I liked it. I like John Grisham. I like the way this story moved in a different way-- more slowly, more deeply, more leisurely than his other works. But it still moved, still had his trademark driven story-telling.

It was a very full, rich book. Many strands were woven and unraveled throughout. Some were tied back together, but some weren't. I wanted more when it was over.


SPOILER ALERT:
I have so many questions. What happened to Ricky? What about Libby and the baby? Did Cowboy ever get what was coming to him? Does Tally know that the man she ran off with murdered her brother? Will the Spruills ever know what happened to Hank? What will Gran and Pappy do alone on the farm? Will the Latchers stay and help? How do Luke and his parents fare in Michigan?

When a book ends like that, with so much left unanswered, I always feel strange when I finish the last page. It's hard to describe. Lonely comes close. Sad, certainly.

Why is that? I know it's just a story. These people aren't real. What happened to them next doesn't matter because nothing actually "happened" to them at all. They never existed. So why do I care so much about the unwritten chapters?

I've been talking with my 9th graders about the need humans have for closure. We were reading the Odyssey and talking about Penelope, who had been waiting at home for 20 years for her husband to return. It's been 10 years since the Trojan war ended and every other family has received either their soldier himself or word of his death. We try to imagine what Penelope, waiting, uncertain, must have felt like. Each passing day making her choose between reason and hope. We talked about Odysseus' father's complaints of never having a body returned to him, no physical proof of what he fears must have become of his beloved son.

We talked about if anyone has known someone who went missing and what that's like for a family, to be torn between hope and grief, every day not knowing whether to be waiting or mourning. I asked them which they think would be harder to cope with, a disappearance or a sudden death. There's no way to know, no way to really compare, but the inability to embrace the grieving process, we could all admit, would surely be unbearable and completely debilitating.

I suppose it's that same relationship with closure, although on a microscopic and trivial level, that allows me to sob shamelessly at a tragic ending, close the book, take a deep breath, and go about my business. Yet a story has an ambiguous ending, and it haunts me for days.



Could this be taught to 9th graders? I think so. Mild cursing, but nothing prohibitive. Some iffy parts where 7 year old watches 17 year old girl bathing. (By the way, anyone else think Tally's got some issues? Letting a 7 year old watch her bathe and dragging him along on her exploits... Interesting to compare the way she's presented to the reader through the eyes of the adoring child, but how different would she come across if presented from a peer's perspective?

A fabulous book which takes place in 1952 Akansas. The story is told by Luke, a 7 year old boy. He tells a story of a poor family of cotton growers and all of the trials and hardships. This book really captivated me.

I listened to the audio version, so it's hard for an adult narrator to sound like a 7-year-old.
Being from Memphis, I can relate to a lot of what happens in this story. My grandparents were raised in rural Mississippi and I've got many memories of visiting the small town where they were raised.

While Grisham is a popular author, his skill as a writer falls considerably short of an Ernest Hemingway or John Steinbeck or George Orwell. Sorta like Stephen King, Nicolas Sparks, Jackie Collins, et al. Some of their books make great movies but their names will be largely forgotten after a few generations.

Having said this, I did enjoy parts of the novel and the gritty determination of the Chandler family. It is a realistic, honest portrayal of life in rural Arkansas in the 1950s.

Found this very entertaining. Good story. I can see a movie being made of this tale about a little boy getting caught up in adult drama when all he wants to do is dream about being a professional baseball player someday. Centered around the hard life of a poor farming family in 1950s Arkansas, and seen through the eyes of a 7-year-old, many of the most dramatic elements of the story could be very compelling cinemagraphicaly and, if done right, the characters' plights very moving.

I loved this book! Told through the eyes of a very wise seven year old boy (who realistically should have been more like 10 or 11 -- he's too mature and thoughtful for seven, I think), this is the story of one fall cotton harvest season in 1952 Arkansas. The motley cast of characters include "hill people" and Mexican migrant workers, who come to help with the cotton harvest, the multi-generational Chandler family, who live on and are renting the farmland, and other local families. Grisham's characters and settings vividly leap from the page. You can almost hear the baseball games broadcast nightly on the Chandler's scratchy radio. But the real theme of the book revolves around secrets -- secrets involving illicit love and even murder. Luke, the aforementioned seven year old, seems to be privy to all the secrets -- a large burden for such a young boy to bear. Throughout the cotton-picking season, his "Pappy's" house slowly gets painted (but by whom?), giving the book its title. This is no typical Grisham novel as there's not a lawyer or courtroom in sight, but the colorful characters, clean prose, and brilliantly painted scenes make this one of my favorite books ever. Did not want it to end!

Pirma knyga ir pasakojimas, kuris skiriasi nuo ankstesnių Grisham skaitytų knygų. Istorija yra pasakojama 7m.berniuko akimis, nutinka tam tikri įvykiai, kurių liudininku jis tampa, ir dėl tam tikrų priežasčių vaikas priverstas tylėti ir meluoti, pats to nenorėdamas.
Daug yra pasakojama apie sunkų darbą medvilnės laukuose, nuo ankstyvo ryto iki vėlyvo vakaro. Darbui yra samdomi lauko darbininkai. Pramogos-šeštadienio išvykos į miestą, o sekmadienį - bažnyčia.
Patiko aprašomas žmonių paprastumas,geranoriškumas, pagalba vieni kitiems.

I seldom give five stars; they must be earned by the author's offerings. This book supplied all the necessary plot ingredients to satisfy the curiosities of this avid, mature reader. (No desire to see the movie, it could not possibly do this story justice.) Its not for the squeamish or sheltered reading audience. A realistic slice of life, poor/destitute Arkansas folks during the early Fifties, well-described and believable.

I liked this book. There isn't any wild climatic events that you may find in other Grisham books. This is a simple novel of a simple life as told by a seven year old boy. Still, Grisham manages to capture the feelings of the times; a poor family in the south who hire workers to harvest their cotton and the drama that ensues with these "lower class" folk. I can see why a lot of Grisham fans wouldn't like this, it's a departure from his normal genre.

This was such a horrible book! It had potential - I kept thinking the story would come around but once I got 2/3 way through the book, I knew there was no room left for a story. I finished it anyway and was really disappointed. There is absolutely NO story. Nothing. We are introduced to this family and the other characters for no reason. It's almost like the author had great ideas for characters but couldn't come up with a story line.

If you've never read Grisham and this is your first book - PLEASE don't judge him by it. This is, by far, his worst book in my opinion.

Elegí este libro para un reto en mi club de lectura, porque el autor es para mí sinónimo de libros de suspenso, de tejes y manejos políticos y hasta de conspiraciones. Y la lectura me ha llevado a un John Grisham que no conocía, en la que sentí cierta conexión autobiográfica tal vez... de un intento algo extraño de profundizar en emociones y de conectar las expectativas del personaje en su fase de niño a ese crecimiento procesual que se da en libro.
No me ha disgustado la lectura, sin embargo el sentido de que pretendió tener no me ha llegado y en general la narrativa me parece monótona y con personajes estructurados y poco creativos.

My favorite Grisham book to date.

This is not the John Grisham of legal thrillers. It’s a remarkable departure from his typical stories. A Painted House is wonderful, thoughtful historical fiction told from the perspective of a 7 year-old boy growing up on a leased cotton farm in Arkansas. If you enjoy Ivan Doig or William Kent Kruger (his historical fiction), then I predict you’ll love this book.