Some books aren’t meant to be read till the last page with a rocketing heart-beat. They are meant to be savoured at all chapters, lines and muses with the climax being so vague you almost feel that the author never quite managed to elevate the usual developments to its crescendo. A painted house is one such book.
Luke Chandler is a seven year-old boy living on a cotton farm at the edge of a small town in Arkansas with his family. For his family, cotton is just about the most important thing. For him, it’s baseball. As the summer arrives one year and the cotton crop just waiting to be picked, a bunch of Mexicans and a hill-family arrive on the Chandler farm to earn a little money by picking the crop.
These two groups comprise two extremely dangerous men who go on to commit brutal murders. And Luke, who’d never kept a secret nor told a lie suddenly finds his world crushed between a matrix of them. Amidst all this, somebody’s started to paint the lifelessly brown wooden walls of the Chandler house white. And as Luke finds he can’t keep another secret, he realises he’s lost his innocence.
This is my first John Grisham book and after a particularly absorbing chapter I realised why people call Grisham a master of subtle thrill. At times Grisham unfolds the proceedings so openly and defiantly, you’ll be taken into suprise by the sheer bluntness. Minus out Grisham’s writing skills and A painted house has little life to even stand erect on it’s feet. There are books who’s only souls are in their writing. Take The Three Mistakes of My life by Chetan Bhagat for an instance. Without Bhagat’s own unique writing style it wouldn’t turn out to be half as good as it actually is. So mind well, this is no nail-biter or jaw-dropper but certainly a page-turner you can’t get enough of.
Another remarable feature of Grisham’s writing skill is his ability to write any genre and yet be able to write well. I’m currently reading The Street Lawyer which is totally different from A painted house. A painted house is a subtle, silent, dramatic take on a farm-family coping with murderers on the farm and bad weather ruining the picking season and The Street Lawyer is about a big time lawyer hitting the streets to fight against a grossly unjust system in his bid to bring down the law firm that made him what he is. Both books have radically different narration styles yet the distinct whiff of raw surprises that tells you it’s Grisham alright.
People suggested several names like The Runaway Jury, The Pelican Brief and The Street Lawyer to start John Grisham with. Let me tell you, it really doesn’t matter which one you read first and which second. Just get your hands onto anyone and get going.
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