Ruminations on A Painted House by John Grisham

Did you ever read this book? It's quite unlike Grisham's usual work. I read it some years ago and it made quite an impression. So much so that I wonder now if I actually saw it adapted for TV - or am remembering the vivid picture he painted.

It's based on his youth but I found that hard to believe - it's so evocative of what we know about The Depression years. Grisham was born in 1955. Then I remembered an account of a Thanksgiving my husband, Dwight, spent when he was stationed in Texas during the Korean War. It was about 1951.

The men had a four day pass and, of course, no money or time to get home. A fellow airman lived in Oklahoma and invited Dwight and two others to come home with him for the holiday. They accepted gratefully.

"Home" was a one room house. Curtains partitioned it to make 'rooms'. The foursome were warmly received and the family shared their Thanksgiving dinner with their guests.

Remembering this - it was 1951 - it becomes quite believable that Grisham had the childhood he wrote about in Arkansas.