A Painted House ORR Luka Luketic

Title: A Painted house

Author: John Grisham

Genre: Historic fiction

The book I am reading is called  “A Painted House”, by John Grisham, its a Historical fiction novel. Grisham is most famous for his Legal Thriller novels, Legal thrillers are novels about some sort of crimes, and usually have an interesting plot. A Painted House is a novel about cotton farmers in Arkansas, it talks about the Chandler family and their cotton farm, It also mentions the way different people were treated at the time. So far in the book several important characters have been introduced. Luke Chandler, he is the main protagonist and the youngest in the family, Pappy Chandler, Luke’s hard working grandfather, a World War 1 veteran and a minor league baseball player and Jesse Chandler, Luke’s father who works hard to pay of the families debts. The chandler family, hires both Mexicans and “hill people”, as workers on the farm, they come at the beginning of harvest and leave at the end. Meaning that rarely ever do the same people work at the farm.  Aside from being cotton farmers the Chandler’s also play baseball; Jesse could have made it to the big league if he wasn’t wounded in the war, while Pappy also played baseball in the local league, this is an important aspect of Luke’s character, because he is a fan of the Cardinals and dreams of playing for them one day.  So far there hasn’t been any incidents or problems that could change the course of the book, but one of the Mexicans know as Cowboy is known to have a bad temper and carries around a knife, I am guessing that he will cause problems further in the book.

This novel doesn’t only show what it was like for cotton farmers in 1952, it also shows how both Mexicans and the “hill people” were discriminated and mistreated. The Mexicans came to Arkansas in the back of a small truck, with thirty of them crammed in. The only one that is willing to stand up for them is Luke’s mother. This book handles serious topics, and it pulls the reader in. If I were to rate this book on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 9, because I like it but I still didn’t get to the actual problem. This book isn’t an easy read; it requires thought and a serious approach.