Many people will compare this book to To Kill a Mockingbird and Tom Sawyer. Mr. Grisham consciously modeled the book along the lines of both works, because he makes many allusions to them. Fans of Mr. Grisham's lawyer books will be disappointed to find out that there are no lawyers in this one.

This book has many fine qualities. The sense of place is strong. You will be emotionally affected by the characters. The book raises many fascinating questions about morality and spirituality.

The book also has some big weaknesses. The narrator is a seven year-old, Luke Chandler. No seven year-old has ever existed who is like this Luke, however. In many places he has the vocabulary of a college graduate . . . which greatly jars the authenticity of his voice. He also is able to gather information better than James Bond. Mr. Grisham could easily have remedied both problems, but did not choose to do so. As a result, he turned a serious novel into a sort of self-satire with a large wink to the reader that this is fiction, after all.

The book has a lot of humor in it, but the humor is often coming from the sophisticated views of the author in ways that are not subtle enough. For example, there is an extremely obvious play on the fence painting scene from Tom Sawyer. Not satisfied with that, Mr. Grisham feels compelled to have Luke's mother make the allusion directly. In considering a moral dilemma about lying, Luke puts Hitler, Judas, and General Grant in together hell based on what he has been told.

I came away hoping that Mr. Grisham would do more books like this one, but scale back his dramatics, the capabilities of his characters, and his own voice. Fiction has to seem like it could have occurred before we can comfortably enter into it. A Painted House allows you to do that sometimes (like during Saturday afternoon visits to town to do little boy activities) but not others (like during the events surrounding the scene with Hank and Cowboy on the bridge).

After you have finished this book, I suggest that you think back to when you were seven. What were your biggest hopes, concerns, and dilemmas? What have you learned since then that has improved on those perspectives? What have you forgotten that you should refocus on?

Select a worthy goal before you seek it out!