by John Grisham
In A Painted House, John Grisham puts away
the legal briefs and shows us a more literary style of storytelling.
There are no courtroom dramas, no high-paid lawyers. As a matter of
fact, there are no lawyers at all. Instead, the story opens slowly,
introducing us to the Chandler family.
The narrator, Luke Chandler, looks back on the
year 1952 when he was only seven years old. He lives with his parents
and grandparents on the family farm where the main crop is cotton. It
is harvest season—and time for everyone with two hands to pick. Every
year the Mexicans and the hill people come to work in the cotton fields,
but in 1952, the Chandler’s got far more than they bargained for.
Luke’s father hired a fair number of both Mexicans and hill people that
year, but one hill person had a penchant for bare-knuckles brawling.
His fighting leads to a murder one day. A murder that Luke,
unfortunately witnesses.
At this point the story begins to take the twists
and turns that we expect from Grisham. Still, the murders, fights,
secrets and lies are a backdrop to evocation of time and place. This is,
after all, the scene of Grisham's boyhood. He uses his Baptist upbringing for
some sly humor on religion and the child’s mind, and he does a beautiful
job of depicting small town life then and now.
It is
however hard to believe that so much could happen to one seven year old.
He witnesses two gruesome murders, and is told to keep a lot of secrets.
Yes, he cries and wants to be with his Mom, but it still falls short
of being believable for a seven year old. At one point, Luke is even
threatened with a knife to his throat. One would think counseling would
be in order.
Nonetheless, there is a lot to savor in A Painted House. It is
richly entertaining with the sights and sounds of summer, and you can
practically smell the okra cooking on the frying pan. It's
especially nostalgic if you grew up listening to Cardinals baseball on
the radio and you were a Stan Musial fan. There is a calm,
contemplative tone that reflects the atmosphere of the rural setting, as one
expects of Jonesboro, Arkansas. It is an
enjoyable read and a refreshing look at Grisham’s talent as a
storyteller outside the genre he is so famous for writing.
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