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A Painted House Author: John Grisham Binding: Paperback Published: 2004-02-03 ISBN: 0385337930 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours from Delta Price: $10.40 Editorial Review: Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers -- and two very dangerous men -- came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke's world. A brutal murder leaves the town seething in gossip and suspicion. A beautiful young woman ignites forbidden passions. A fatherless baby is born ... and someone has begun furtively painting the bare clapboards of the Chandler farmhouse, slowly, painstakingly, bathing the run-down structure in gleaming white. And as young Luke watches the world around him, he unravels secrets that could shatter lives -- and change his family and his town forever.... From the Paperback edition. Ever since he published The Firm in 1991, John Grisham has remained the undisputed champ of the legal thriller. With A Painted House, however, he strikes out in a new direction. As the author is quick to note, this novel includes "not a single lawyer, dead or alive," and readers will search in vain for the kind of lowlife machinations that have been his stock-in-trade. Instead, Grisham has delivered a quieter, more contemplative story, set in rural Arkansas in 1952. It's harvest time on the Chandler farm, and the family has hired a crew of migrant Mexicans and "hill people" to pick 80 acres of cotton. A certain camaraderie pervades this bucolic dream team. But it's backbreaking work, particularly for the 7-year-old narrator, Luke: "I would pick cotton, tearing the fluffy bolls from the stalks at a steady pace, stuffing them into the heavy sack, afraid to look down the row and be reminded of how endless it was, afraid to slow down because someone would notice." What's more, tensions begin to simmer between the Mexicans and the hill people, one of whom has a penchant for bare-knuckles brawling. This leads to a brutal murder, which young Luke has the bad luck to witness. At this point--with secrets, lies, and at least one knife fight in the offing--the plot begins to take on that familiar, Grisham-style momentum. Still, such matters ultimately take a back seat in A Painted House to the author's evocation of time and place. This is, after all, the scene of his boyhood, and Grisham waxes nostalgic without ever succumbing to deep-fried sentimentality. Meanwhile, his account of Luke's Baptist upbringing occasions some sly (and telling) humor: I'd been taught in Sunday school from the day I could walk that lying would send you straight to hell. No detours. No second chances. Straight into the fiery pit, where Satan was waiting with the likes of Hitler and Judas Iscariot and General Grant. Thou shalt not bear false witness, which, of course, didn't sound exactly like a strict prohibition against lying, but that was the way the Baptists interpreted it. Whether Grisham will continue along these lines, or revert to the judicial shark tank for his next book, is anybody's guess. But A Painted House suggests that he's perfectly capable of telling an involving story with nary a subpoena in sight. --James Marcus Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0 "it started good but the ending was nothing spectacular" "This is one of my all-time favorite novels" "Best Novel I ever read" "Life through the eyes of a 7 year old..."   Ready to buy? Price: $10.40 List Price: $13.00 You save: $2.60 (19%)

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• it started good but the ending was nothing spectacular
  After seing so many positive reviews i deceided to give this book a try. I must say it was interesting especially for a big city girl like me. I truely didnt know anything about farming and thought this would be real boring but to my surprise it wasnt.
  Its very well written Luke, the 7 year old kid knows a lot of secrets and i can see that happening in real life as grown ups tend to trust kids with their secrets more than anyone else for some reason. I could also see myself telling a kid... more info

• This is one of my all-time favorite novels
  Wow, Grisham blew me away with his ability to write a novel that didn't involve an attorney (or two) and a court room. This book transports you into The South and guides you to imagine what it would be like to experience the story in person. It was very well written and has a compelling storyline. I couldn't put it down until I was finished and I have passed this along to several friends and family members.

• Best Novel I ever read
  I absolutely loved this book. It was a modern day "to kill a mockingbird."
  I enjoy most of Grisham's work and even though I bought this book it sat on my shelf for almost a year. I don't really care about legal thrillers, but I was so use to that being his genre that I didn't really know what to think of this books premise.
  But once I opened it I was grabbed from the first page and was completely immersed the way I really good book suck you in. I finished it in one day and have re-read it several... more info

• Life through the eyes of a 7 year old...
  What a great book - in fact, I finished it in three days after stumbling on it while house sitting for a friend. The story is both funny and tragic but a easy read none the less. I just wish their was a sequel to follow up on the great cast of characters.

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