Catherine Carmier is a compelling love story set in a deceptively bucolic Louisiana countryside, where blacks, Cajuns, and whites maintain an uneasy coexistence.
When Jackson returns home to his family after an absence of ten years, he discovers that his bonds to them have been irreparably rent by his absence. In the midst of his alienation, he falls in love with Catherine Carmier, setting the stage for conflicts and confrontations which are complex, tortuous, and universal in their implications.
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"A good first novel of Ernest Gaines. It certainly speaks to what was to come with his regional, local color writing of Louisiana. (More to come)"
— Uzzie (4 out of 5 stars)
“[Gaines’] best writing is marked by what Ralph Ellison, describing the blues, called near-tragic, near-comic lyricism.”
— Newsweek" Stunning tale of jim crow at it's best. "
— Toshana, 10/29/2013" Supposed to read this on for my class but didn't like it so punted. "
— Mary, 12/27/2011" Just getting started. Finally finished. Not my favorite Gaines book. "
— Debra, 8/13/2011" Stunning tale of jim crow at it's best. "
— Toshana, 3/8/2010Ernest 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.