From the author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman comes a deep and compassionate novel, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. A young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.
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A Lesson Before Dying
From the author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman comes a deep and compassionate novel, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. A young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.
Popular Reviews(1)
Reviewed by Carlos R. DiazThat was his story. We all have voices, including the condemned. Jefferson, a simpleton, is swiftly tried and convicted, getting the chair, circa 1940s Louisiana. Before his death sentence is carried out, he's visited by Grant Wiggins, a local school teacher who longs to get out of Dodge. He's charged with the responsibility of making a man out of him before he takes his final walk. The dialogue is perfect in its rich colloquial prose. This is a fine story of empathy, what we gain after reading good, quality fiction. That is all.