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: A beautiful, painful and powerful novel...
Summary: 5 Stars
A beautiful, painful and powerful novel, 'A Lesson' is set in Louisiana in the 1940s, a time well before "desegregation". A poor black man, Jefferson, is sent to jail for the death of a store owner he did not kill. The governor will decide when he will be executed (electric chair). Another young black man in town, Grant Wiggins, the local schoolteacher, is pressed by his grandmother and the condemned man's godmother (who raised him) to visit the man in jail and "make him a man" before he dies. The condemned man has been called a simple animal by his lawyers, a 'hog' specifically, and his godmother refuses to let her son be executed buying into the white man's label. The local school teacher would rather have no part in any of it. This is an excellent book. The last section as Jefferson and Wiggins being to communicate is extremely powerful and well done. Every high school should make this required reading(particularly in white upper middle class school districts). Although it is fiction, it is historically and sociologically relevant, and so thought-provoking and heart-wrenching all in one.Book Review: Superb Reading!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
From the very moment I read the first words, to the instant I set the book down, I was amazed. Here I was with my jaw dropped after every intriguing detail, exclaiming, "Wow! This book is extremely powerful." You don't just read this book you become it. You feel what the characters are experiencing. You visualize what the characters are seeing." They called my boy a hog, Mr. Henri," Miss Emma said. "I didn't raise no hog, and I don't want no hog to go set in that chair. I want a man to go set in that chair, Mr. Henri."
A Lesson Before Dying is an extraordinarily unique book. Set in Louisiana in the 1940's, this novel shows the struggle of a young black boy wrongly accused of killing a white man. An unwilling teacher helps this boy overcome his approach on death and teaches him to be a proud, strong gentleman. This spellbinding work of fiction left me tearful and transformed. This book is incontrovertibly memorable and tremendously moving.
The peace in opposition to the traditional discrimination of African Americans resonates and forms this perfect book to be cherished for generations.
Book Review: An Unforgettable Lesson
Summary: 5 Stars
A Lesson Before Dying is a wonderful book that touched me in so many ways. Ernest J. Gaines, himself growing up in a similar setting, makes his novel very realistic. He bases most of his novels on real life experiences from his youth. This book takes place in the late 1930's in Louisiana. A black man named Jefferson was said to be guilty for killing a white man- a crime he did not commit. Mr. Wiggins, the teacher at the colored church elementary, is asked by Jefferson's godmother to go visit him in jail. In court, Jefferson was called a "hog", and not a man. Jefferson's godmother, Miss Emma, wanted Mr. Wiggins to teach Jefferson ,before he is executed, that he is a man. The two men grow a relationship, and Jefferson is eventually able to express his feelings by writing to Mr. Wiggins in a journal. Jefferson is a very honest person, and you really feel like you know him at the end. That is the thing I liked most about the book, it is very realistic. I feel that this is one of the best books I have ever read, and reccomend it to anyone who does not mind a little sadness.Book Review: An excellent book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fine, well-written book that takes on a subject crossing all racial lines-leaving this world having lived with some dignity. I was a little confused in the beginning. I thought the narrator's voice was that of a child since he was referring to coming home from school and passing his mother and Jefferson's nannan at the table and wanting to avoid them on the way upstairs. But it was a school teacher's voice. And what a wonderful voice it turned out to be! The teacher does not sugarcoat his own mixed feelings when faced with the task of meeting again and again with Jefferson, a young black man who has been condemned for a murder he did not commit, a young man whose attorney had argued for mercy on the grounds that sending Jefferson to the electric chair would be no different than electrocuting a hog. Jefferson's nannan wants the teacher to give him lessons on going through his terrible fate with dignity. The dignity of many lives, such as the children now growing up where Jefferson did, hangs on the outcome. A very well-told story that leaves the reader with a lot to think about.Book Review: A Lesson For Life
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a powerful, poignant tale about the great evil and ultimately the greater good that human beings are capable of inflicting on each other. Set in segregation-era Louisiana, a young black man called Jefferson is falsely accused and convicted of murder. His godmother, enraged by the fact that he is compared to 'a hog' enlists the help of the local teacher Grant to 'make him a man' before he is put to death. Grant is initiatly reluctant to help Jefferson, as he himself is plauged with doubts about his own racial identity and goals as a teacher. This hence sets into a motion an incredible journey that changes the lives of all concerned forever. What makes this book an incredible read is the fact that it presents its message so effectively. It is a moral lesson without preaching, a cry for justice without propaganda. 'A Lesson Before Dying' compares favourably with other race-relation classics such as 'Cry Freedom' and 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. One must consider what is written in this book before even beginning to concieve what it means to be American, and for that matter human.