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The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

by Ernest J. Gaines

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Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
I enjoyed this book, though parts of it seemed to run on and on a bit. I guess that was because it was written the way that this person would have talked if she was telling the story. I can remember my own 2 grandmothers going on and on while talking about their past, so it's easy to imagine Jane as a real person telling her story. Though this book is fiction, it was very believable and seemed historically accurate, based on non-fiction books of this type that I have read. ( )
  ladybug74 | Apr 6, 2009 |
A brilliantly crafted work of fiction which interweaves historical references and recollections into a compelling life story. The book is about the life of a woman (Miss Jane) who was born into slavery, and survived to the dawn of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The book is a modern masterpiece on the topics of race and social justice in America, an overarching story of black experience from the Civil War to Civil Rights, seen primarily through the experience of one woman, but incorporating and representing the experiences of all others. (The book was also adapted into an outstanding film starring Cicely Tyson in the title role.) ( )
  sean.r | Feb 12, 2009 |
This book, for short TAOMJP, was very interesting. Knowing that it was, hence the title, an autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, I knew that i would be following her life. The only thing however is that I did not know when they would start talking about her life. As I learn from the very beginning, they start talking about her life when she was a young slave girl. From there, it went on up until she was an elderly woman, around the time of Martin Luther King. The things that happened to Jane throughout her lifetime were very interesting and kept me wanting to find out more about her life, but I felt as though the story plot dragged on sometimes. It is blatantly obvious that Jane is a hero because of how strong she was, and how she was about to stay so composed during the hard times. She really was a mother to everyone, even when she was a young girl. One of the reasons why I chose to read this book was because I had read another book by Ernest Gaines, and I really enjoyed his writing style- but I was somewhat disappointed with this one because the writing style was very different. I overall enjoyed it! ( )
  jbmartin | Feb 19, 2008 |
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Epigraph
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the memory of My grandmother, Mrs. Julia McVay, My Stepfather, Mr. Ralph Norbert Colar, Sr., and to the memory of My beloved aunt Miss Augusteen Jefferson, who did not walk a day in her life but who taught me the importance of standing.
First words
I had been trying to get Miss Jane Pittman to tell me the story of her life for several years now, but each time I asked her she told me there was no story to tell.
Quotations
...man come here to die, didn't he? That's the contract he signed when he was born...Now, all he can do while he's here is do something and do that thing good. (p. 93)
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
The motion picture adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines' 1971 novel, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, is a separate work. Please do not combine the movie with the original novel. Thank you.
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0553263579, Paperback)

"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 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

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:00:08 -0500)

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Story of a black lady born into slavery on a Louisiana plantation, freed at the end of the Civil War, who lives for one-hundred more years.

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