Book #9 ~ Barbara's Pick: A Lesson Before Dying

A LESSON BEFORE DYING

by Ernest J. Gaines

Anstett Book Club recommendation from Barbara Lechner

For my next book club recommendation, I have chosen A Lesson Before Dying, written in 1993 but set in the 1940's, about the arrest and trial of a black man in the Cajun south.

I thought it was rather timely due to the recent not guilty verdict of George Zimmerman in Florida that subsequently led to a national outcry of African Americans that justice had not been served since the other party in the event was a black man. While I do not wish to project my opinions of the event, trial, and outcome, I do think this book might shed light on why the African American community was outraged. There is a very long history of racism, both brutal and subtle, in our country – whether it's the south or the north – that has woven a fabric of mistrust so deeply imbedded in the African American heart and mind that what happened in this Florida case could not be seen any other way by that group of citizens.

In “A Lesson Before Dying” a black man named Jefferson is an unwitting party to a liquor store shootout in which three men are killed. He is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, a teacher and a black man, is urged by his aunt and Jefferson's godmother to impart his learning and pride to Jefferson. In the end, the two men forge a bond.

This book is so well written that you just seem to fall into the times.

Ernest James Gaines (born January 15, 1933) is an African-American author. His works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. Four of his works have been made into television movies.One of them was The Authobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.(For those of you younger than 50 – this was a very popular TV event with Cicely Tyson.)

His 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction

You can purchase this book from Amazon.com or find it at your local library or bookstore.

I hope you like it as much as I did.