A Painted House
by John Grisham | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 044023722x Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 044023722x Global Overview for this book
Registered by sunsign6 on 6/5/2004
3 journalers for this copy...
I couldn't find this for a long time and discovered it over at my mom's house while she was cleaning out her books. Available!
Released on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 at about 2:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at N/A in n/a, n/a Controlled Releases.
RELEASE NOTES:
Putting into readinme's anything goes bookbox.
RELEASE NOTES:
Putting into readinme's anything goes bookbox.
Got this from bksfamily Clear the Shelf bookbox.
From the publisher:
"The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist-high to my father, over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good crop."
Thus begins the new novel from John Grisham, a story inspired by his own childhood in rural Arkansas. The narrator is a farm boy named Luke Chandler, age seven, who lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that's never been painted. The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the cotton is ready they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it.
For six weeks they pick cotton, battling the heat, the rain, the fatigue, and, sometimes, each other. As the weeks pass Luke sees and hears things no seven-year-old could possibly be prepared for, and finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop but will change the lives of the Chandlers forever.
A Painted House is a moving story of one boy's journey from innocence to experience."
Although it's similar, I like this synopsis more than the one that's on the back of the book, since I think the book one over emphasizes the few small mysteries in the book in an effort to appeal to people who might not read a non-legal Grisham book.
This was a good book, a quick read, with interesting characters that still seemed realistic, although I would have liked to see some of them rounded out a bit more. I did expect there to be a little more tie in or resolution with some of the story lines, but it was probably truer to have them end as they did. I also found it hard to keep in mind that the protagonist, Luke, is only 7 years old, both because he does so much work on the farm (and I'm not used to 7 year olds working at all) and because he narrates the whole book in the first person, which I guess makes him seem older. I had one or two moments with the book where I felt like I could have stopped reading and never wondered how it ended, but those never lasted and I was glad I stuck with it to the end.
"The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist-high to my father, over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good crop."
Thus begins the new novel from John Grisham, a story inspired by his own childhood in rural Arkansas. The narrator is a farm boy named Luke Chandler, age seven, who lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that's never been painted. The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the cotton is ready they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it.
For six weeks they pick cotton, battling the heat, the rain, the fatigue, and, sometimes, each other. As the weeks pass Luke sees and hears things no seven-year-old could possibly be prepared for, and finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop but will change the lives of the Chandlers forever.
A Painted House is a moving story of one boy's journey from innocence to experience."
Although it's similar, I like this synopsis more than the one that's on the back of the book, since I think the book one over emphasizes the few small mysteries in the book in an effort to appeal to people who might not read a non-legal Grisham book.
This was a good book, a quick read, with interesting characters that still seemed realistic, although I would have liked to see some of them rounded out a bit more. I did expect there to be a little more tie in or resolution with some of the story lines, but it was probably truer to have them end as they did. I also found it hard to keep in mind that the protagonist, Luke, is only 7 years old, both because he does so much work on the farm (and I'm not used to 7 year olds working at all) and because he narrates the whole book in the first person, which I guess makes him seem older. I had one or two moments with the book where I felt like I could have stopped reading and never wondered how it ended, but those never lasted and I was glad I stuck with it to the end.
Sending to nicolesinger in NC for inclusion in an m-bag to china for thekyleanator.
Thank you, your-book-fairy. I will add it to the stack - expected mail-out is around the end of this month. (LOL - unless it changes!)
Well, it took a little longer than I'd have liked - we had an unexpected money crunch and I had to wait until I gathered the postage. Fifty-one books in this shipment, and great variety. Many, many thanks to everyone who participated!
