Rating: 
Summary: a 'good read'
Review: This book is a great story that I enjoyed very much. A young boys accounting of his struggles with friends and foes and the morality of secrets, but there is a lot of depth to the characters and some twists and turns and suspense and humor.
Rating: 
Summary: SAVE YOUR MONEY
Review: This was a horrible book. While I think the rest of his books are follow a specific formula and are kind of repetitive in some ways I was begging for that feature in this book. The book is slow, and pointless. If you must read this book then please check it out from the library and save your money. I have enjoyed most of Mr. Grishman's book but this one was a big dissapointment. He needs to stick with what works, books about legal issues, regular fiction is not his game.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice change of pace
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Between lawyer movies, lawyer books, lawyer TV's shows, and CourtTV, the whole "lawyer" genre has been oversaturated since O.J.!!! This book had wonderful characters. I was enchanted by the interweaving of the hardships of cotton farming offset by Luke's love for baseball. ... I too had to sit back and say "what??" when I read some of the painting scenes. My entire knowledge of painting and paint supplies consists of working at Sears for a short time right out of high school and these passages just didn't ring quite true. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Rating:
Summary: Grisham's Best
Review: "A Painted House" is, by far, John Grisham's best novel. A riveting story about a young boy growing up, Grisham uses symbolism, as well as style to create a real page turner. Fans of Grisham may not like this book. For those who liked his earlier novels (A Time To Kill and The Firm), but lost interest, this book is a must-read.
Rating: 
Summary: That's It?
Review: I found this story to be unimaginitive and somewhat predicitable. Grisham's characters are the stereotypical "southern" family - from the grandfather who is aloof in his affections and stern in his "ruling" of the family to the mother who wants more out of life and is unhappy with the way the family lives. It is hard to believe that the narrator is only 7 years old b/c his thoughts and interpretations of the events as they unfold are of a very mature nature. Had he been 13 or 14 I feel it would have made the storyline more believable. Overall, the book was very uneventful. Nothing ever developed far enough to really stay interested in the plot. It has a lot of potential, but Grisham only touches on every subplot - where I think he could have embelished on some things more to help the reader really become interested in the story. It's as if Grisham tried to incorporate every aspect of the southern lifestyle without focusing on anything long enough to keep the reader interested. The book is a nice quick read if you are not interested in becoming heavily involved in a story or it's characters. Had it been longer, I think it would have been a much better book. As it stands, nothing really happens and you are left with a lot of questions.
Rating: 
Summary: Not hugely impressed
Review: I've always considered John Grisham a very hit-or-miss author (I loved "The Rainmaker", loathed "The Testament", didn't get why people loved "The Firm" so much, etc.), so I picked up "A Painted House" with some interest. Grisham steps out of his legal-thriller oervre with this short tale of a seven-year-old boy in 1952 Arkansas during cotton-picking season. Grisham's descriptions are remarkably vivid, more so here than in any of his other novels. The story, however, reminded me of "To Kill A Mockingbird" mixed with "The Grapes of Wrath", and was at times utterly predictable as a result. As this was originally published in serial form, the book is episodic more than flowing, and despite his lush descriptions Grisham's characters are complete Southern cliches. It's not the worst book Grisham's ever written (my vote goes to "The Testament", which I found utterly wretched), but it's not a masterpiece. An okay weekend read, nothing more.
Rating:
Summary: A Grisham disappointment!
Review: As an avid and longtime Grisham fan, I eargerly picked up A Painted House for an enjoyable read. Unfortunately, I found the pacing of this novel tedious and strained. Where I usually found myself unable to put down one of Grisham's novels, I found myself struggling to get through this one. I'm not one of those readers who thinks Grisham should "stick to what he knows best" and write only law-based thrillers. However, I found this foray into general fiction to be a disappointment. I hope he tries again - but I hope he remembers to incorporate some of the exciting pace that his other novels have kept up.
Rating:
Summary: Admirable Effort But More Research Needed
Review: Unlike many of the readers whose comments I have read, I do not criticize John Grisham for having left the field of legal thrillers to write A Painted House. On the contrary, I admire his willingness and ability to break out. I have read and enjoyed every one of his eleven previously published books. Now I applaud Grisham in the same way I commend an established character actor who succeeds in making a new type personality come alive. Luke Chandler, Grisham's narrator, may be only seven years old, but to me, he was totally believable. Like the series of events narrated by a child in Olive Ann Burns' Southern novel Cold Sassy Tree, Luke's story moves along well and is not lacking in action. The point of view handling adds to the book's tone and mood. I could see the seemingly unending rows of cotton. I could feel the oppressive heat and humidity. Luke showed a child's interest in the Mexicans and the hill people hired to help with the harvest, overlooking those who were similar to his family and focusing on those who were different. I truly liked the use of the painted house as a symbol of young Trot's attempt to reach out to Luke and his family. But here I must voice a negative observation. In the past, I have helped paint a number of houses, some many times, and Grisham's report of house painting was not believable. No experienced painter would have painted while it was raining and flooding all around. But I'll accept that neither Trot nor Luke knew that the paint would bubble and not adhere to a damp surface. Nevertheless Grisham has the painters use more than sixteen gallons of Pittsburgh "white enamel paint" [p. 315] to cover a "little unpainted sodbuster house" [p.153], the highest walls of which could be reached by a boy standing on the shoulders of a teenager [p. 349]. (If the gables were as high as were those shown on the dust cover of the hardcover edition, the job could not have been completed without a higher scaffold or ladder.) Admittedly the house was old and considerably weathered, and no primer was applied first, but it still would not have absorbed sixteen gallons! Certainly not when applied as a single coat. (The house I lived in generally needed less than five gallons.) And they used enamel? No way! In 1952 water-based latex paint was not yet used; the only paint sold for the exterior of houses was low gloss, satin-finish oil-base. Even interior walls were not painted with enamel generally. Furthermore, all oil base paints, including enamel, required cleaning the brushes between uses (or letting them soak) in turpentine or paint thinner. Water cleaned up nothing. Grisham never mentioned his characters spending a penny for turpentine or finding a brush with paint dried hard in it. In the past, I've always been impressed by Grisham's knowledge of the subject about which he is writing. If he wants to branch out of legal issues, more power to him, but he'll have to do more complete background work to convince me.
Rating:
Summary: Overall Good Read
Review: As with all of Grisham's books this one also is a good read. No, it's not suspenseful or anything but it keeps you wanting to turn the page. My only complaint with this book which others have already noted, is that the narrative is to complex to be coming from a seven year old. An 11-13 years old would have made more sense. Overall, I would put this book in the middle of the pack. To me his best were The Firm, A Time to Kill, and Pelican Brief. His worst was The Client and The Street Lawyer (Although they both were readable). The rest, in my opinion, are jumbled up in the middle somewhere and so is this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not the work of a professional
Review: If this book had been written by an unknown author, it would be lounging idly at the foot of the non-sellers list. Only the name Grisham has saved it from a fate worse than death. John Grisham started sliding after 'The Firm' and A Painted House does nothing to slow his descent. I understand his need to get away from the lawyer genre, but a slow action, poor story book is not going to help. I struggled through to the end, hoping for a glimpse of former Grisham glory, but ended up feeling like I'd eaten a plate of stale air - hungry for something more substantial.
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