IN-PERSON: The Elderwise classroom at the Vineyard Church
Registrants should read A Lesson Before Dying prior to the first class.
This class begins at 9:30 a.m. and goes until 12 noon.
Rural 1940s Louisiana is the setting for Ernest J. Gaines’s (1933-2019) sixth novel, A Lesson Before Dying, winner of the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. While he is perhaps best known for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), A Lesson Before Dying is considered to be Gaines’s masterwork. It was adapted into a film in 1999, starring Don Cheadle (Grant Wiggins), Mekhi Phifer (Jefferson), Cicely Tyson (Tante Lou), and Lisa Arrindell (Vivian Baptiste). In our first session we will discuss the author’s life and this novel, and in our second session we will view the film adaptation. Combining the two will give us a better understanding of how the work continues to resonate in the 21st century. Registrants should read A Lesson Before Dying prior to the first class. Kevin Eyster is a Professor Emeritus at Madonna University in Livonia, where he continues to teach courses in literature.
