<![CDATA[A Painted House]]>

false <![CDATA[A Painted House]]> 5360 41 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." 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: <blockquote> 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. </blockquote> 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 1125216 book 2001 A Painted House total:11942|5:2289|4:3667|3:3756|2:1625|1:605| 11942 41236 14255 941 4 1 false false Mon Feb 09 22:36:41 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 19 00:27:31 -0700 2009 Seperti halnya di buku 'The Bleacher', dengan lihainya Grisham mengaduk emosi pembaca dengan kehidupan getir sang tokoh utama...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Mon Nov 24 19:31:56 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 24 19:36:00 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Sun Mar 30 18:13:08 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 09:36:13 -0700 2008
Set in 1952 Arkansas, 7-year-ol...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Feb 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Mar 21 14:35:43 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 21 14:45:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Feb 06 22:14:11 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 22:14:11 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Aug 28 11:09:44 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 11:17:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jul 23 13:28:16 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 13:33:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 2 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Oct 03 08:17:44 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 03 08:24:08 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Mar 06 12:23:42 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 12:24:29 -0800 2009 Luke Chandler is a seven year old boy who lives on a cotton farm. He lives with his parents and grandparents in a somewhat small house in Black Oak, Arkansas. In 1952, Luke’s Grandpa hires two groups of people, a family of hill people from Eureka Springs an...more...]]> 0 0 false true Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 17:28:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 23:03:24 -0800 2009 A Painted House by John Grisham

Plot Summary

A Painted House takes place in rural Arkansas in the early 1950's and as we enter the story, Luke Chandler and his family are preparing themselves for another long season of cotton picking. Young Luke Chandler (about 7 years of age)...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Fri Jan 02 18:33:09 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 18:35:42 -0800 2009
From the back cover: Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. This is an interesting description that tells nothing and everything about the book :)

First, the only thing about this book that ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 26 22:40:59 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 09:50:54 -0700 2009
I like it when a book takes me to a place I would otherwise never go. This did well: 1950s, rural Arkansas, cotton picki...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jan 11 15:41:01 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 18:17:25 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Thu Mar 12 06:38:06 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 06:45:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Aug 24 14:25:47 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 25 16:47:52 -0700 2007 4 1 false false Mon Nov 05 15:31:20 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 11 11:37:48 -0800 2007 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Mon Jan 28 08:33:18 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 08:33:18 -0800 2008 5 1 false false Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Thu Oct 18 12:48:21 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 18 12:58:10 -0700 2007 4 1 false false Tue Aug 12 21:57:03 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 12 21:58:52 -0700 2008 5 1 true false Mon Jul 28 07:27:10 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 07:43:25 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=5360