Literature   

• Novel into Film: A Lesson Before Dying 

• 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.

  

  

   

• Fee: $30.00

• Instructor(s): Kevin Eyster

• Dates: 5/15/2025 - 5/22/2025

  Times: 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM

• Sessions: 2

  Days: Th

• Building: Vineyard Church

  Room: Classroom at the Vineyard Church

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• The Majors in Literature: Classic Midcentury Baseball Novels 

• ONLINE: A Zoom invitation link will be sent the Friday before each class session begins.

  Class registrants should read Bernard Malamud’s The Natural (1952) before the 1st session.
  Class registrants should read Mark Harris’s Bang the Drum Slowly (1956) before the 2nd session.

  Baseball season is in full swing! What better time to read and discuss two acclaimed novels about “America’s pastime”? The first week’s discussion will be dedicated to Bernard Malamud’s The Natural (1952), the story of the rise and fall of a super hitter. The second session’s discussion will be dedicated to Mark Harris’s Bang the Drum Slowly (1956) and its focus on the friendship between a pitcher and catcher. Note: Both books were translated into well-received film versions later in the 20^th century; while not required, class participants may be interested in checking them out. Class registrants should plan to read each book prior to its class session. Cecilia Donohue retired in 2013 following a 25-year career of undergraduate instruction, graduate teaching, and academic administration. She now resides in east Tennessee with her husband Bill and their menagerie of horse, cat, and dog. Currently an associate editor of The Steinbeck Review, Cecilia has written extensively on America’s southern authors and poets, notably Robert Penn Warren and Anne Tyler.

  

  

   

• Fee: $30.00

• Instructor(s): Cecilia Donohue

• Dates: 6/2/2025 - 6/9/2025

  Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

• Sessions: 2

  Days: M

• Building: Online Course

  Room: Online via Zoom

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• Book Club - Spring 2025
  Dates: 4/28/2025 - 6/9/2025

• ONLINE registration for this class is now closed.
    If the start date of the first session has not happened yet,
    please call or email the Elderwise office to get registered.
    Thank you!
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• ONLINE: A Zoom invitation link will be sent the Friday before each class session begins.

  Using prepared questions and our own observations, the discussion each month will explore a book from current bestseller lists. Selected books for the Spring 2025 term are:

  April
  The Man in the Crooked Hat by Harry Dolan
  Please read before the first class session.

  Published in 2017, 354 pages, Mystery

  One cryptic clue leads private investigator Jack Pellum into a labyrinthine search for the man he believes murdered his wife.
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  May
  Long Island  (Ellis Lacey Series) by Colm Tóibín

  Please read before the second class session.

  Published in 2024, 304 pages, Fiction

  Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic Irish heroine of Brooklyn, is now forty-two with two teenage children. One day an Irishman tells her that his wife is pregnant by her Italian husband, Tony, and that he expects the baby is to be raised by her. She refuses.
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  June
  People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
  Please read before the third class session.

  Published in 2008, 372 pages Fiction (inspired by a true story)

  The novel follows a rare manuscript, an illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15^th century Spain, through centuries of exile and war, and to the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultranationalist fanatics.
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  The facilitators will send a list of discussion questions for each book to all registrants prior to each Book Club session.
  Kathleen and William Hillegas are long-time members of both Elderwise and the Book Club. Both are avid readers, and look forward to a lively exchange of ideas, opinions, and interpretations.

  

  

  

   

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