Resumo de A Painted House

John Grisham's "A PAINTED HOUSE" is a story inspired by his own childhood in rural Arkansas. It is a moving story of one child's journey from innocence to experience.The scene is set in the year 1952 when television and telphones were quite rare and radio and letters were the only contacts with the outside world.
Luke Chandler the protagonist of the story is a 7 year old boy who lives with his parents and grandparents in a house that has never been painted. He also has an uncle, Ricky who is fighting in Korea. This uncle had held a very important role in the young boy's life, but, in the novel his role is quite passive. We know about him from his letters and Luke's recollections. This uncle also gets a 15 year old girl pregnant and miserable and did not tell his family about it.The Chandlers have only the house and 3 acres of land surrounding it is their own. The rest 80 acres of land are rented by them for growing cotton. Each year when the cotton is ready they hire labour in the form of hill people and the Mexicans to help them harvest it. This year too they hire a truck load of Mexicans and a family from Ozarks to help them in harvesting. These hired help play a great role in the boys transformation to experience.
The Black Oak is a quiet county where everybody knows everybody else. Here marriages and funerals are supposed to be big events and baseball game is loved by all. The farmers are a hardworking lot and are eternally pessimistic. They are totally dependent on the nature for farming. If the Big Lady smiles at them then they have a good yield, but, if she happens to be in a nasty mood then all their hard work go to ruin. The farmers have seen so much of nasty weather that they are even afraid to hope. Thus they are constantly worried about the nature's mood. All this has been quite realistically portrayed through the eyes of a seven year old.
At the beginning of the story we see thst Luke who is a big football fan is lusting over a red Cardinal jacket. He is paid by his parents for harvesting the copper like all the other hired help. With the earned money he plans to buy the much desired jacket which he plans to wear everywhere, showing it off to his buddies. But by the end of the story we find Luke gaining wisdom. He has matured beyond his age. Thus he foregoes of the jacket and invests his money in buying paint for the house.
Luke has to shoulder a lot of secrets much of which he unburdens to his family. He sees murder committed twice in just two months. He takes a peek at a young girl taking bath. He sees a child being born. He notices the budding romance between Tally and the cowboy. He also gets to know about his uncle's affair and his illegimate child.
Tally brings eroticm to the story. A pretty and moody 17 year old girl, she is aware of her influence on the opposite sex quite well. She is perfectly aware of the young boy's crush on her. She has a soft corner for him and includes him in some of her adventures. She is also quite protective towads Trott and buys paint for him from her earnings to fulfill his whim. By the end of the story she runs off with cowboy in search of a better future.
The two villain in Luke's life are Hank and the cowboy. While the first one is a downright bully who goes into a brawl with anyone the other looks like a professional murderer with his switchblade. They both commit a murder each which much terrifies the young boy.
The final disaster comes in the form of a flood which spoils the crop ,but, it is actually a blessing in disguise for it gives him and his parents an opportunity to discard farming forever and lead a city life.

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