I am convinced the people here who rated this book poorly were just disappointed that this is not Grisham's usual, forgettable crime thriller. A Painted House is serious fiction, and I admit being surprised because I didn't think Grisham could write this well. A story told from seven year old Luke Chandler's point of view, about his life on a cotton farm in 1952 in Arkansas, and all of the big and small dramas that take place. The novel reminded me very much of John Steinbeck's writing, and in places and passages it reminded me of Henry David Thoreau. Grisham needs to stop writing crap like The Brethren and stick to the serious stuff. HIGHLY recommend!!

There's no doubt that John Grisham is a talented story teller. Whether he is a talented writer is beyond my ken...most critics think not, but then I'm a cultural philistine anyway. I do think that he should write more books which are not your "legal thrillers" because frankly, he's not too good anymore in that genre. A Painted House is semi-autobiographical and describes a few weeks in the hard-scrabble life of a 7-year old on a cotton farm in Arkansas during a harvest in the 1950's. A simple story that drags you in, just a great read.

I read a lot of Grisham's thrillers when I was younger, til they got too samey, and a couple of his non-lawyer books, so when this was passed to me at Book Club I figured I'd give it a go. I feel bad giving it 2 stars as it's well written and probably moving if you like this sort of thing, but I was bored silly. Set in rural Arkansas in 1952 and told from the point of view of a 7 year old boy, this is about the family's attempts to get the cotton harvest in to ensure their livelihood.
Luke's grandfather Eli, known as Pappy, runs the farm and doesn't care about anything except the cotton. Every year he employs groups from the hills and Mexicans as casual labour for the picking, and the tensions between some of these characters provide the main part of the plot. The only likeable character in the whole book is Miguel and he doesn't feature much. Luke, the protagonist, is a horrible little boy: selfish, lazy, manipulative, arrogant, which seem like ridiculous ways to describe a seven year old ( and to be fair I don't know many seven year olds so maybe they're all like that.) He stalks and perves on Tally the beautiful 17 year old daughter of the hillbilly family, despises the neighbours because they are poor, and even when he appears to do something nice for his family, buying paint out of his own money so the house-painting that no one was even bothered about, can be completed, it's only done out of self-interest as he doesn't want to be left doing the work on his own. He's obsessed by baseball, so there are long descriptions of the games the family listen to on the radio, and every single meal and trip in the car is described in excruciating detail.
The ending was unsatisfying with various characters just left hanging - an epilogue to let us know how things turned out, perhaps from the point of view of Luke as an adult, would at least have rounded out the story.
Many people have clearly enjoyed this, but it really was a slog for me to get through and I'm glad it's over.

Slow rambling tale that emanates from unbelievable POV of seven year. No plot.

Mi primer libro de John Grisham y al parecer no es uno de sus típicos libros ya que la mayoría están centrados en litigios y problemas legales, pero yo estoy muy feliz de haberlo leído.
La vida en una granja algodonera de Arkansas pasa lento y muy lento y así es este libro lleno de descripciones y muchas veces parecería que no pasa nada, pero siempre había algún evento en la historia que hacia imposible parar de leer, Luke me pareció maravilloso y la historia contada desde su punto de vista con toda la inocencia de sus 7 años muy, muy entretenida.
Los grandes y oscuros conflictos prometidos eso sí jamas ocurrieron, por que si hay incidentes y problemas pero nada catastrófico o desastroso y lo que podría serlo queda en nada. El final muy conmovedor.

I like Grisham's legal thrillers on occasion, and I love SKIPPING CHRISTMAS. This is an altogether different beast. Straight up historical fiction, set on a struggling cotton farm in 1950's Arkansas, it's as much a picture of that time and place as it is a coming of age tale. I would recommend this to teens, I think it would be great for classroom discussion. It's a sort of post-Depression, Grapes of Wrath-lite.

Such a well-written, engaging book. As the back cover suggests, A Painted House reminded me of books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Huck Finn. A boy from Arkansas (who loves the Cardinals and baseball and dreams of moving to St. Louis, all pluses in my book) grows up living the hard life on a cotton farm in the 50s. The book paints a vivid picture of what that common life might be like, with coming of age stories, family drama, and interpersonal conflicts, all while throwing in the less common intrigues of murders and a natural disaster. The relationships between ethnic groups, the role of the church, the pace of a 50s farm life, the ties of family, the importance of the paint on your house and its contrast to disasters, and finally the ambiguity of realized dreams... all highlights from a worthy one day read of 480 pages.

I'd never read a Grisham book before, but when I realized he wrote books that didn't involve lawyers, I decided to check this one out. Not disappointed. One of my favorite reads of the year.

I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t rate it...

I don't normally read Grisham, he's a great writer just not my typical genre. This, however, was an awesome story. I loved the whole experience of entering the world of Luke Chandler in 1951. It was a tremendously entertaining story. Well written, with so much detail and humor, realistic voices and a simpler time that was somehow made to be full of drama and suspense. I felt this was one of the best stories I can recall written from this era and brought so fully into focus.

Luke Chandler, 7 years old, lives in Black Oak Arkansas with his Mom and Dad, Gran and Pappy on a cotton farm. The cotton is their world. They are farmers, first and foremost and the cotton is their master.
When the story begins, it is harvesting time. The summer crop has been good, the weather has been favorable and the Chandlers are occupied with the task of finding "hill people" and Mexicans to hire to help harvest the cotton.
They will pay them to help pick the cotton and in return they will share their lives for the next two months. The decisions made at the beginning of the harvest turn out to have irrevocable consequences for the Chandlers, the Sprools- the "hill people', and the people of Black Oak.
These decisions and their resulting effects are unspooled steadily and with increasing tension as the story progresses in a wonderfully mesmerizing tapestry, full of color and vibrancy.
In essence, I was enthralled by this story. It was a journey to another place and time, one I was unfamiliar with, but was brought to feel right at home in. Read it, it's a pleasure.

Actual Rating: 4.5/5

My Original Thoughts (2001):

Fantastic! Started off rather slow (character-driven versus plot-driven), but well worth hanging in there. Unforgettable characters. Touching. Humorous. Seven-year-old Luke is wise beyond his years. Witness to two killings. Loves the St. Louis Cardinals. Picks cotton with his family on their farm in Arkansas. Set in 1952. A quiet story. Subtly suspenseful. A refreshing departure from Grisham's legal thrillers.

My Current Thoughts:

While I don't remember much about the story, I do remember that I loved it. This would be a great book to revisit on audio.

What a beautiful and heartwarming book by John Grisham, A Painted House, that had been previously published in serial form by Oxford American magazine. This book was a delightful departure from his legal thrillers to the Arkansas Ozarks set in the late summer and early fall of 1952. One quickly becomes immersed in the lives of the multigenerational Chandler family from the opening paragraph:

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"The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodger with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however waist-high to my father, over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a 'good crop.'"

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This beautiful coming-of-age story was inspired by John Grisham's own childhood in the Arkansas Delta as told through the eyes and the experiences of seven-year old Luke Chandler living with his parents and grandparents, Pappy and Gran. Their home was in the cottonfields in a little frame house that had never been painted in its fifty years, a sign of lower status. Luke has big dreams of playing baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. Since seeing it a Sears, Roebuck catalog, his goal has been to earn enough money from picking cotton to buy that jacket in beautiful Cardinal red in some shiny fabric with white buttons down the front, and perhaps see Stan Musial. We witness the struggle of a family of cotton farmers struggling to harvest their crops earning enough to settle their debts. As the story begins, Luke is with his grandpa, Eli Chandler, in their search for a group of Mexican migrant workers and a family of hill people to help them with the harvest. As the group of Mexicans are moved to their spacious barn where the loft has been prepared for them, the Spruills, the hill family set up their camp in the Chandlers front yard. This is quite disturbing to young Luke as their firepit is right over "home plate." But this is only the beginning as young Luke begins to see and hear more that what he is prepared for, forcing him to confront a series of secrets that could have disastrous effects. This book, interspersed with dramatic moments, also is replete with colorful and descriptive passages of life in the rural south and the routine events making up Luke's daily life. I loved this book. In fact, this may be one of John Grisham's finest works.

Great read! therapeutic,compelling,enjoyable and a moving story...determination,twists and turns to hold your interest to the end..well written (paperback!)