I have never seen a John Grisham movie.I had also never picked up any of his books, until very recently.And,although I consider myself an indiscriminate reader, I had snobbishly avoided Grisham material,simply be-cause Iassumed that he wove one too many lawyers into the scene for my taste.
My opinion of Grisham’s work changed dramatically last fall, when Ibeganto listen to Dick Estelle’s Radio Reader on thecommute home.Every day at noon, on National Public Radio, Dick Estelle broadcastsfrom Michigan State University. During this time, he readsfrom a carefully selected book for an hour.I know I am not the only driver who appreciates this, although there were times where I concentrated more on listening and less on driving. Last fall, one of those books happened to beJohn Grisham’s novel A Painted House.
Houseblewallmy preconceived notions about Grisham novels smack out of thewater.
The story is told through the eyes of a seven-year-oldboy named Luke Chandler. Luke and his family live on a farm in Arkansas in 1953. They toil on the land to survive,producing just enough cotton to break even,in the goodyears.
Neverending debts are a fact of lifein the farming business. Luke dreams of leaving the podunk town of Black Oak and playing baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals, which wouldmean never having to pick another boll of cotton.
There is a beloved uncle fighting in the trenches of Korea, which is another constant worry.The story picks up at the beginning of the harvestin Septem-ber, when the Chandler family must hire hands to gather the cotton before winter.Nine Mexican men and the Spruill family from the Ozarks are recruited to endure the backbreaking labor.
In that fateful fall, Luke bears witness to birth, death, futility and beauty. An illegitimate child is born to a sharecropper’s 15-year-old daughter, who refuses to name the father. An unlikely romance blooms, unknown to all butLuke.
Tensions mount between two violent men the Chandlers have unwittingly hired.Murderrears its gruesome head in the small town of Black Oak.
Soon there are heavy secrets that Luke carries, secrets that could prove fatal to himself and his family.
As the tension between the characters peaks, the fate of the sacred cotton crop is in peril. Unusually harsh storms have overflowed the river, presenting the very real threat of a flood that could cost the Black Oak families their lives as well as their livelihood.
A Painted Housesurprised me with itsdepthof character and of scene.In fact,it was a book that had to be hidden from me so that I would finish myhome work and study.
And nary a lawyer was there to be seen – though if there had been, I don’t think Grisham would have let that diminish his story one bit.
House earns a big, fat “two thumbs up.

Author