You wont find any lawyers or courtrooms in John Grishams newest novel, A Painted House. No sireebob, this is a horse (or, house) of a different color.  
 
It seems the attorney-turned-publishing commodity has reached the point in his career where the annual publication of an automatically-bestselling legal thriller is, perhaps, getting a bit old-hat. What we need here, folks, is something completely different to revive routine bloodsomething like, oh I dunno, a coming-of-age tale told by the seven-year-old son of an Arkansas cotton farmer; something without legal eagles; something with only sporadic thrills; something to show the world that even though Grisham writes airplane-ride fiction, he secretly pines to be accepted as a serious literary author.  
 
Its a risky move. Most members of the Rocket-Propelled Bestsellers Club (Tom Clancy, Stephen King, Sue Grafton, et al) rarely stray far from the well-cropped pastures of their established genres. Even when King goes legit (Different Seasons, Hearts in Atlantis), there remain shades of darkness and monsters. So, youve got to admire a fellow like Grisham who tosses the dice with a book like A Painted House. Will he disappoint long-time fans expecting more Southern-fried justice? Will he recruit readers who wouldnt ordinarily pick up a paperback where the words #1 Bestseller dominate half the front cover? Will Clancy decide to jump in the fray by writing a bodice-ripping romance?  
 
Only time (and a blitz of hype from Grishams publisher) will tell.  
 
I should mention that Ive never read any of Mr. Grishams other books (not even on long airplane trips). Im only familiar with his works by way of Hollywood (ranging from the horrid A Time to Kill to the excellent The Rainmaker). So, while I cant tell you how A Painted House compares to The Brethren, Im happy to report its a cotton-pickin good read on its own merits. It will never reach solid gold classic status like Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird, but it does bring to life a time, a place and a set of characters who burn bright in your mindat least until you turn the final page and move on to the next book waiting patiently on your bedside table.  
 
A Painted House is the story of a single harvesting season in the autumn of 1952 when the Cardinals are trailing the Dodgers by five games (baseball, that easy nostalgia tool of writers, figures prominently). The narrator is pint-sized Luke Chandler, the only son of Jesse and Kathleen and grandson to Pappy and Gran. One other significant family member, Lukes Uncle Ricky, is away on the front lines of the Korean Wara constant fret-and-worry for the whole family. Theyre a close, patriarchal family who enjoy the rewards of hard work followed by Sunday dinners and listening to Harry Caray announce ball games on nighttime radio.  
 
From the start, I realized A Painted House has the down-home goodness of The Waltons and contains as many of that shows gentle pleasures. It also has a fair share of flat-footed prose and corny sentiment. The characters have the depth of an RC Cola bottle (half-drunk, no less) and they move in ways weve all seen before. But yet, gosh durn it, I found myself getting caught up in their simple life and its many predicaments.  
 
The story opens as Pappy hires migrant workersMexicans and hill peopleto pick the crop on the struggling farm. No single event defines the plot. Instead, A Painted House has many rooms, a series of life bookmarks for young Luke. The episodic nature of the novel is due to the fact it was first serialized in Oxford American, the bi-monthly magazine the author publishes. In the space of six weeks and 400 pages, Luke witnesses two murders, a childbirth, a tornado, a flood, his first nekkid girl and his first televised baseball game.  
 
Land sakes! At thirty-seven, I realize Ive led a pretty dull life by comparison.  
 
Grisham does cram a lot of coming-of-age-isms into this young boys life and the tone occasionally adopts a too-sophisticated veneer, but its all in the name of easy-to-read fiction. Dont come expecting Great Literature on the order of that other Oxford, Mississippi scribe, William Faulkner, and you wont be disappointed. On the other hand, if youre thinking this is going to be just another annual Grisham event, you might be pleasantly surprisedkind of like how you felt that moment you saw your first nekkid girl.  
