by Ernest J. Gaines
This book asks one big question: How much are we obligated to the community we grew up in? The protagonist, Grant Wiggins, is an educated man living in the impoverished rural Louisiana town of his birth, and he has one foot out the door [the first line of the novel is, "I was not there, yet I was th...
Although it took me a while to truly empathize with the main character as he seemed obnoxious and self-absorbed in the first half, this was a great story, with a powerful message and a great sense of time and place.
“But let us say he was (guilty). Let us for a moment say he was (guilty). What justice would there be to take his life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this.” - Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying. Jefferson, an African-American man living in Loui...
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10373250
An incredible book.At first it was hard to get into because the narrative felt sort of dry and disinterested, but as I read along, I realized that was the point. Our narrator is worn out, tired of being a teacher, which he doesn't like, because he sees it as the only thing an educated black man can ...
Very powerful book. With the Troy Davis execution still fresh on my mind, I kept thinking of the saying "The more things change, the more they stay the same" It has been long past due for this barbaric ritual to cease, but here we are in 2011 still doing the same things. This quote was particularly ...
definitely the first time in my life that 3 books in a row use the 'n' word. i do like a book about race and about standing up to white people, but overall this book was disappointing. i didn't really like the writing, and i especially didn't like the main character. i don't need to like a protag...
I wonder if Gaines was anyhow inspired by a Claude McKay's poem which starts:"If we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious spot"
This a solemn but moving book about two men, both of them trapped not only in their environment but in the way society treats them as less than men. Jefferson, a young man who is convicted and sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, is seen by the white society of the 40s as less than hum...
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