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May 18, 2023BARosen1112 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This novel is perhaps less well known than Gaines's Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, but this story, a real work of art, deserves at least as big an audience. It's the story of a young Black teacher named Grant in a small Louisiana…
Mar 27, 2023christinalmn rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This was a hard book to read portraying the racism and inhumanity in Louisiana during the 1940s but is also a book about community, faith and love. There are lessons to be learned from this book even today and this award winning book…
Jun 29, 2021pacl_teens rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
"A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is the perfect mix of realistic and historic fiction. The book follows Grant and Jefferson, men who are conflicted by racism. There are the whites and then there are the blacks. Grant is a black…
May 20, 2021Blabbermouth rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
A powerful, moving & insightful story. Set in the forties in American south. Jefferson, a black boy, did not commit a crime but is arrested & will be hung. Grant Wiggins is a black teacher who is asked to help Jefferson to stand like a…
Feb 04, 2020
Read Jan. 2020. Black man wrongfully given death sentence by white jury and his struggle to be a man, not an animal as the defence lawyer said.
Nov 20, 2019IndyPL_TomP rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The author of this book, Ernest Gaines, died November 5, 2019, and I decided it was finally time I read this book, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1993.
Nov 17, 2019janerf rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Altho set in pre-civil-rights era Louisiana of the late 1940s, Gaines wrote and published this book in 1993. It's heart-breaking book in many ways. I was particularly affected by all the small, little ways of demonstrating that a…
Apr 03, 2019
I enjoyed reading this book by Ernest Gaines because I felt this fictional story gave an accurate portrayal of the criminal justice system and racism against African Americans in the United States during the late 1940s. I found the story…
Oct 08, 2018Carolwagers rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
For book club on 10/5/2018. Excellent writing, poignant tale of the abusive Southern treatment of blacks in the late 1940s.
May 27, 2018kwsmith rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Set in Louisiana during the late 1940s, an uneducated black man is unfairly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The local elementary school teacher, the only educated black man in the community, reluctantly agrees to tutor the…
Jan 30, 2017EdnaFrancis rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
A very powerful book regarding African American life in post WW2 US. Thought provoking and informative.
Jul 06, 2016directyourmusic rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Absolutely phenomenal and beautiful. I finished this book in two days. Extraordinarily simple but nonetheless a moving story of two men living against expectations who try to meet in the middle.
Jun 05, 2015ckaldahl rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is an 11th grade curriculum choice in Millard Public Schools.
May 09, 2015
Although this fictional book takes place in Pre-Civil Rights age Louisiana, people today will relate to the hardships, conflict and inspiration all of the characters experience. It is no wonder this book was an Oprah Book Club selection in…
Jan 08, 2015Chapel_Hill_KenMc rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
A modern classic, Gaines's spare prose details the heartbreaking last months of an uneducated young black man in 1940s rural Louisiana. Charged with awakening the youth's humanity in the days before he faces the electric chair, the local…
51anne
Feb 09, 201351anne rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I enjoyed the story and the writing style of Mr. Gaines. He was able to make the reader feel the anger and frustration of an educated black man living in America during the 1940's.
Jul 18, 2012
A Lesson Before Dying tells the story of a schoolteacher who is asked to visit a man wrongly accused and sentence to death simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It reveals the strength of character and community, as well…
AmandaVollmershausen
May 09, 2012AmandaVollmershausen rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
I read this book as part of my grade 11 university English course, and frankly found it a bit dry. It's set in the mid 1900's in Louisiana and focuses on the racism prevalent. The text offers a lot of symbolism, but has really no climax or…
Oct 01, 2011vcc rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Gaines' novel is a rich portrayal of racial segregation in the late 1940s United States (Louisiana). He sets the scene early by talking of churches and schools being separated by colour, and how this disparity between the groups leads to a…
Nov 04, 2007Cabby rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Oprah's book club.