A Painted House- John Grisham

I actually borrowed the wrong book, thinking “A Painted House” was “The Painted Veil” by W. Somerset Maughan… -_- But I’m glad that I borrowed “A Painted House”. It is a fantastic read! The hubby was still commenting that it looked like a boring book about farming. haha. John Grisham departed from his usual genre of legal suspense such as in The Pelican Brief, The Chamber, etc. This is a simple and moving story narrated from a 7-year old boy’s point of view. You would think nothing exciting or interesting could happen on a cotton farm, but we couldn’t be more wrong. The story ended with the family travelling up North where the money was, leaving behind the boy’s Gran and Pappy to man the flagging cotton farm business. That was rather sad for me but that’s generally how things are in US culture. Family units often break up, with people moving to different states to find better jobs. This makes me somehow appreciate our Singaporean culture a little more. Even when we get married and move out, we are at least still within a short drive (1.5 hrs max!) to our parents’ homes. The guilt of abandonment is a little less, I guess.