A Painted House by John Grisham, USA, 2000
When I first looked at the blurb on the back and read about the Cardinals trailing the Dodgers, I was not too optimistic as I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a baseball fan; however, although baseball runs like a red thread through the book, it is completely incidental to the main theme.The main theme concerns a family of cotton growers in Arkansas. Cotton growing means cotton picking, and for the picking extra hands are recruited from Mexico in the south; even the hill people sign on for a couple of months’ picking. The mix is not without its tension; it is the tension that creates the story.
A Painted Houseis narrated by seven-year-old Luke. The blurb tells us that the novel is inspired by Grisham’s own childhood in Arkansas, but to what extent Grisham’s experiences actually parallel Luke’s is difficult to say.Luke’s innocence may bemeant to act as a foil to the violence unfolding around him; however, seven-year-old Luke comesacross as being much older and much more knowing than one would expect of a child growing up in the early 1950s. It is unbelievable that a child of that age (and that era) would have been sexually aroused by the sight of a seventeen-year-old girl, and it is equally unbelievable that that same child would have spent time mentally trying to erase the age difference in the hope of some kind of permanent relationship a little further down the track. This is anuncomfortable discord that impacts somewhat negatively on the novel as a whole.
However, the book, like most of Grisham’s books, is easy to read and does manage toretain the reader’s interest. Apart from the story surrounding Luke and his family, the novel manages to paint a very believable picture of life in the cotton-growing south during the 1950s. Life is obviously unbelievably hard, and the one light point in the whole week is the cinema house on a Saturday afternoon – everything else is steeped in hard work where dreams can quickly become disappointments and where the weather is irrational and not on the side of the cotton farmers. Even service at the Baptist Chapel on Sunday mornings has an aura of ‘hard work’, especially for a seven-year-old boy. In the far background, the Korean War casts its ownshadow over the community, also emphasizing the central themethat life is not easy.
Most people seem to accept their lot; perhaps they areso entrenched in the routines of planting, picking and disappointments that they are unable to envisage any other life. Others,like Luke’s parents – his mother in particular – know that there isa betterlife, with betterbeing completely relative.
The book contains humour, tension, suspense and sadness, and even though it is at times difficult to say where the line goes between reality and imagination most things in the book seem at least vaguely possible.
2 Replies to “A Painted House by John Grisham, USA, 2000”
Great review to start the year 🙂 I enjoy your detailed and thought-provoking introductions to books. You never give away too much of the story, though you always provide tempting reasons to pick up and read the books you write about. Thank you and Happy 2016, looking forward to more of your fabulous reviews 🙂
Thank you, Annette; you are very kind. I think that you would enjoy 'A Painted House' – there is suspense, conflict and tragedy, but there is also much to think about, and Grisham paints a very good picture of the place and the times. Happy 2016 to you as well.