Saralee Says
Have you ever wondered what books are on the required reading list for many of the schools in Nashville? You might be surprised that many literature teachers now include a novel by one of the most famous writers of courtroom thillers.
John Grisham used to practice law and has combined his experience as an attorney and as a former legislator in Mississippi to crank out books about inexperienced, honest, courageous lawyers who manage to outsmart more experienced attorneys. If you have read The Firm, The Rainmaker, The Pelican Brief, or my favorite, A Time To Kill, you are familiar with this recurring theme in the Grisham books. And, if you really like these legal thrillers and that is what you want from a Grisham book, then you need to know that A Painted House (Dell) is different than his other books.
I believe someone who is young should enjoy the pleasures of being a youngster - playing with friends and learning in school - and not have to carry the responsibilities of being an adult. I define a coming-of-age book as a story about a youngster who is forced to be a part of an adult world, usually as a result of one specific incident such as a death, a financial catastrophe or perhaps being involved in a prank gone bad. Do you agree?
Luke Chandler is a seven-year-old boy whose life in 1952 should be all about playing baseball and listening to the St. Louis Cardinals on the radio. His family lives on a modest farm in Arkansas. Just like the rest of his family, his concern is about harvesting the cotton crop. The Chandlers are so poor that they cannot afford the paint to paint the outside of their home. Luke's mother longs for a genteel looking home, hence the name of the book. There are three generations of Chandlers who live in this unpainted house, Luke, his parents and his grandparents.
Luke's older brother is off fighting in the Korean War. Every year during harvest time, the "hill people" from the Ozarks and the Mexicans, as Grisham calls them, arrive in Black Oak to help the farmers pick cotton. Grisham weaves a story of how these characters interact when the Spruills, who are hill people, and several Mexicans all live on the Chandler property at the same time in order to pick cotton. Much to the chagrin of Luke's grandmother, the Spruills camp out in the Chandler front yard and the Mexicans live in the attic of the barn.
My questions for our club are based on what you know about John Grisham. How much of this book do you think is autobiographical? I think that Grisham should have aged the character of Luke to 12 or 13. I do not think it was real that a seven-year-old is capable of acting with the maturity that Luke Chandler did.
Larry's Language
We like to think that America is a classless society where anyone can grow up to be President and everyone is judged on their own merits. In fact, we probably do a better job of this than any other country in the world.
But we are far from perfect. Even in the most routine aspects of our lives, social class and economic class distinctions make a difference. John Grisham has written a wonderful novel about those differences. A Painted House is not a Grisham legal thriller but instead it is a coming of age type story about seven-year-old Luke Chandler.
The neglected farmhouse where Luke and his family live is clear evidence of their low social status in rural Arkansas. Their place as sharecroppers, not owners, confirms their meager existence. But there are folks even lower in this rural community. The annual crisis of how Luke's family will harvest their cotton fields establishes their near poverty existence. Their rare trips to town illustrate dramatically the difference between farm boys and townies. The hill people who come to Luke's family farm to help pick the cotton are so far down the socioeconomic ladder that they do not even count. Then there are the non-whites that most of the white trash spend all of their time looking down upon. In this seemingly autobiographical novel the non-whites are the Mexicans who show up to save the harvest for Luke's family.
There are deeply troubling questions for our book club readers. Is the treatment of the hill people and the Mexican laborers by Luke and his family simply one more example of employers patronizing their employees to get what they want, or is it a good faith effort to build friendship? Luke's playing baseball with the laborers and their later response by painting the house can be seen as true companionship or as attempts at simply maintaining the peace so as to achieve to the all important goal of harvesting the cotton on time.
Eventually the local criminal justice system, which consists only of a sheriff, must deal with these social and personal conflicts especially when Hank Spruill, a rough- as-a-cob hill person, threatens, bullies and assaults the townies and the Mexicans. Of course, as in all great stories, justice awaits the bad guy at the end. Or, is the justice that Luke witnesses really an example of revenge and romantic intrigue?
Throughout the drama of financial crisis, interracial love, and just trying to grow up as a young boy, Luke steals our heart with his innocence and his love for his mother. My only major criticism of A Painted House is that Luke acts far older and wiser than any seven-year-old I have ever known.
Join us for our next discussion, which is Atonement by Ian McEwan.
