this book should be written because I do not think it could live up to the quality of this book. Perhaps another book along the same lines as this book would be viable. I grew up in rural Nebraska during the depression and lived through many of the same things the main characters of this book lived through. Of course, we did not have cotton to work but we had many of the same hardships. Like the house in the book, our little house was not painted. We also moved away from the country to pursue a better life when I was seven.
Rating: 
Summary: A better short story than a novel.....
Review: Having given Grisham three (unsuccessful) chances to hook me as a reader of his highly recommended potboiler legal "thrillers," (_The Firm_, _The Client_, and _The Pelican Brief_), I can't say I was keen to read this book, recommended to me by a friend. "Read it," she said, "It's not like his legal stuff." Well, she was right and she was wrong. The story itself was sweet and simple - a heartfelt tale of a young boy on a cotton farm in the South, his poor-but-honest grandparents, and his hardworking, but looking-beyond-the-horizon parents during one particular harvest season. No lawyers. OK, then. But just like the other novels I've read of his, by the time I got to the end, I felt as if I'd been walked through a very complicated maze, only to end up in a parking lot. His ancillary characters are fairly two-dimensional (grandma's the "medicine woman," the thick-necked guy is the unredeemable "bad man," and the deputy sheriff is the round, foolish, ineffectual officer of the law). The church baseball game sidebar was unnecessary, the "Ooh, it's a tornado, no wait, it's a flood" meteorological tension was forced, and if I read about Luke rueing "yet one more secret" he had to keep, one more time, I would be forced to leave the book on the bus (but it was my friend's and I had to give it back). But still, I give the book two stars in stead of a measly one, because I think that if Grisham had focused his energy on telling a good, dense short story, without all of the unecessary sidelines, dead-ends, and detours, he'd have had a fine little gem of a tale.
Rating:
Summary: A Painted House
Review: My favorite Grisham book! It's so well written that I can see the cotton for miles and miles. I still think about the details of this book.
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