Resumo de A Painted House-'growing Up Too Soon'

The peaceful cotton fields of Arkansas, a happy countryside family, the blissful innocence of childhood. A storm, a gory fight, a chilling crime?gone is the peace, the happiness and the innocence that once blossomed there. The sweat of one?s brow is not always rewarded with bread and butter and at times, children are forced to grow up sooner than expected.

This is the drama portrayed by John Grisham in his bestseller ?A Painted House?, which is a reflection of the author?s own life and experiences while growing up in rural Arkansas.

The protagonist and narrator, Luke Chandler, a typical seven-year-old and dedicated worker lives and works on a cotton farm in Arkansas with his family, but secretly aspires to be a professional baseball player one day. And despite her love for the sleepy countryside and her little vegetable garden, Luke?s mother, too, nurses a secret desire for a better life in the city. She often confesses her longing to Luke depicting the powerful emotional bond shared between mother and son.

Luke also nurses another simple craving-to live in a painted house. He yearns for bright paint to adorn the dull gray boards of his house. Although this childhood craving may appear meager and insignificant, the painting of the Chandlers? home is eventually transformed into a mammoth task and is a clear reflection of the hardships and ambitions of the population of rural Arkansas. It is also an illustration of power and strength.

The Chandlers farm eighty acres of rented land and when the harvesting season arrives, they hire a truck-load of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks (colloquially called the ?hill people?) to help them harvest it.

For six weeks, the Chandlers, the Mexicans and the hill people pick the cotton with vigor, through blazing heat and pouring rain, only to realize that in the end, most of their efforts have been ?washed away? in vain.

But during the monotonous cotton-picking, the Chandlers discover that their hired-help is anything but mundane. They are people with a tormented past, each one having a gruesome tale of his own, each tale more chilling than the other. And it is these people who change the fate of the crop and the life of the Chandlers forever.

The trauma begins when a routine town-fight turns horrifically violent, leading to the gory murder. Luke bears witness to this heinous crime, which becomes the ?murderer? of his blissful childhood days. When none of the witnesses have the courage to raise their voices, Luke is called upon to reveal the truth. He bravely confesses every detail, but leaves out the most critical detail for the fear of bringing harm to his family. And for the weeks that follow, Luke carries this secret like a terrible burden, watching and waiting for his chance to release this unbearable load from his ailing heart.

But one night, Luke bears witness to another gruesome murder, more eerie than the previous one, which leaves him even more traumatized than before and he is compelled by a death threat to keep his lips sealed.

How many homicides must a seven-year-old witness? How much torture can a seven-year-old young mind endure? How great a burden can a seven-year-old heart withstand? Yes, sometimes children are forced to grow up faster than expected. Such is life?s way.

The most heart-warming element is Luke?s self-control. When bullied by the helpers, he hesitates to reveal the harassment to his parents for the fear of losing the much required help. He bears all of life?s hardships more resistibly than an adult and one wonders if anyone could ever achieve such a high degree of determination and courage. Life has its own special way of strengthening the most delicate of hearts.

Luke?s innocence is also expressed in a most touching manner. His ?idol worship? of his uncle, Ricky, who?s off to war in Korea, and his first crush on 17-year-old Tally Spruill are touching reflections of Luke?s blissful yet lovable innocence. His childish urges and infinite curiosity are warm reminders of his inexperience and add a realistic touch to the book.

The most appealing part of the book is the personal relationship that exists between the author and the protagonist. John Grisham was born on February 8th, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas and like Luke, he craved baseball and dreamt of being a pro. But since he did lacked the ?right stuff?, he resolved to pursue an academic career in accountancy and law and eventually, produced masterpieces like this. One gets the feeling that Grisham fulfilled all his unfulfilled dreams and ambitions through his memorable seven-year-old character. Maybe ?A Painted House? is the novel that John Grisham holds most closely to his heart.

The only part of the book that threw me off track was that it reaches a high degree of anxiety and intensity and just when the reader expects the final revelation and the dramatic climax, the story takes a rather unexpected turn and ends in a disappointing and uninteresting manner. The events following the second murder fail to captivate the readers as much as those preceding it. This led to a decline in the excellence of the plot, as well as the reader?s engrossment.

But overall, ?A Painted House? has been rightly described as ?a moving story of one boy?s journey from innocence to experience.? It is probably the most touching of all of John Grisham?s works.

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