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John GrishamA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual exploitation, alcoholism, suicide, and racism against Indigenous people.
The narrative begins in Troy Phelan’s first-person point of view. He has gathered his children and former wives, from whom he is estranged, to witness, via closed-circuit television, the signing of his new will. After enumerating his tremendous wealth and assets, he notes: “The money is the root of my misery” (1).
Phelan has three families. He married first wife, Lillian, young and had four children with her: daughters Libbigail (whom he says he erased from his wills after she married an African person) and Mary Ross and sons Troy Junior (TJ) and Rex. He describes all four as “heavily in debt and virtually unemployable” (3). His second wife, Janie, 22 years his junior, is the mother of two of his children: son Rocky, who was killed in a car crash, and daughter Geena. He married his third wife, Tira, 41 years younger than he, when she was pregnant with his son, Ramble, now 14 and already with arrests for shoplifting and marijuana possession. Also present is his servant of 30 years, Snead, of whom Phelan speaks with contempt.
By John Grisham
A Painted House
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A Time For Mercy
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Bleachers
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Calico Joe
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Camino Island
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Gray Mountain
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Playing For Pizza
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Skipping Christmas
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Sooley
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Sparring Partners
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Sycamore Row
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The Appeal
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The Boys from Biloxi
The Boys from Biloxi
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The Brethren
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The Chamber
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The Client
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The Confession
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The Firm
The Firm
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The Guardians
The Guardians
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