A Painted House - Join this Book Ring

by John Grisham | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: 044023722x Global Overview for this book
Registered by Zarylia of Saint Paul, Minnesota USA on 4/2/2004
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4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Zarylia from Saint Paul, Minnesota USA on Friday, April 2, 2004
I've never actually read a Grisham novel but maybe someday I'll get around to this one...it sounds pretty good.

from Amazon.com:

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:

"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."

Journal Entry 2 by Zarylia from Saint Paul, Minnesota USA on Monday, April 19, 2004
Starting this as a bookring so it can stop collecting dust. ;-)

The list so far is:

surfenkitten - LA *finished*
moochild - Canada *finished*
adamkay - UK <----------Current Reader
Rhenium3 - Czech Republic prefers Europe
Jessi626 - Germany ships Europe

Journal Entry 3 by Zarylia from Saint Paul, Minnesota USA on Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Sent off to surfenkitten today! Hope you enjoy it!

Journal Entry 4 by surfenkitten from Audubon, New Jersey USA on Wednesday, June 30, 2004
enjoyed this one, a lot. seemed very different from other Grisham novels, specifically in that it's told in first person, by a 7-year-old, at times who really made me laugh.

sending on to moochild soon!

Journal Entry 5 by moochild from Ottawa, Ontario Canada on Monday, August 9, 2004
Received in the mail this morning! I'll start the book next week while on vacation... thanks for sending Surfenkitten, and for sharing Zarylia... I've never read JG before!

~moo~

Journal Entry 6 by moochild from Ottawa, Ontario Canada on Monday, October 11, 2004
First off... so sorry for the delay in getting this book read! The intention was to read it on vacation, but I got called back to work for part of vacation... so the book went on the shelf.

I read it this past week...and loved it so much more than I expected!

First off, thanks you Zarylia for sharing your book, and your patience while I finished it. Secondly, thanks to surfenkitten for advising not to read the back cover, as it gives away a lot!

**Spoiler! Don't read any further unless you've read the book!**



I truly thought John Grisham only wrote legal/courtroom fiction! I kept waiting for Luke to grow up and become a lawyer!! LOL

What a beautifully written book, very descriptive, the characters truly come alive with each passing page.

Going to start another JG book tonight...

adamkay - the book will be on it's way in the morning! Enjoy!!

Journal Entry 7 by adamkay from Sheffield, South Yorkshire United Kingdom on Friday, November 19, 2004
This book was sent to me in a bookring. I haven't started it yet, but it is next on my list. I am impressed that it doesn't seem to be about lawyers.

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