A Painted House

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A Painted House is a novel by American author John Grisham. Published on February 6, 2001. Seven-year-old Luke Chandler is witness to many atrocities in the fall of 1952 as his struggling family of cotton farmers works hard to earn enough to pay their debts. The novel portrays the experiences that bring this child from a world of innocence into one of reality.

[edit] Summary

The story begins to unfold as Luke Chandler and his grandpa, "Pappy," search for "hands" to help them with the cotton picking. They initially consider themselves lucky to find the Spruills, a family of "hill people", looking for some work. Along with the Spruills, the family hires a few of the Mexicans that come to the area annually looking for work.

Luke gets caught up in trouble with these two groups as he first sees Hank Spruill attack three of the notorious Siscos, boys from an irreligious farming family who constantly picked fights, and beat them so severely that one of them died from the wounds. Luke also witnesses the awful killing of Hank Spruill by a Mexican nicknamed Cowboy, who catches him watching the murder and threatens to kill his mother if he reveals anything. Apart from these killings, Luke also learns that his admired Uncle Ricky has fathered a child with a daughter of their extremely poor sharecropping neighbors. With each event, he grows and realizes that the life he once lived could no longer be perceived in the same light. The story has a very unexpected ending, with Hank Spruill's sister running off with Cowboy, not knowing Cowboy had killed her brother

The "painted house" of the title is the Chandlers' own unpainted farmhouse, the painting of which becomes a shared project over the course of the autumn picking. It symbolises a new life, a change from the unchanging thirty-seven miles per hour life of his grandparents.

[edit] Film

A made for television movie premiered on the Hallmark Channel on April 27, 2003. It starred Robert Sean Leonard and directed by Alfonso Arau.

Preceded by The Brethren

John Grisham Novels 2000

Succeeded by Skipping Christmas

John Grisham's novels (as of 2006)
1980s: A Time to Kill 1990s: The Firm — The Pelican Brief — The Client — The Chamber — The Rainmaker — The Runaway Jury — The Partner — The Street Lawyer — The Testament 2000s: The Brethren — A Painted House — Skipping Christmas — The Summons — Bleachers — The King of Torts — The Last Juror — The Broker
Non-Fiction
2000s: The Innocent Man