A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club) by Ernest J. Gaines
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Book Reviews of A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: Simply a great book
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was a great read and is just simply a good book. Even though they were certain Jefferson didn't kill Mr. Grope he was still convicted. I loved how even thought he was convicted Aunt Emma never gave up on him.
I personally thought Aunt Emma was wasting her time. The only thing Jefferson believed was that he was a pig. He wasn't worth being talked to by humans. I slowly started liking him more once he started to abandon that thought.
He was going through a tough time because he was sentenced to death for something that they didn't have proof that he did. At the beginning of the book I resented Grant and I thought all he did was think about himself and was very selfish.
He ended up helping Jefferson in so many ways and he actually got him talking and writing before his death. It was a sad day when Jefferson was killed because everyone became very fond of him. I had also liked him a lot. I know if I was him I would've just given up when they sentenced me to death but he didn't.
Towards the end of the book is where it got really good. Grant and Jefferson were becoming friends and Jefferson was talking to Aunt Emma and she was happy. He even talked to Vivian, Grants white girlfriend.
Overall this book was a page turner. I couldn't put it down and I want to read it again. It will be a classic soon, and should be taught in schools because the morals of the book are amazing. I hope that everyone who reads this book will like it as much as I did because I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend this book to anyone, it could be one of my favorite books I have ever read!
Book Review: An enlightening read
Summary: 5 Stars
In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, There is a very good lesson to be learned. The lesson I learned is that if you have faith you have everything you need. In the story, a black man named Jefferson was convicted and found guilty of a murder he did not commit. He was simply present at the time of a shooting in which everyone around him was killed and he was blamed for it because of his skin color. If he had been white there would have been a more extensive investigation. Jefferson was sent to prison for a month or so until his execution. In that time period, Jeffersons' aunt asked professor Wiggins to visit Jefferson in Jail and try to "teach him to be a man" before he dies. Professor Wiggins agreed to help. The first few trips were practically a waste because Jefferson would not say a word out of his depression. But after a while Jefferson opened up to Wiggins and they talked about anything that came to mind. Wiggins could not think about anything to teach him besides having faith and trusting in God. Jefferson learned this and developed his own faith. When the execution day came around everyone was sad and crying except Jefferson because he had faith. It was said that Jefferson was the strongest man in the town that day. This story was made up but the concept is real about prejudice and the unjust treatment that black people recieved. I liked this book for many reasons but the main reason was the way the author, Earnest Gaines, described everything in such great detail. The author has a way of holding the reader with such interest that no other author has.
Book Review: powerful and heartwrenching......
Summary: 5 Stars
This book takes me back to my college days (which weren't that long ago!). I took a course in Comparative Ethnic Literature that, quite possibly, changed my life. Among the books that we were required to read was A LESSON BEFORE DYING, beautifully written by Ernest Gaines. Jefferson, a slow-witted young man, is wrongfully accused of murder, at the scene of a stick up. This conviction is race-based. [Jefferson is a young African-American man in the South.] The young man is treated more lowly than a pig in the trough. Without an education or a prayer, Jefferson needs to be brought some dignity during the final days before his inevitable execution. Grant Wiggins, a very successful product of their small Southern town, has returned, and is the pride and joy of their community. Wiggins possesses an education and is also a schoolteacher. He is approached to bring the young man a connection to something other than his doomed fate. Their connection actually transforms Grant, in the process, and their exchange is anything but one-ended.
This book is written in such a way that you really feel as though this is a skillfully orchestrated play. I could see the imagery he described and I could also hear the Southern drawls and feel the scorching Southern heat burn my skin. It isn't often that a book transfixes me four years later as though I had just read it yesterday. That is what A LESSON BEFORE DYING succeeds in doing and I really reccomend that you read it--not because Oprah picked it, but, because it truly is a great example of terrific modern day fiction.
Book Review: A lesson on the value of life
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: A very discriptive and vivid classic story
Summary: 5 Stars
A Lesson Before Dying is a touching classic novel that keeps the reader actively interested. It is about the life style of people living in Louisiana during the 1940s. In a Cajun community, blacks and whites are segregrated from schools and living environments. The oppressed African Americans, are holding employment for the most part, at plantations and have limited resources. A young man is about to die electrecuted because he was convicted of committing the murder of white store keeper. Unjustice is done by convicting Jefferson, who is called a "hog". The public deffender tries to get Jefferson free of crime , however, the white jurors decided that Jefferson was guilty of murder. Grant Wiggins, the school church teacher is trapped in a serious situation. He hates his profession but loves his people. Most of all, he loves Vivian. Grant wants to leave the "quarter" and would like to relocate to a better area but is unable to because Miss Emma and Tante Lou want him to "make Jefferson a man before he dies." Grant strugles to shape Jefferson into a brave man and succeedes. Jefferson walks with pride to the electric chair. His death symbolizes heroism and brings two races together. A lesson Before Dying, is an outstanding classsic novel in which Gaines uses a real life descriptive sotry. His work in this book is an exellent source of literature for students. This is the kind of book every one should have a copy. A Lesson Before Dying is an unforgettable piece of literature.