Navigating the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines - by Keith Clark (Paperback)

About the Book

"Louisiana author of the masterworks "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" (1971) and "A Lesson before Dying" (1993), Ernest J. Gaines has garnered a fair amount of scholarly attention and much popular success. However, book-length studies devoted solely to his fiction are incommensurate with his prodigious output of seven novels and a collection of short stories. In "Navigating the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines: A Roadmap for Readers," Keith Clark presents a sustained, nuanced, and original exploration of his fiction that is accessible to non-academic readers and enlightening to scholars, the former audience having maintained a steadfast interest in Gaines's work for over a half a century. The book's core concerns include: how southern blacks and whites continue to wrestle with their tortured history; the chronic and traumatic impact of slavery far beyond its end; the unique physical, psychological, and legal challenges facing southern black men; and Gaines's innovative depictions of black southern women beyond their rather monolithic representations in works by previous southern male authors. Clark greatly benefitted by having access to Gaines in the course of writing his book, and he includes an interview with the writer done in 2014. This welcome, comprehensive guide to the corpus of Gaines's fiction will vivify a great writer's works for readers and fans of all levels"--

Book Synopsis

One of the South's most revered writers, Ernest J. Gaines attracts both popular and academic audiences. Gaines's unique literary style, depiction of the African American experience, and celebration of the rural South's oral tradition have brought him critical praise and numerous accolades, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a National Humanities Medal, and a National Book Critics Circle Award for his novel A Lesson before Dying. In this welcome guide to Gaines's fiction, Keith Clark offers insightful analyses of his novels and short stories. Clark's close readings elucidate Gaines's more acclaimed works--including The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Gathering of Old Men--while also introducing lesser--known but masterfully crafted pieces, such as the story "Three Men" and the civil rights novel In My Father's House. Gaines's most recent work, The Tragedy of Brady Sims, receives here one of its first critical examinations.

Clark shows how the themes of Gaines's literary oeuvre, produced over the past fifty years, dovetail with issues reverberating in twenty--first--century America: race and the criminal justice system; black masculinity; the environment; the enduring impact of slavery; black southern women's voices; and blacks' and whites' interpretation of history. In addition to textual discussions, the book includes an interview Clark conducted with Gaines at the writer's home in New Roads, Louisiana, in 2014, further illuminating the inner workings and personality of this eminent literary artist.

Review Quotes

Ernest Gaines's career was exceptional and enduring. Still, too few readers today this superior black talent as they should. That, though, is sure to change. Thanks to Keith Clark's definitive study, the late Louisiana author has a long afterlife ahead. No one I know has worked as assiduously or as honorably as Clark to keep our attention on Gaines over the decades. For students and scholars of Gaines or the black tradition, Navigating the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines is essential reading. Clark's knowledge isn't only intimate; it is inspired.--Maurice Wallace, author of Constructing the Black Masculine: Identity and Ideality in African American Men's Literature and Culture, 1775-1995

About the Author

Keith Clark is the author of Black Manhood in James Baldwin, Ernest J. Gaines, and August Wilson and The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry, and the editor of Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama. He is professor of English and African and African American studies at George Mason University, focusing on African American fiction and drama, black literary masculinity studies, and African American LGBT literature and criticism.