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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grisham's Painted House,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: A Painted House (Hardcover)
John Grisham is one of my most favorite writers, I anxiously await each of his new novels. A Painted House is one of his best, in my opinion. Much as I love his usual courtroom dramas and suspense stories, I find it refreshing to see how widely varied his interests and talents spread. I have heard some who expected this book to be like the first ones Grisham is famed for - were a bit disappointed. Not me! I was delighted with this and have read it several times. I also give it as a gift, often. So far, those gifted have loved it. I do prepare them by letting them know this is not a courtroom drama, but by far one of his best works.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Very Touching and Moving Tale,
By Subhankar Mondal (Bangalore,India) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Painted House (Hardcover)
John Grisham is easily and most readily associated with novels focusing on law and legal issues. Indeed this American novelist has achieved tremendous fame and success with titles such as "The Pelican Brief" and "The King of Torts" but this novel is a surprise;going astray of his accustomed fields'"A Painted House" is almost an experiment by Grisham to test his versatalit in terms of plot structure and characterisation,an experiment which almost,almost is pulled off. This is the story of a young,inocet,undecayed boy in the space of a few months in which he leaves a plethora of truths about life and stuggles to come to terms with these truths.
Luke Chandler is a seven year old farm boy living in the year 1952. He lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that is rendered unpainted,a sign of cruel poverty and uncertainty in the house. The Chandlers farm eighty acres they rent,not own and though not well poverished,just suffice on their income. This mode of survival has been a traditional inheritance for quite some generations and this year,that is 1952,is supposed to be no exception. Luke's father and grandfather Pappy hire a truckload of Mexicans and the Spruill family from the Ozarks to help them harvest the cotton. Amidst these circumstances and employing a first person narrative technique,the novel takes o several twists and turns and the myriad happenings threaten to overturn the entire foundation of solidarit,harmony and the spiritof peace in the Chandlers's realm. For weeks,the Chandlesa,the Mexicans and the Spruills adhere with one another for the accomplishment of harvesting. but then,gradually problems commence cropping up and all hopes and expectations of a "good crop" are flung to the breeze. One Ozark "hillybilly" murders a townfolk in Black Oak,the Mexicans are then targetted by this maniac and then the flood;everything conspire to direct the Chandlers a premature doomsday. And it's during these imperturbable times that little Luke,the protagonist of the novel,is expposed to an array of dark,violent secrets. In his journey from innocence to experience,from ignorance to bitter realisation,Luke uncovers numerous facts that had previously been obscured to him. Luke comprehends the guilty pleasures of rudimentary sexual instigations when he's allowed by the Mexican girl Tally to see her naked;he feels the tremor of shock when he witnesses a murder with his vey own eyes and is then threatened not to speak about it to no one whatsoever;Luke's illusion about his 19-year old uncle Ricky out in war in Korea is shattered when an old secret rushes in the front in a new shape;and feels the sharp bite of remorse when he leaves his countryside inevitably for good. like a typical boy of his age,the narrator is crippled by the flock of lies and deceits and helplessness and it's only his dream of playing baseball for the Cardinals and a newfound zeal to paint their unpainted house which sustain Luke to accommodate all of life's dirty linens. "A Painted House" is remarkable not only for the observation of life in all its true hues through the eyes of a seven year old child but also for the illustration of numerous changesa occurring in the early 1950s in rural America. John Grisham portrays a rural American society essentially built on received traditions,where washing the "dirty dishes" was still considered "work for the women",where sexuality and sexual desires were thought to be sins,where the Church was believed the sole medium of attaining salvation,where television,and by extension modernity,was "slowly invading rural Arkansas". The language used in the novel is pretty much direct and is focused on its theme with no discernible meanderings but even so proves to be immensely touching since it explores life from the eyes of inocence. Indeed simplicity is a basic aspect of Grisham's writings which reaches its acme in this,the most moving passage of the novel:"I didn't know what was wrong;I was just crying. I was scared and tired,almost faint again,and I just wanted everything to be normal,with the Mexicans and the Spruills out of our lives,with Ricky home,with the Latchers gone,with the nightmare of Hank erased from my memory. I was tired of secrets,tired of seeing things I was not supposed to see". this is a work that imports no new ideas or beliefs,one that doesn't possess lofty ambitions,one tat doesn't give the concept of storytelling any new direction. But this book is an enormously moving one. It is the painting of an unpainted and unformed heart with some light,some turbid colours of life. John Grisham's strokes of the brush in "A Painted House" would leave a long-lasting impression on the reader's heart.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Painted House,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: A Painted House (Hardcover)
Very well pleased with this, timely delivery, large print for easy reading, great reading, really enjoyed this book. About the time i completed the book, Hallmark Channel had it on t.v. So i could relate to the movie, but i enjoyed the book much more than the movie. Since i grew up in rural South Alabama, as the son of a Sharecropper in the 50's & 60's, i can relate to this book very well. thanks,--------------------------------Ben Sundy
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