“This is a novel in the guise of the tape-recorded recollections of a black woman who has lived 110 years, who has been both a slave and a witness to the black militancy of the 1960’s. In this woman Ernest Gaines has created a legendary figure, a woman equipped to stand beside William Faulkner’s Dilsey in The Sound And The Fury.” Miss Jane Pittman, like Dilsey, has ‘endured,’ has seen … has seen almost everything and foretold the rest. Gaines’ novel brings to mind other great works The Odyssey for the way his heroine’s travels manage to summarize the American history of her race, and Huckleberry Finn for the clarity of her voice, for her rare capacity to sort through the mess of years and things to find the one true story in it all.” — Geoffrey Wolff, Newsweek.
“Stunning. I know of no black novel about the South that excludes quite the same refreshing mix of wit and wrath, imagination and indignation, misery and poetry. And I can recall no more memorable female character in Southern fiction since Lena of Faulkner’s Light In August than Miss Jane Pittman.” — Josh Greenfeld, Life
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Read 7.19.2019
One of the best books I have ever read. Miss Jane Pittman is an unforgettable character, a women who knows her own mind and stays true to herself even though she never got a break, growing up as a slave as then not much better off after freedom came. Her stories are so cleverly and poignantly told by the author that you feel like you’re sitting …
I read this book may years ago. I do not remember many details of the book but I know I enjoyed it greatly. Although it was lengthy I never tried of it and was very glad that I read it. There were wonderful characters.
A disturbing look into black life after emancipation.
Never read a book by Gaines that didn’t inspire me and Miss Pittman was no exception. She was a complex character with a complex life. Loved both the book and movie.
I read this many times some time ago, and I just wanted in my library. I love it.
Jane Pittman is 110 years old. Born a slave in Louisiana, she has experienced slavery, war, reconstruction, war, depression, war, and, finally, the burgeoning civil rights movement. The undercurrents of her experiences are, of course, deep poverty and deeper racism, often accompanied by violence.
Ernest J. Gaines has written this novel as though …
Solid book on what it is like to be black. I the book was will written, but I wouldn’t call it a page turner.
This was an extraordinary book that was an Amazingly story on each page. Loved this story and the covert and invert wisdom that one could have hoped, the beginning until the very last page. AWESOME STORY ~
Great read narrated through the voice of one hundred and ten years old former slave.
Everyone should read this book, the resilience of the human spirit must never be underestimated
Truly informative about the culture of the US.
I had read this book years ago and at the ago of 70, decided to read it again. With all that’s going on in this mixed up world today, this book should be required reading in high school today.
It showed us what life was life for the negroes after they were emancipated.
I just love this book! I like the way it is written and the dialect it is written in lends it an air of being believable. I almost feel like I would love to sit down and talk to Ms. Pittman myself. I’m almost to the end of the book, and am sad to think it is ending.