Book Review
Copyright (c) 1994, Steve Powers
All rights reserved

     A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest J. Gaines (Knopf, $21.00).

Set in a small Cajun community in Louisiana in the late 1940s, Ernest
Gaines's first novel in ten years is a wrenching, emotional novel. 

Black life in this time period is painted in a searingly honest manner,
effectively conveying the stifling, oppressive conditions blacks were
forced to endure. 

A young black man, Jefferson, is unwittingly involved in a deadly
shootout. Although he protests his innocence, he is sentenced to death
for his part in this botched robbery. 

During the trial, his lawyer compares him to a hog, saying that
Jefferson lacks even a smattering of intelligence. Jefferson's
godmother, deeply grieved at this, petitions Grant Wiggins, a local
teacher, to go and meet with Jefferson and help him "...to die like a
man," and not a hog. 

At first an unwilling participant, Grant reluctantly agrees, under
pressure from his aunt. From this beginning, Gaines fashions a touching
story of the relationship that builds between Grant and Jefferson and
how Grant's own life is changed by this relationship. 

Peeling away the surface to penetrate into the heart of what it means to
be human and coming to grips with living and dying, Gaines's novel is
deeply moving. It has made several best books lists (including my own)
and deservedly so.