Free Ebook A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club), by Ernest J. Gaines
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A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club), by Ernest J. Gaines
Free Ebook A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club), by Ernest J. Gaines
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A Lesson Before Dying, is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young black man, is an unwitting party to a liquor store shoot out in which three men are killed; the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, who left his hometown for the university, has returned to the plantation school to teach. As he struggles with his decision whether to stay or escape to another state, his aunt and Jefferson's godmother persuade him to visit Jefferson in his cell and impart his learning and his pride to Jefferson before his death. In the end, the two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of resisting—and defying—the expected.
Ernest J. Gaines brings to this novel the same rich sense of place, the same deep understanding of the human psyche, and the same compassion for a people and their struggle that have informed his previous, highly praised works of fiction.
- Sales Rank: #5480 in Books
- Color: Cream
- Brand: Alfred A. Knopf
- Published on: 1994-09
- Released on: 1997-09-28
- Format: Enhanced
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .60" w x 5.20" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 256 pages
- Great product!
Amazon.com Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1997: In a small Cajun community in 1940s Louisiana, a young black man is about to go to the electric chair for murder. A white shopkeeper had died during a robbery gone bad; though the young man on trial had not been armed and had not pulled the trigger, in that time and place, there could be no doubt of the verdict or the penalty.
"I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be..." So begins Grant Wiggins, the narrator of Ernest J. Gaines's powerful exploration of race, injustice, and resistance, A Lesson Before Dying. If young Jefferson, the accused, is confined by the law to an iron-barred cell, Grant Wiggins is no less a prisoner of social convention. University educated, Grant has returned to the tiny plantation town of his youth, where the only job available to him is teaching in the small plantation church school. More than 75 years after the close of the Civil War, antebellum attitudes still prevail: African Americans go to the kitchen door when visiting whites and the two races are rigidly separated by custom and by law. Grant, trapped in a career he doesn't enjoy, eaten up by resentment at his station in life, and angered by the injustice he sees all around him, dreams of taking his girlfriend Vivian and leaving Louisiana forever. But when Jefferson is convicted and sentenced to die, his grandmother, Miss Emma, begs Grant for one last favor: to teach her grandson to die like a man.
As Grant struggles to impart a sense of pride to Jefferson before he must face his death, he learns an important lesson as well: heroism is not always expressed through action--sometimes the simple act of resisting the inevitable is enough. Populated by strong, unforgettable characters, Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying offers a lesson for a lifetime.
From Publishers Weekly
Gaines's first novel in a decade may be his crowning achievement. In this restrained but eloquent narrative, the author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman again addresses some of the major issues of race and identity in our time. The story of two African American men struggling to attain manhood in a prejudiced society, the tale is set in Bayonne, La. (the fictional community Gaines has used previously) in the late 1940s. It concerns Jefferson, a mentally slow, barely literate young man, who, though an innocent bystander to a shootout between a white store owner and two black robbers, is convicted of murder, and the sophisticated, educated man who comes to his aid. When Jefferson's own attorney claims that executing him would be tantamount to killing a hog, his incensed godmother, Miss Emma, turns to teacher Grant Wiggins, pleading with him to gain access to the jailed youth and help him to face his death by electrocution with dignity. As complex a character as Faulkner's Quentin Compson, Grant feels mingled love, loyalty and hatred for the poor plantation community where he was born and raised. He longs to leave the South and is reluctant to assume the level of leadership and involvement that helping Jefferson would require. Eventually, however, the two men, vastly different in potential yet equally degraded by racism, achieve a relationship that transforms them both. Suspense rises as it becomes clear that the integrity of the entire local black community depends on Jefferson's courage. Though the conclusion is inevitable, Gaines invests the story with emotional power and universal resonance. BOMC and QPB alternates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- No breathless courtroom triumphs or dramatic reprieves alleviate the sad progress toward execution in this latest novel by the author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (Bantam, 1982). The condemned man is Jefferson, a poorly educated man/child whose only crimes are a dim intelligence, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and being black in rural Louisiana in the late 1940s. To everyone, even his own defense attorney, he's an animal, too dumb to understand what is happening to him. But his godmother, Miss Emma, decides that Jefferson will die a man. To accomplish just that, she brings Grant Wiggins, the teacher at the plantation's one-room school and narrator of the novel, into the story. Emotionally blackmailed by two strong-willed old ladies, Grant reluctantly begins visiting Jefferson, committing both men to the painful task of self-discovery. As in his earlier novels, Gaines evokes a sense of reality through rich detail and believable characters in this simple, moving story. YAs who seek thought-provoking reading will enjoy this glimpse of life in the rural South just before the civil rights movement.
- Carolyn E. Gecan, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
88 of 90 people found the following review helpful.
A Lesson Before Dying Comes to Life
By John Zittel
So, we were all assigned our summer reading and completely hated the fact we had to actually read during summer, but to my surprise I actually enjoyed one of the books I read. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is a heartwarming novel of how man can overcome enormous obstacles which are set against him. The story is set in the late 1940's in the small Cajun community of Bayonne, Louisiana. Racism continues to haunt this small town and all of its members.
This story is told through the eyes of a young teacher named Grant who finds himself struggling to find happiness in the small community he lives in. Early in the novel you learn that the story is going to surround a young black man named Jefferson who is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. When two men attempt to rob a local liquor store, the owner of the store and the robbers begin shooting. Jefferson is an innocent bystander to the crime, and when the smoke clears Jefferson is the only one left standing. Even though Grant was unable to go to the trial he already knew the outcome. He states, "I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be." Jefferson was unable to prove his innocence, mostly due to the community's racist feelings, and is sentenced to execution.
Jefferson's godmother soon realizes that there is no escape for Jefferson from this terrible fate, and that Jefferson must find a way to walk to his unfair death with his head held high. So his godmother asks Grant, the local school teacher, the favor of helping her turn her godson into a mature adult. At first Grant is doubtful of being able to help in this situation, but eventually he takes on the role of Jefferson's mentor. Grant tries to persuade Jefferson to do the unthinkable: "I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be." With all odds against them, the two are able to perform a miracle which everyone else feels is impossible.
Gaines creates a world in which you become lost and find yourself cheering and crying with the characters as they face and triumph over the obstacles set against them. He creates characters that are realistic and act like you and I would. They aren't perfect and they make mistakes, but that's what makes them so loveable. You are able to connect with them and feel as if they are family or close friends.
This novel is high-quality from the beginning to end, but the ending is amazing. The ending is one where after you have finished you want to read it again and again. You want there to be a sequel so you can once again revisit the characters you know and love.
A Lesson Before Dying is well written and holds many life lessons from which we can all learn. I recommend that all high school students and adults read this book. I think that anyone who is looking for a novel with valuable principles and a good plot would definitely enjoy this book. This novel scores an A+ with me and I think that anyone would appreciate it. Whether it's a summer reading choice or not, you'll love this novel.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Hard Subject, Clear Lessons
By Jean T.
While there is no actual violence in the story in the book, it is based on the horrendous misuse of the "justice system" in the south in the 40's. A young black man, clearly innocent, is sent to the electric chair. It is a very, very hard story to read. I didn't understand why the author included a couple of chapters, but in general it was well written. I felt some characters we not well developed, but the scene was clear, and many in the story learned a "lesson before this death". I recommend it to the strong.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
A lesson on the value of life
By Ratmammy
A Lesson Before Dying is a lesson about life. Jefferson is a young black man that is accused wrongfully of a murder he did not commit. His crime? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But because he is black, and there are no other survivors to this crime, he is locked up in prison and sentenced to die in the electric chair.
Another black man, Grant Higgins, is asked to talk to Jefferson in his jail cell. Grant is to help Jefferson become a dignified person before he is put to death. Jefferson refers to himself as a hog, because that is what the white men call him when they sentence him to death. So, Grant's aunt who is a friend of Jefferson's godmother, known as Nannan, asks him to intervene. Nannan wants to know that Jefferson dies with dignity,as a man.
Through Grant's eyes we see what Jefferson goes through as he prepares himself to die. We also witness what life is like for the black man in a segregated world. Jefferson had no chance of proving himself innocent. In this world of Loiusiana, circa 1940, the black man was guilty because of his color. No one fought this verdict. It was accepted. Even Grant Wiggins, who was educated (rare for a black man in his day) and taught in school, did not try to prove Jefferson innocent.
I found myself reading the book with acceptance, knowing that it was Jefferson's fate to die in that chair. But when I came to that last chapter, the idea hit me hard and as other reviewers have noted, it is a 3 hanky chapter.
A Lesson Before Dying, in my opinion, is destined to become a classic.
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