Heartache and pain and racist injustice all the way through. But hope and love and redemption, too. A little human kindness sprinkled with hope in the end. Tears in my eyes and deep down in my heart also. What a beautiful and incredible book.

“White people believe that they're better than anyone else on earth- and that's a myth.”

“The last thing they ever want is to see a black man stand.”

“Is it just a vicious circle? Am I doing anything?”

Deceptively straightforward, this masterpiece of society's indictment against systemic racism, the death penalty, and the innocent execution of a black man, Jefferson, a bystander caught up at a robbery/murder is an unforgettable, heartrending read.

Set in the late 40s in Jim Crow, Louisiana, the story centers on schoolteacher Grant Wiggins' prison visitations with the doomed Jefferson.

Reluctantly asked by Jefferson's godmother Emma, his Aunt Tante Lou, and Reverend Ambrose to give Jefferson a glimmer of hope and one last chance to feel that he's a life worth living, rather than the "hog" white racists have deemed him, a bond forms between prisoner and teacher which is the heart of the novel.

Meanwhile, Grant has his own personal issues- he has become friends with Deputy Paul, who at first is reluctant to have Grant and his family frequently visit Jefferson in prison; and it is their friendship with Jefferson that bonds them forever, crossing the boundaries of what it is to be black and white in the Jim Crow South.

Also Grant's married lover, Vivian constantly has her estranged husband wanting to see their children on the weekends, sabotaging her time with Grant. But all of these issues are moot compared to what is about to happen to Jefferson.

Mr. Gaines writes a love letter towards the love and bond of a community has for one man they all know is worth more than he thinks he is.

Narrated by Grant, then in a quiet shift, the narration becomes Jefferson's final voice and say in the world that is about to abandon him; and finally ends in a quietly devastating finale of a town hushed knowing that they've done wrong, yet acknowledging that these are the days where the black community had no say in their innocence and no one was really there to defend them, especially in a time period between the end of the Great Depression, World War II, and the looming presence of desegregation about to surprise the South by storm.

My heart broke as I read some of the most simplistic yet affecting passages of what it means to be lost, to be human, and to be seen and heard from the point of views of both Grant and Jefferson.

In a time of serious political division where our country really needs to continue to dig and soul search about their feelings about black bodies and the injustices brought upon them- though bleak, this is a soulful and tender read that should be ranked as one of the most important novels that tell readers that black lives are beautiful, and they really, really matter.

This was a hard read for me. It made me emotional yet grateful at the same time. By the end I felt both uplifted and beaten down.
Jefferson came across to me as a person with a disability and a little compassion was needed. However, with it being the time frame it was, I can see how that would be impossible compassion would be to receive.
Jefferson really was at the wrong place at the wrong time and the community knew it. He reminded me so much of Korey Wise from the Exonerated Five.

Overall, the story left me feeling depressed and has become another notch on the belt that is black pain and suffering and the injustice some of us receive at the hands of oppressors.