A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club)

by Ernest J. Gaines
A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club)  
published 1997 by Vintage
first published 1994
binding Paperback
isbn 0375702709   (isbn13: 9780375702709)
pages 272
literary awards National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
description Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1997: In a small Cajun community in 1940s Louisiana, a young black man is about to go to the electric ch...more
date added
12-07-06



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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2176)



Natalie
Natalie rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
02/06/08

Read in January, 2008
A lesson Before Dying is a very MOVING book. By reading most of the other reviews I'm sure everyone understands what this novel is about. I'm not positive if I would have appreciated this book in High School had I read it 10 years ago. I would like to thank Mr. Gaines for his lessons!! I've typed out a few powerful passages that moved me...There were more but these are just some I made sure I highlighted!

A hero is someone who something for other people. He does something that other men don...more
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Susan
Susan rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
09/28/07

Read in August, 2007
recommends it for: Everyone
*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 expands on the idea of how Jefferson (the victim on trial) should be sentenced to death a "man". However, everyone in the courthouse thought that he was a hog and shouldnt be treated as an human being. Jefferson goes t...more
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Zahira
Zahira rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
02/18/08

bookshelves: education-pedagogy, prison-industrial-complex
Read in February, 2008
The narrative was slow-starting, and even once it started going, it fell flatline for me. Part of this is structural, you know the trajectory of events on a superficial level from mere glance at the front and back covers. There is some beauty in it's depiction of the ordinary and a few insightful moments.

I did find the array of characters presented in the small town Louisiana setting interesting and the author's depiction of "mulatto" or "creole" as he interchanges, p...more
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Trishv
Trishv rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
09/23/07

Read in March, 2007
recommends it for: Everyone
I still think about this book, even after reading it months ago. It’s a very simple story about two African-American men in 1940s Louisiana; one is a teacher and the other is a uneducated man waiting to be executed for a murder he witnessed, but didn’t commit. Both of them have given up hope for their lives, and for humanity in general. They live by the rules of the white majority, and both face a bleak future that’s beyond their ability to change. They are forced to spend time together,...more
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Meghan
Meghan rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
06/27/07

Read in April, 2008
recommends it for: Chelsea
I thought this book was beautiful, but be warned - it is not a light or happy story. This is the saddest book I have read since John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men". It tells the story of two men dealing with racism and the supposedly blind eye of justice in the South during the 1940's. There are no major surprises here - a black man is sentenced to death for a murder (of a white man) that he did not commit, and no, he does not miraculously get away from the sentence in the end. You ...more
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Anita
Anita added it
09/19/07

bookshelves: 2007-2008
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for: Anyone
This is my other summer reading book. It is about how a person named Grant have to deal with finding the identity of being an American. There is a guy named Jefferson who is arrested for associating with a robbery/murder but he claims to be innocent. The cops gave enough evidence so that the judge sentenced Jefferson to death. He will have to die in a number of days but before this day comes, Grant has to make Jefferson feel like he's a man because Jefferson lost his dignity and hopes when the p...more
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Anne
Anne rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
07/27/07

Read in June, 2007
A black man (Jefferson) is wrongly sentenced to death in Lousiana in the 1940s for the murder of a white shopekeeper. The man's godmother asks her nephew, Grant - a teacher and the narrator of the novel -to meet with Jefferson - to make him a man before the state takes his life. Grant struggles with the concept - how to save a man's soul when he doesn't believe in an after-life, how to be an educated man in a world that degrades him. His meetings with Jefferson unfold slowly as Grant and Jeffers...more
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Leah
Leah rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
03/29/08

Read in March, 2008
I'm sure I will this book in my future English classrooms; it is a great launching pad for discussions about so many issues: capital punishment, Jim Crow, the need for intelligent blacks to "dumb down" or be submissive to whites, what it means to be a man, educational inequalities, family guilt...all told through the eyes of a imperfect teacher as he deals with pleasing his aunt and finding his identity within his place and time. I loved Gaines's choice of narrator because it gives a ...more
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Ambz
Ambz rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
05/12/08

couldnt finish HORIBLE book HORRIBLE !!!


Leason before dying takes place during the time of all that civle dispute i want to say the late fourties.it takes place in the south in a mixed comunity. so what happens in the book is a younge dumb black man gets faulsy acused of murder and sent off to die. a younge black man and is familey set out to stop it. here is whyi think i didnt kike it. its a slow rerad and not very creative. also i liek to read things that i can relate too... this boo...more
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Katie
Katie rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
09/30/07

Read in January, 2007
recommends it for: Fans of Oprah's book club
The one thing I've noticed is that all of Oprah's books are *incredibly* depressing. They all involve some kind of opression and/or tragedy, but they're also some of the best books I've ever read.

This one is no exception. It's a quick read, and should be read relatively quickly. My problem was that I spread out my reading of this book, which made it a little tedious. However, the third-to-last chapter was one of the most poignant pieces of literature I've ever read.

Honestly, once I f...more
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Leslie
Leslie rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
04/24/08

I think I would appreciate this book more if it was talking about my culture and heritage, but I'm not African American, so it didn't really get to me. Honestly I didn't think there was much to the plot, frankly it was almost a waste of time. It does have some substance, although there is sort of a sex scene in chapter 14. I didn't read it, somebody blacked it out with marker in the book I had! :D

Anyway... it showed racism really well, but the ending didn't really go down well with me, I don...more
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David
David rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
04/21/08

Read in January, 1997
I can recall being actually fairly disappointed in this one when I read it as part of the early selections for "If Seattle Read the Same Book," and my thought at the time was that the idea of the book was more promising than its execution: if this was to be about human dignity and a man learning what it meant to be human, or seeing himself as fully human, it seemed to live at the surface of that idea without getting any deeper than whether this boy would call himself a man, or call him...more
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Charity
bookshelves: oprah, trulybad
Read in June, 2002
In Louisiana's Cajun country in the late 1940s, a young black man has been sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit. To get him off, his attorney had argued that this client was more like a hog than a man and didn't know what he was doing. Now the condemned man's aunt goes to the local schoolteacher with a strange request: give her nephew an education before he dies. "I don't want them to kill no hog," she says. "I want a man to go to that chair, on his own two feet."...more
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adA
adA rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
09/27/07

Read in July, 2007
recommends it for: Those who trust me
This book is a really cool book. I read this over the summer vacation in order to write the advisory letter. However, I found out that I wouldn't need to be forceds to read it becasue it's such a emotional book. This man was accused of murder during a shootout. He is an african American which puts him to a disavantage. This is proven when he was sentenced to death becasue the society need to hold someone responsible for the three deaths. Although we know that the man is completely innocent, the ...more
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Anderson
Anderson rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
12/15/07

bookshelves: myadvisorybook
Read in September, 2007
recommends it for: everyone
A book about a tragic end and the diginity/honor of an individual. In this book, a man is convicted of murder because he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. His sentence was the death penalty. As he sits in his jail cell, his loving family tries every attempt to make him prove he was a man, and not an animal which the judge had called him.
I learned that one must stand up for themselves, especially if you were convicted of something you had not done. I learned ...more
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Budd
Budd rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/31/07

bookshelves: classics, generalliterature
This is book about racism in the south prior to the civil rights movement. This a story about the oppression of African Americans. This is a story of hope. Jefferson is an innocent man and he will die because a white man has died and he was there when it happened. Grant is an educated black man who has come back home to teach school. Jefferson must learn from Grant how to be a man, ironicly that is the same thing Grant must learn from Jefferson. This novel is a must read. It is as accurate as yo...more
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Will
Will rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
07/14/07

Read in July, 2007
recommends it for: Only the open-minded
It's a magnificent condemnation of the Jim Crow prejudice of the South, but do we really need that? How many people don't know that racism is wrong? That's not what makes this story so amazing.

The hero, Jefferson, must become the Christ, taking on himself the burden of all around him to execution! And whose job is it to exalt this nearly-illiterate, "half-wit" to this post? A teacher whose central personality characteristic is self-doubt and self-loathing!

It's not a fun st...more
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Alex
Alex rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
05/11/08

This is not a good book to read, however it is a required reading for most juniors in high school. This book follows a very thin plot line and, despite its title, does not teach any kind of life lesson. It's very depressing and boring. I can usually find some kind of moral or reason for reading a book but this one had none at all. I don't see how it's a classic or why Oprah chose it to be on her special list but this is not a recommended book from me. If you enjoy books about a self absorbed tea...more
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Liz
Liz rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
02/02/08

Read in January, 1998
I read this book many years ago, but now I have to re-read it for my doctoral comps. The funny story behind this novel is that my Sophomore high school English class, at the prompting of our portly vest-wearing instructor, Mrs. Flippo, filmed a video "book club" discussion and sent it to Oprah. It was filmed by my Dad in our living room. The entire class came over and sat by the hearth. We might have been on television except for the fact that I grew-up in the whitest town in these...more
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Jonelle
Jonelle rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
10/16/07

Read in August, 2007
recommends it for: fans of Southern lit, Faulkner fans, fans of crying with books
At first, I thought this book was just OK. But I keep going back to it and I really love this book. It's a quiet book--not fast-paced or a lot of action, but it is a beautifully written book--Ernest Gaines shows himself to be a craftsman with language here, I think.
Every time I read the chapter of Jefferson's journal, I get choked up.

A Few Essential Questions this book raises:
Is it possible to defy expectations?
Can language define a life, a man?
How can language incite change?
Is a ...more
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book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 3.70 (1773 ratings)
avg rating (this edition): 3.67 (1584 ratings)
number of reviews: 198






other editions

A Lesson Before Dying (Paperback)
Lesson Before Dying (Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback))
A Lesson Before Dying (Paperback)









quote

"He told us that most of us would die violently, and those who did not would be brought down to the level of beasts." more quotes »