Stirring, heroic, and wonderfully laced with the musical languages of the Bayou, Ernest J. Gaines-the foremost voice in contemporary African American literature-adds another breathtaking saga to his canon with A Gathering of Old Men. When Sheriff Mapes is summoned to a sugarcane plantation to find a dead Cajun farmer, he knows who committed the crime. Mapes finds himself powerless, however, when nearly 20 elderly black men confess to the murder. Can justice be served, or will the dead man's brutish father pass judgment his way? Building to a climax that is as stunning as it is inevitable, A Gathering of Old Men powerfully describes the racial tensions in 1970s Louisiana. Narrators Peter Francis James, Michelle-Denise Woods, Sally Darling, Graham Brown, Murphy Guyer, Tom Stechschulte and Mark Hammer bring Gaines' masterful prose to vivid life. This insightful novel takes its place among Gaines' thought-provoking classics, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and In My Father's House.
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"This is a remarkable book about the racial tensions building up between black and white families on a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana in the 70's. It depicts the criminal and moral injustices that were still prevalent even after the Civil Rights Movement had ended. " — Nina (4 out of 5 stars)
"This is a remarkable book about the racial tensions building up between black and white families on a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana in the 70's. It depicts the criminal and moral injustices that were still prevalent even after the Civil Rights Movement had ended. "
“The best-written novel on southern race relations in over a decade.”
" I read this because I might teach it in Upward Bound this summer. How is it that I've never read anything by Ernest J. Gaines before? "
" Just all around good...and it ends just the way you would want it to. "
" Great read. This was a one of those finds that you pick up and can't put down. Read it in a day. I couldn't wait to see the situation from another perspective. Not too many books are written in this style. "
" Very good. I liked this one better than A Lesson Before Dying. Three hours of reading well spent. "
" Not sure if I liked it more than "A Lesson Before Dying" but overall I really enjoyed the book! "
" Good, but not something I'd pick up on my own time. Gaines does a brilliant job with storytelling; however, the voices of the characters did not feel individual enough. Many of narrators could have been the same character. "
" Fantastic, heart-breaking, funny. Great companion read to To Kill a Mockingbird--one of my "if my English class lasted forever" selections FOR SURE. "
" A thought provoking read and offering the stark realities of life in the civil rights era. "
" Read for a book club. Very grim, yet uplifting in its way... "
" a not so good book about a murder. it just goes back and forth between manny peoples perspective on who committed tha murder. it was a boring book that was hard to follow with a slow action plot. "
Ernest J. Gaines is a writer-in-residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His 1993 novel, A Lesson before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and was an Oprah Book Club pick in 1997. In 2004, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Peter Francis James is an accomplished actor on both the stage and the screen. His theater credits include roles in On Golden Pond, Much Ado about Nothing, and August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. His many film and television credits include Jahfree Neema in Oz, Raymond Parks in The Rosa Parks Story, Joe Gould’s Secret, The Guiding Light, Law & Order: SVU, and Third Watch. James’ audiobook narration has won him nine AudioFile Earphones Awards.
Sally Darling, a graduate of Wellesley, made her professional debut as Anna in The King and I with members of the original Broadway cast. She worked with Katherine Houghton in a production of Murder in the Cathedral performed in the chapel at West Point Military Academy. As a director, she has workshopped productions of musicals slated for Broadway. She has directed numerous regional productions and has created several revues. She is also an acclaimed audiobook narrator.
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