Rating: 
Summary: Grisham Has Talent !
Review: Just finished A Painted House and I believe it is Grisham's best work & I've read 'em all. This shows us that Grisham can do more than his cookie-cutter legal, soap box thrillers that had, sadly, become rather boring. I loved Luke and his family, could feel the callouses from hard work and would rush to read a sequel about "life up North." Don't miss this one just because you've grown tired of the old formulas. A Painted House is a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best, but I liked it anyway!
Review: I read this book a few days ago and felt that I should voice my humble opinion on its qualities. The storyline was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages as the tale unfolded. The conflicts between the main character and the world around him are both engrossing and touching at the same time. I felt like I was there in the old south a times. I could smell the magnolias and hear the ice crackling in the glasses of lemonade on the porch. I recommened this book to all citizens who love tales of the land below the mason-dixon line... and, if you are a baby boomer it will certainly stirr up old memories of times past.
Rating: 
Summary: A Surprise From An Icon
Review: I have been a John Grisham fan from the get go. Never missed a book. I was quite willing to accept that his talents went beyond the legal. I was wrong! The book is a disaster! It is a total bore. Written quite all right but just nothing that grabs your attention. The first Grisham book that I could put down...the first Grisham book I will not finish.
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Summary: My favorite Grisham so far
Review: Such a change this Grisham, yet such a present from writer to readers, my husband and myself. We completely fell for Luke, the farm boy of the 50's. As the son of an Oklahoma tenant farmer, my husband felt that Grisham got the tension over a boom crop of cotton and the impending weather change that would ruin it just right. He recalls the force of flood waters. The description of the river's waters taking over the family crop are familiarly heartbreaking. As an avid Grisham fan, I see his skills of suspense and the threats of violence are not diminished. I really hoped the bully would get his just reward, much as I wanted the rapists of A Time to Kill to get theirs. A Painted House is gentler in some ways, but no less a good Grisham. The characters are richly reminiscent of other good Southern reads. There is special humor in Pa's driving speed and the shit house snake. I am glad Grisham chose to share this story first through the Oxford American and finally with us all. Both of us in this household recommend this good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I am a Grisham fan, having read all of his books, thus far. The ending was as disappointing as the story itself. Not his usual intense work holding the reader spellbound from beginning to end. Get back on track Mr. Grisham, and please no sequil to "A Painted House", though I seem to be in the minority in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Grisham Paints a Masterpiece
Review: Grisham returns to the texture and feel of "A Time to Kill". I suspect this is the book he's wanted to write for a long time, but needed the buoancy of several best sellers to float it out. It will not appeal to his readers who are expecting nonstop action and legal manuevering on every page. Instead it is an elegantly drawn story of a young boy coming of age in rural Arkansas in the early 50's. Some reviewers have called Luke precocious, but I think he adequately reflects the maturity and experiences of a farm lad who has lived and worked alongside adults all his young life. His observations are wry and often very pointed. There is a lot left hanging here and I hope that is a signal that a sequel is somewhere down the road. The reader gets a real feel for life on a subsistance farm before the days of mass mechanization. There are also ample examples of the cultural diffences between these people and their kin in the "cities". One gets an insight into why so many from the deep south wound up working in the Detroit auto plants. All in all it is a very readable, engrossing tale that harkens back to simpler times.
Rating:
Summary: Kept me reading
Review: I learned so very much from this book! How interesting and yet was kept in suspense all the time. I could not put this book down. Almost everything was very true with the way the farmers live in the South.
Rating:
Summary: Grisham's worst - so far
Review: After reading all of Grisham's stories, I was truely disappointed of this one. Nice story-telling, but not a great plot, no great characters, no suspense, no surprises. I admit, he did some research before he wrote this book. But you can feel the pressure of writing yet another bestseller, without having any idea of a story to tell. Never mind, if your name is Grisham, the book will sell. And if a story like this sells, he is likely to write more of the same. Heck, if you can write bestsellers without a plot, why should you try to find one? I bet his next book will be even worse.
Rating: 
Summary: This is not a legal thriller and that's not a bad thing!
Review: For those who gave this book a poor rating, I suspect it was because you were expecting a thriller with all sorts of plot twists and turns, perhaps culminating in a tense courtroom showdown. Be warned: A Painted House is definitely not that! It does not possess the action-packed, edge-of-your-seat excitement that is synonomous with Grisham. This book is about a family of farmers in 1952 rural Arkansas. It is narrated by a 7-yr. old boy named Luke who describes a particularly eventful summer in his resourceful family's cotton fields. Although it lacks the action of his other works, this book is written well enough to be more engaging than you might expect a story about Arkansas farm life to be. Grisham's characters help paint a picture (excuse the pun) of rural life that is often simple, treacherous, and even deadly. Yet Luke, with his childlike curiousity and yearning, shows us a gentler and more endearing aspect of his town as well. It is this accurately captured fabric of life, with all its dichotomies, that Grisham successfully portrays in a way that is so engaging. Comparing this book to any of his other books is self-defeating because it is of a completely different genre. I think that if A Painted House is read and judged on its own merit, it will be found to be an enjoyable read with a soothing writing style and an accurate account of a way of life you probably were not all that familiar with.
Rating:
Summary: Not the John we have come to love and appreciate!
Review: I have been an avid Grisham fan since his 1st book, many times reading them over a very short time frame. While this book demonstrates the quality of a fine author, its content and storyline is not consistent with what we have come to expect. John would have helped himself by writing this under a different name- but then it wouldn't have seized upon the John Grisham fame. I'll have to investigate his next book prior to "running out" and buying a copy (like I do everytime) to see if I really want to own it.
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