- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (April 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679414770
- ISBN-13: 978-0679414773
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,871,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
From the author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman comes a deep and compassionate novel. A young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
I WAS NOT THERE, yet I was there. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
I WAS NOT THERE, yet I was there. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this book Gaines explores many issues by exploring the thoughts and changes in one uneducated, inmoral black man by the name of Jefferson. Jefferson is punished with the death penalty for a crime he didn't even commit. The court not only convicts him but he is also called a "hog". This stirs up his Nanna who gets the local schoolteacher to educate him so that he may walk, not crawl, to the white man in the end. Through this Jefferson's changes not only effect him, but also the community.
Although terrible to think that this man's death is necessary for a change to occur throughout the community, it isn't until then that there is self-discovery, pride, and the breaking of a vicous cycle in the black community.
Although terrible to think that this man's death is necessary for a change to occur throughout the community, it isn't until then that there is self-discovery, pride, and the breaking of a vicous cycle in the black community.
Format:Paperback
All you need to know about this book is that it is a very interesting and moving story.
Well worth the read. I didn't put it down. I read it in one sitting it was that moving.
Well worth the read. I didn't put it down. I read it in one sitting it was that moving.
Format:Paperback
Let me start with what I thought was brilliant about this book: There is a very strong 'narrative voice' in the shape of Grant Wiggins who is himself conflicted about his place in this plantation community. He is an educated black man in a society that expects blacks to use false grammar and submit to white supremacy without complaint. Grant wants to leave - he had already left to go to college - but he's come back, and he's not quite sure why. He's unhappy and often unjust, sometimes even selfish, and that is what is intriguing about this story.
Grant is asked to visit another black man from the community who was wrongfully sentenced to death. His task is to teach Jefferson how to be a man - and walk to his execution standing tall.
It is here that the story falls apart for me somewhat. It is a very powerful plot device but rather than fuel everything else, it seems that minor stories were created with the sole purpose of moving that main plot forward. Minor charactors pop up sporadically when they conveniently serve the main story, and that makes it somewhat unbelievable. At the same time, the actions of some of the characters seem arbitrary, and while I'm not looking to have everything neatly and logically explained to me, it also will not do to have dramatic scenes for the purpose of drama only - and then the characters fall back into their old behaviours because otherwise the main story would become difficult to handle.
Grant is the one who tells the story throughout but when Jefferson's execution arrives it changes to an omniscient narrator. That annoyed me immensely because again it felt like the author just hadn't come up with a powerful way of handling this part of the story through Grant's voice.
But it is for Grant's voice and his story that I'm giving this book four stars. Grant's story doesn't leave you with a nice solution but that is what makes it moving. The storyline around the execution isn't strong but if you can ignore that you have a really good book. I'll say: read it.
Grant is asked to visit another black man from the community who was wrongfully sentenced to death. His task is to teach Jefferson how to be a man - and walk to his execution standing tall.
It is here that the story falls apart for me somewhat. It is a very powerful plot device but rather than fuel everything else, it seems that minor stories were created with the sole purpose of moving that main plot forward. Minor charactors pop up sporadically when they conveniently serve the main story, and that makes it somewhat unbelievable. At the same time, the actions of some of the characters seem arbitrary, and while I'm not looking to have everything neatly and logically explained to me, it also will not do to have dramatic scenes for the purpose of drama only - and then the characters fall back into their old behaviours because otherwise the main story would become difficult to handle.
Grant is the one who tells the story throughout but when Jefferson's execution arrives it changes to an omniscient narrator. That annoyed me immensely because again it felt like the author just hadn't come up with a powerful way of handling this part of the story through Grant's voice.
But it is for Grant's voice and his story that I'm giving this book four stars. Grant's story doesn't leave you with a nice solution but that is what makes it moving. The storyline around the execution isn't strong but if you can ignore that you have a really good book. I'll say: read it.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Ernest Gaines's Finest Novel
Ernest J. Gaines has written a number of fine novels, but this is--so far--his best. "A Lesson Before Dying" is a great book, and a very important book for American literature. Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2009 by Bert G. Hornback
A must read!
I borrowed this book from a friend and couldn't put it down. The characters are interesting and full of life. In reading this book, one gets a sense of the people and the time. Read more
Published on 10 July 1998
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
