Cheap The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (Book) (ERNEST J. GAINES) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

Jane, born Ticey, was "interviewed" by a man who was interested in the life of a woman who'd lived from Slavery to Civil Rights. Jane was given her name by a Yankee soldier whom she'd been told to give water by her Mistress, and it was Jane's name from then on.

When the slaves were freed, she set out with several going North. Secesh men who'd been soldiers during the Civil War (in other words, days before!) killed everyone they could find - everyone except Jane and the son of another former slave. Jane was either ten or eleven years old at the time. She traveled with the child, Ned, and raised him as her own.

This book goes through her life, through the triumphs and the disappointments, through the times she spent on different plantations and doing different jobs. Working my way through the vernacular was a challenge, but it added credibility to the story. Hatred based on skin color is rampant throughout the book; so is Miss Jane's knowing "her place." Nonetheless, she tells with touching sorrow of the love of a white man for a Creole teacher. Happiest in the fields, she was incredibly profound when she spoke of talking to the trees: "Anybody caught talking to a chinaball tree or a thorn tree got to be crazy. But when you talk to an oak tree that's been here all these years, and knows more than you'll ever know, it's not craziness; it's just the nobility you respect."

Her stories give new meaning to "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." There are those who will dissect the book for symbolism. It's not necessary to do so; "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" carries itself just fine.

100 years of struggle and triumph
This well-crafted novel is written as an editor's transcription of the oral memoirs of Jane Pittman, a 110-year old woman and former slave who reminisces about her life and times. Miss Jane, in her rambling, often opinionated, but always endearing narrative style, not only tells her life story but also that of the history of the black people from slavery up to their struggles for civil rights in the 1960s.

Around ten years old when freed from slavery, Jane decides to head to Ohio to find the friendly Yankee soldier who was kind to her when his troop passed through. Although she never gets out of Louisiana, she saves a young boy, taking him under her wing when the Confederate soldiers slaughter his mother, and sets off to find a better life for the two of them. Along with the other newly freed slaves, she deals with problems in finding shelter, jobs, and education. As she ages, she becomes the matriarch of her community, and in that role provides support, inspiration, and commonsense guidance to others as they seek their rightful place in society.

Jane is a colorful character with lots of spirit and determination. Her story is full of humor, wisdom, and irony. The emphasis of the book shifts about halfway through from Jane herself to the story of the people that pass through her life. Some chapters depart from the main story to cover a particular person or incident she observes. She discusses the discrimination and violence the blacks faced in the south. She is witness to the relationship between blacks and whites, including a doomed love interest. She chronicles civil rights advances and mentions the efforts of such black leaders as Washington, Douglass, and King. She speaks of the Freedom Riders and civil rights marches. One clever chapter digresses to discuss one of the floods in her town that was caused, according to Jane, by man's egotistical notion that he can change the course of rivers. Because the story covers 100 years of Jane's recollections, time passes quickly in some spots, leaving large gaps of time missing from her life. I found it was sometimes difficult to determine how old she was when a new chapter began and how far forward time had passed. In spite of this, the novel is educational, entertaining, and uplifting, and would be an excellent book to teach older children about black history.

Eileen Rieback

bland, unmoving, cookie-cutter story
This is my least favorite book of all time. The reason? I find the Civil War era to be fascinating, and the stories about the people who lived through that period, especially the slaves, especially interesting. Those stories have the potential to emotionally stir something within you, to make you analyze the growth of our country, the meaning of war, and the value of life. However, this particular book lacks all of that. The story is a convential, cookie-cutter story about a former slave girl who grows up to be part of the civil rights movement. In the center of the book (aka. her life) there is meaningless fat that never builds into a good story. Save your time and sanity, and read another book about this era or of African Americans that will actually contribute to your life. Suggestions: Gone With the Wind, The Bluest Eye, Beloved