In his book, THE PAINTED HOUSE, John Grisham portrays life in the cotton country of the Arkansas delta in 1952. Grisham relates the events through the eyes and mind of seven year old Luke Chandler, the grandson of Eli "Pappy" Chandler, patriarch of a family which is struggling against the forces of nature and the difficulty encountered year after year with making a living raising cotton. Pappy Chandler is stern straight to the point man, but every once in awhile, a few cracks open in the exterior and the reader is given a brief glimpse Eli's carefully hidden soft nature. Eli thinks he runs the family. But it is actually run by Ruth "Gran" Chandler, his wife, who holds the family together through thick and thin when life deals blow after blow to the Chandlers.
Luke is eager to learn about adult life, while at the same time he tries to retain his childhood innocence. His desire to grow up and play baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals is complicated by the tensions that arise from the diverse nature of the people hired to harvest the cotton. The Spruill family from Eureka Springs, ten Mexicans, the Chandlers, and the people of Black Oak, live in an uneasy tension filled existence. Social standing is as important among the diverse groups in the farm country as it is in high society of the big cities.
Tally Spruill, a seventeen year old learning to be a vixen, gives Luke his first look at a naked female in a scene both poignant and humorous. Luke is sure he is a man among kids at the end of the day. Luke was introduced to the cruelties of others when he witnessed an event in town that endangered his life. To save himself from what he considered to be sure death, he chose a lie when confronted with a chance to tell what he saw. He decided he could survive a lie but wasn't sure he could survive Hank Spruill after what he saw Hank do. Then horror again entered his life and he had to remain quiet because his mother was threatened with death if he told what he saw.
