Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of A Painted House

A Painted House
reviewed on + 106 more book reviews


This is definitely not the typical Grisham suspense novel. It is a lovely book with no judges or crooked lawyers. By the end, I was crying because it so moved me. I truly enjoyed this book.

It's written from the perspective of a young boy who doesn't completely understand everything that's going on around him. I really enjoyed that aspect of the story because it's so different from so many other books out there, expecially other John Grisham books.

The boy is seven year-old Luke Chandler, the son of an Arkansas family renting and farming in 1952 Arkansas. To say Luke "grows up" between the covers would be an understatement. Luke tells us a story of cotton pickers that will have you feeling every possible emotion, right along with young Luke.

The murder is brutal, the times are brutal but the story is delivered in gentle prose wih no sentimentality to cloud the writing. Well worth reading.