false 5197 24 <b>Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1997</b>: In a small Cajun community in 1940s Louisiana, a young black man is about to go to the electric chair for murder. A white shopkeeper had died during a robbery gone bad; though the young man on trial had not been armed and had not pulled the trigger, in that time and place, there could be no doubt of the verdict or the penalty.<p> "I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be..." So begins Grant Wiggins, the narrator of Ernest J. Gaines's powerful exploration of race, injustice, and resistance, <i>A Lesson Before Dying</i>. If young Jefferson, the accused, is confined by the law to an iron-barred cell, Grant Wiggins is no less a prisoner of social convention. University educated, Grant has returned to the tiny plantation town of his youth, where the only job available to him is teaching in the small plantation church school. More than 75 years after the close of the Civil War, antebellum attitudes still prevail: African Americans go to the kitchen door when visiting whites and the two races are rigidly separated by custom and by law. Grant, trapped in a career he doesn't enjoy, eaten up by resentment at his station in life, and angered by the injustice he sees all around him, dreams of taking his girlfriend Vivian and leaving Louisiana forever. But when Jefferson is convicted and sentenced to die, his grandmother, Miss Emma, begs Grant for one last favor: to teach her grandson to die like a man.<p> As Grant struggles to impart a sense of pride to Jefferson before he must face his death, he learns an important lesson as well: heroism is not always expressed through action--sometimes the simple act of resisting the inevitable is enough. Populated by strong, unforgettable characters, Ernest J. Gaines's <i>A Lesson Before Dying</i> offers a lesson for a lifetime. 950736 book 1993 A Lesson Before Dying total:5133|5:1193|4:1906|3:1518|2:430|1:86| 5133 19089 6841 607 5 4 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 05 12:32:25 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 09:36:00 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Jun 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 09:12:34 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 09:23:13 -0700 2008 "When you see that those 5 1/2 months you spend teaching each year are just a waste of time. You'll see that it'll take more than 5 1/2 months to...more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 25 18:07:28 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 05 22:45:09 -0700 2008 summer book; 07- *A Lesson before Dying* is an realistic non-fiction novel. It involves the story of a man named Ernest Grants, he helps to defend the rights of a black man who was accused of murder in a liquor store with two other men. This book is a very breathe-taking novel because it expan...more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Sep 22 21:07:30 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 23 07:57:11 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Mar 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 10 17:52:38 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 10 17:57:21 -0700 2009 4 2 false false Sat Dec 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 16 13:27:09 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 27 11:55:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Fri Jul 18 11:19:20 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 11:21:30 -0700 2008 0 1 false false Sat Dec 06 12:56:38 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 02 08:18:32 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Dec 28 22:42:44 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 28 22:46:56 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 22 22:32:49 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 22:57:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Sep 26 04:16:27 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 26 04:17:20 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 1 false false Wed Apr 23 10:01:29 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 05 18:04:27 -0700 2008 At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to J...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Aug 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 26 15:39:55 -0800 2007 Wed Aug 12 08:22:07 -0700 2009 a lesson before dying. i remembered it not at all. all i remembered was that there were many conversations between someone and someone else, the latter of whom was about to be executed.

but i remembered wrong. there aren't many conversations between the two. in fact, they barely ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 20 08:37:58 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 11:18:30 -0800 2009 Here's a very good review by another goodreads member: "It’s a very simple story about two African-American men in 1940s Louisiana; one i...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu May 15 17:18:28 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 23 10:31:35 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun May 25 20:02:34 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 01 14:04:16 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 15:31:56 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 12:46:23 -0800 2008
I have to be honest, the main character sometimes seems unbelievable. When I first started reading it I couldn't tell how old he was or what race he was,which is i...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Feb 14 20:41:18 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 13:23:49 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 20:41:18 -0800 2009
Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying (1993) poses one of the most universal questions literature can ask: Knowing we're going to die, how should we live? It's the story of an uneducated young black man named Jefferson,...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 18 12:15:57 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 18 12:36:00 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 17:25:45 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 17:41:51 -0800 2009 2
Uneducated Jefferson witnesses the murder of a white storekeeper during a robbery. The perpetrators are also killed, and ...more...]]>