I just finished John Grisham's A Painted House. He really hooked me. I could relate to Luke and was pulling for this gutsy kid through everything. Some might think that Luke was a little too sexually interested in the older girls for a boy of seven. If it wasn't intentional, which it might have been, I thought it worked. Partly because I knew Luke was being recalled through the eyes and mind of an adult. Intended or unintended I thought it was an interesting devise and I'll keep it in mind.
I have to admit the story hooked me for personal reasons. My father was born in the late eighteen hundreds in the poorest section of Mississippi near the Alabama border. At about Luke's age I got to see the poor two room house that he lived in as a child. It made a very strong impression. I know it was a desperate struggle for survival.
As a young child my father worked leading a mule at a sawmill and saved what little he could. His pennies eventuallly bought him a cardboard suitcase and a suit of clothes. He went to work in the War Department in Washington during World War I. Eventually he scrapped his way up to being an emminent surgeon in New York. How could I not feel for Luke, his family and the Latchers in Grisham's book.
What I also liked about it was that it was not word driven. I could feel with Luke and I could visualize their lives. But, I couldn't help but think that if it had not been written by John Grisham it would never have gotten published. This wonderful book had rejection notice written all over it.