How did I feel at the end of this book....uplifted and beaten down, both. All the love and all the hate and all the even more stultifying indifference. All the indignity and indignation. So many very heavy feelings spread through this sad story, but there are moments of redemption if you watch carefully for them.

Many already know of the story...the teenaged boy who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up sentenced to death. His family wants him to die as a man...and wants--no demands--the plantation teacher assist in this job. Many people change during the course of this story, including any thoughtful readers.

Shortly after starting this book, I realized that I was reading something very special, powerful, important. And I realized that I was very glad to be reading it, no matter how difficult it might ultimately become. Now that I have finished reading, I can only add that my first impressions were correct. I believe every person in this country should read this book.

"I was crying"


I finished this novel a few minutes ago. I haven't uttered a word yet. Can't. This is as close as I can come to tears. Tears shedded for beauty, tears shedded for sadness, and tears for hope.... I think I will linger in silence a little while longer....

A basic but powerful primer on the Jim Crow South, revolving around a black man sentenced to death by an all-white jury and judge. Simply told from the point of view of a black teacher from the area (rural Louisiana). This would be a good high school novel to introduce the period and topic of racism.

Awesome book. Makes you really look at life. When our lives are over will we walk tall like a man or women no matter how our lives end. That's what I got out of the book. My favorite line. Tell my nanna I walked tall. Loved it.

Dear Mr. Gaines,

Thank you for writing this important, timeless story of 21-year-old Jefferson and teacher Grant Wiggins. With your sparse but piercing prose, you made me experience the powerlessness and frustration of being a black male in 1940's Louisiana, the humiliation of being compared to a hog by someone who's supposed to be your ally, the injustice of being falsely accused and convicted. You taught me the true meaning of grace through the devoted and selfless actions of Miss Emma and Tante Lou. You showed me how to accept fate, however grievous, with courage and dignity: "And straight he walked, Grant Wiggins. Straight he walked." And this other sentence you wrote, through Grant, was equally powerful and inspiring: "And that's all we are, Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood, until we - each one of us, individually - decide to become something else." Once again, Mr. Gaines, you have left me in awe . . . and in tears. Please keep writing so I can keep learning.

With highest regards,
Wyndy

Uff. That one was very hard. It was mandatory school literature and therefore I wasn't able to choose it by myself. And this was a major problem because it did not at all suit my expectations for a good book. Yes, yes, the themes about pride, dignity, and fighting against discrimination is important and absolutely necessary to convey in literature. But please not in this way. I found the plot very repetitive and not moving forward. You could have easily summed up the first 20 chapters in 2 longer exposition chapters. Instead, it was always the same, over and over again, no progress in sight. And then suddenly all the progress of the protagonist's development is made in two chapters. I don't understand this at all and this leads me to my bad rating. It's just that it is such a powerful topic with huge implications and there are many excellent ways to deal with it. To kill a Mockingbird was a great example of how to do so and it was by far better. A lesson before dying just messed up in my opinion and frustrated me very much while reading because the language wasn't really rich but very repetitive and rough. Ahhh...

I listened to the audio. It was a full cast production and I loved it. It was well done. Sometimes full cast audios don't thrill me, but this one had me glued to every word. I also liked the story and how it was able to make a statement without beating the reader over the head with it. It is one of those books that will be with me for a while, even though it was a short "listen". This felt so well done and it pulled at me. So 4 stars.

Another wonderful read by Gaines. This is heavy on the heart. The question comes to mind, "who was the teacher?" Lots of role reversals in this one. Gaines is an author to be trusted, he knows exactly how to handle his reading audience. He sure can stir the emotions but he also stirs the mind.

To be quite honest this book was sort of a let down. However, that might have just been because I was not in the right mindset. Throughout the reading of this book, I never took my time when reading the chapters. The chapters were just assignments that I procrastinated each week. Therefore, I never got to form my own thoughts and opinions.

However, I think Gaines did a great job of getting the reader inside Grant's head. I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter about Jefferson's journal. I thought it was very touching and unique.

I would not recommend this book to anyone that does not enjoy a repetitive storyline. I know I felt frustrated in certain times. To me, the ending was nothing special. We had been told how it was going to end from the beginning. So, there was no point in hoping for a better outcome.

Still, I do not regret this read. The book was very insightful with a unique perspective on internalized racism in the South during the Jim Crow era, before the civil rights movement.

3.5 rounded up. This was a reread for my in person group.

Someday I will die. That I am sure of. But I do not think about it, at least, not consciously. I wouldn't want to think that a time will come when light, breath, and little breezes are things I will not experience. And never again see that little, oh, so beautiful smile in her eyes. But it will come, all the same. When? Tomorrow? Next year? Fifty, a hundred... well maybe say seventy years at the most.

That was a passing thought. Sad it was caught on record.

Well, think of a man who knows that he shall soon die. And the date is set. He counts the days, and in his solitary confinement has to deal with the ever present fact that the clock is still ticking, closer to the appointed day. The day he will meet his death, in an electric chair. This knowledge, the thoughts it inspires, is more torture than anything I can imagine.

Take this man. Be him for a second. And remember that you are innocent of the charge against you. And helpless. Utterly helpless. (sob, sob.)

His name, your adopted name for the second, is Jefferson.

He is at the wrong place when a crime happens, and being the sole survivor of a liquor store robbery he is arrested and convicted of murder. Bring in Mr. Wiggins, a teacher whom the community expects so much from, and ask him to teach this man a lesson before, well....

His narrative voice, sad but deepened by wisdom as it is sharpened by doubt and pain, is like seating by a fire and listening to an old man whose tranquility exudes and soothes.

Now,

I want to listen to a sad song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnL1e4...


Totally unrelated, by the way. Just sad.

Why is it that I had not heard of Ernest J. Gaines before reading this book? I have such an affinity for African-American fiction, some books of which, like Beloved, are a treasure. This author clearly meant business here. And this book is worth every minutes you spend with it.

Ernest Gaines has written a sensitive book about crime, punishment, and redemption in a Cajun community during the late 1940s. I liked the voice, setting, and protagonist. The story is easy to follow while written with a stylish literary bent.