A Gathering of Old Men by the noted novelist, Ernest J. Gaines, was first published in 1983. I wish I had known it then. Last week I stumbled across a 1992 edition published by Vintage Books at Borders on a table set aside for black authors. His most celebrated novel is The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. A Gathering is a remarkable mystery about a young white woman and 17 old black men in an isolated Louisiana parish, …showed first 75 words of 738 total…

…showed last 75 words of 738 total…floor in his industry was promoted to supervisor. He lost his friends and his peace and soon returned happily to his old job. For Gaines there is no returning to the old ways. His old men represent a passing from the old to the New South. They don't know this. They only know that at their advanced ages, it doesn't matter if they are killed or beaten up standing up finally for what is right.