In my father's house

Ernest J. Gaines

Knopf : distributed by Random, Apr 12, 1978 - Fiction - 214 pages

A story of a man brought to reckon with his buried past. Reverend Martin comes face to face with the sins of his youth in the person of Robert X, a young, unkempt stranger who arrives in town for a mysterious "meeting" with the Reverend.

Contents

• Section 1: 14
• Section 2: 22
• Section 3: 34

About the author

Ernest Gaines was born in 1933 on the River Lake Plantation, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Although he was educated in California (at San Francisco State College and Stanford University) and currently lives in San Francisco, his fiction is dominated by images and characters drawn from rural Louisiana, where he was born and raised. In recounting the struggle of African Americans to, in his words, "escape the influence of the past" and "just? be men," Gaines has skillfully crafted a small, but powerful body of modern American fiction. Unquestionably the best-known and probably the best, of Gaines's novels is The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), a fictional account of the long life of a black woman born a slave on a Louisiana plantation. Through the stories of the many fascinating people who touch Jane's life, Gaines presents not only a moving perspective on the struggles of African Americans but also a social history of the United States since the Civil War. It is a testimony to Gaines's skill as a writer and storyteller that many people believe Jane Pittman was a real person. Indeed, the novel is frequently misshelved in the biography section of bookstores. Of Gaines's other works, Bloodline (1976), a collection of five short stories, stands out for its powerful portrayals of young men in search of self-respect and dignity. His lnovel A Lesson Before Dying, won the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award.

Bibliographic information

• Title: In my father's house
• Author: Ernest J. Gaines
• Publisher: Knopf : distributed by Random, 1978
• Length: 214 pages
• Subjects: African Americans; African Americans/ Fiction; Domestic fiction; Fathers and sons; Fathers and sons/ Fiction; Fiction / African American / General; Fiction / General; Fiction / Literary; Louisiana; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies