Just Finished Reading John Grisham's A Painted House

Before I picked up a copy of John Grisham's novel A Painted House (published in 2001), I had read four other books from this prolific writer who tends to specialize in fiction relating to law and politics: The Pelican Brief, The Firm, The Appeal, and The Brethren.  I thought I'd read A Painted House, a story steeped in childhood memories and nostalgia, as a departure from Grisham's usual focus...

The setting of A Painted House is the Chandler family's cotton farm in lowland eastern Arkansas in 1952. Luke Chandler, who is seven at the time of the story and a die-hard (and very frustrated) St.  Cardinals baseball fan, is the first-person narrator looking back in time from an adult perspective.  It's cotton-picking season and the Chandlers, short on manpower, go out and hire Mexican migrants and a hill family named the Spruills to help with the harvest.  Without wanting to give away the story, let's just say that Luke's experiences with the Mexicans and Spruills drive the plot and, as he says himself, change his life.  I will say this much, though: Luke reminded me a lot of little Harry Potter in the first couple of books in J.K. Rowling's series by how much he likes to sneak around and eavesdrop on others, accumulating for himself a burden of secrets.  Also, Grisham was great with the unforgettable characters he introduced, especially Luke's grandparents, parents, Cowboy (one of the Mexicans)...and Tally, Trot, and Hank Spruill.  And then there is Luke's older Uncle Ricky, who is serving as a soldier in the Korean War and, despite his absence, plays his own important role in the story...

A Painted House was adapted to television as a movie in 2003.  I'm not sure I want to see it, though, as I have already formed my own images of the characters and events.  A Painted House gives a time capsule look at 1952 in a poor rural part of the country, showing the more traditionally based attitudes of the people back then.  I definitely recommend it...