A Gathering of Old Men
Ernest J. Gaines
Language: English
Pages: 213
ISBN: 0679738908
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Set on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation in the 1970s, A Gathering of Old Men is a powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black man.
"Poignant, powerful, earthy...a novel of Southern racial confrontation in which a group of elderly black men band together against whites who seek vengeance for the murder of one of their own."--Booklist
"A fine novel...there is a denouement that will shock and move readers as much as it does the characters."--Philadelphia Inquirer
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that ’lectric chair to make it work. Two of them doing this while another one come outside and told me and the undertaker we could go back of town if we wanted to, ’cause it was go’n take a while yet. Saying that to me, his paw, while two more was in there hitting and kicking and cussing that thing to make it work.” “Gable, your heart,” Glo said, trying to reach him. But he was still too far away from her. “Monk said you could hear one, then the other one, cussing that chair all over the
turned on Candy. Candy ate her sandwich while gazing down at the ground. She did not answer. “How long is this charade going on?” Miss Merle snapped back at Mapes. “They all claim they did it,” Mapes said. “Who should I take in? Her?” Miss Merle’s little birdlike red mouth tightened and untightened two or three times. From her eyes, you could see that she was questioning God’s reason for putting her here at the same time He did the rest of us. God did not answer her, so she turned on me.
“What for?” Fix asked. “He came after Charlie. He came with a gun.” “And Mathu killed him for that?” Fix asked. “That’s what Mapes believes.” “Ain’t we wasting time, Fix?” a big, rough-looking guy standing in the back of the room asked Fix. He wore one of those Hawaiian shirts with all the red and blue and yellow flowers on it. The tail of the shirt was out of his pants. He stood next to another rough-looking guy, who wore a brown, short-sleeve shirt. Both wore khaki pants. “Luke Will,” Fix
leave. “Leave?” I said. “Help me, then,” she said. “Help you how, Candy?” “I need more guns,” she said. “What?” “Get me more twelve-gauge shotguns,” she said. “Get me more people here.” “More people?” I asked her. “More people for what, Candy?” “You see what they’re doing?” she said, nodding toward the porch. I had already seen them, so I didn’t have to look again. “I see old men with shotguns, I see that,” I said. “Yes,” she said. “And I need more. Mapes come here, he’ll beat up two
could tell he wasn’t seeing us no more. I leaned over and touched him, hoping that some of that stuff he had found back there in the swamps might rub off on me. After I touched him, the rest of the men did the same. Then the women, even Candy. Then Glo told her grandchildren they must touch him, too. Lou Dimes There were three funerals two days later. Beau and Luke Will were buried in Bayonne; Charlie was buried at Marshall. The trial took place the following week, lasting three days.
