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A Painted House by John Grisham is an ever lasting collaboration of events. This story is told trough the eyes of a seven year old farm boy named Luke. This was not a historical novel but a thriller. It is a story with historical backing. This novel is full of life lessons and the reader grows with Luke. A Painted House is a novel easily recommended to anyone.
A Painted House is full of infinite meaning and symbolism. The title is self is symbolic of the poor life the family has. The novel starts off with Luke summarizing the beginning of the crop season. The novel depicts the struggles of the American farm families. The Chandlers’ economic status holds truth to the idea that the depression came early to Arkansas and left late. The novel starts in 1952 at the start of the picking season. The Chandlers are cotton farmers that rent there farm lands and wish to break even with the crop this year. The Chandlers along with most other farm families have a debt that carries over year to year. Apart from there economic drama they have to hire field hands to help harvest the crops. They use “hill people” and Mexicans. The workers end up adding more drama to Luke’s once simple life. Luke is witness to two murders. The reader feels forced to keep in the secrets with Luke and forced to grow up and smell the murder. The novel has very scandalous event for its time period. Ricky, Luke’s uncle, fathers a child with Libby their poor neighborhood. The Spruill’s, the Chandler’s hill people, son Hank ends up killing a guy and Luke saw everything. Cowboy, the Chandler’s Mexican field workers, kills Hank and runs away with seventeen year old Tally. Poor Luke was witness to that murder and Cowboy threatened him. The crop ends up failing the family. Luke takes on the job of painting the house. The family moves to Chicago. Finally the mother gets what she has always wanted.
John Grisham’s A Painted House depicts the farmers life in a new light. The novel is written in a simple manner, because the characters are simple people. This novel is not the usual southern tale of racism and ignorant people. The novel portrays an almost classy southern lifestyle. The reader is witness to the growth in Luke’s character. At the end he is still a young boy but he is now harder on the inside. The time in which this novel is told was after World War II. This was a time when the US was stable, yet on this poor farm in Arkansas they are about to loss it all. The novel show the how things were on the other side. Grisham has a little of everything in this book. His lead character Luke tells the story in such a grown way that it isn’t until you notice his innocence that the reader remembers that he is only a child of seven. Grisham keeps the reader wishing along with mom that someday the Chandler family well no longer live on the farm, but go to a more modern home. The reader easily falls in love with Luke and his jokester ways. Grisham does the difficult job of bringing true life to each character.
This novel is in no means limited to historians. Grisham made this book enjoyable for many audiences. Luke is in love with baseball, but better yet he is in love with the Cardinals. The novel is splattered with mini love stories. The novel does hold truth to an over all goal. The American Dream is the back drop to the whole novel. Grisham pulls the reader in with hoping and wanting the Chandlers to progress in life. The reader grows attached to the family and wants them to complete their goals. The American Dream is seen differently for each character. Grisham doesn’t use the words the “American Dream” anywhere, but the reader can clearly see each characters strive to complete their dream. The themes of love, sports, and dreams are all found in this novel. Grisham was intelligent in his writings. The fact that the novel is a thriller in its self appeals to the new generation of readers. It is a difficult job to find a reader that isn’t interested in any part of this novel.
A Painted House by John Grisham is a sequence of exciting events. The fact that the story is told through the eyes of a child is misleading. The reader expects the book to be immature and finds the opposite. This novel was a true thriller. It is a story with historical backing. The lessons learned in this novel teach humility. The reader gets laugh and tears from this one of a kind novel. A Painted House is a novel easily recommended to anyone for its universal appeal.