I'm okay.

I know that when I don't put up something on my blog for quite a while, some might wonder if I'm okay, so this is just assurance that I am. I'm not sure why I have neglected this blog for so long. I think one reason is that we have been aggressively pursuing a practice of reading aloud, and I don't work on my blog while Ellen reads to me. And then other things come along when she is not reading. So I guess you can say life is full. Most recently, Ellen has been reading from Ernest J. Gaines' 1993 novel A Lesson Before Dying. This is a powerful work. Set in Lousiana, at the novel's center is Jefferson, a young black man sentenced to death for three unintended murders which take place during a robbery which Jefferson was involved in, but he was not in any way responsible for the murders. He had the bad luck to be the one left standing, alive. His court-appointed defense attorney, speaking in court, compares his impending execution to the slaughter of a "hog," in a misguided effort to elicit sympathy for his client from the court. Jefferson seems to buy into this characterization and refuses to talk with his family - he is, he says, "nothing but a hog." Grant Wiggins, a local black teacher, is recruited by Jefferson's family to help him face his death "like a man." This sets up an excruciatingly painful relationship between the two men, but one in which they both grow emotionally over time. The novel received several awards and was made into a movie for TV. Gaines died November 5, 2019, age 86.

Ernest J. Gaines (1933-2019). ************************** Looking for the movie based on this novel on YouTube, I ran across another movie based on a Gaines novel, The Autobiography of Jane Pittman, starring Cecily Tyson. and we watched that movie yesterday. That is also a powerful work! Gaines should be far better-known than he is. I am grateful to have discovered him and his work.