What do you think?
Rate this book
Bloodline: Five Stories
In these five stories, Ernest Gaines returns to the cane fields, sharecroppers' shacks, and decaying plantation houses of Louisiana, the terrain of his great novels A Gathering of Old Men and A Lesson Before Dying . As rendered by Gaines, this country becomes as familiar, and as haunted by cruelty, suffering, and courage, as Ralph Ellison's Harlem or Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County.
Gaines introduces us to this world through the eyes of guileless children and wizened jailbirds, black tenants and white planters. He shows his characters eking out a living and making love, breaking apart aand coming together. And on every page he captures the soul of black community whose circumstances make even the slightest assertion of self-respect an act of majestic—and sometimes suicidal—heroism. Bloodline is a miracle of storytelling.
STORIES
A Long Day in November
The Sky Is Gray
Three Men
Bloodline
Just Like a Tree
Gaines introduces us to this world through the eyes of guileless children and wizened jailbirds, black tenants and white planters. He shows his characters eking out a living and making love, breaking apart aand coming together. And on every page he captures the soul of black community whose circumstances make even the slightest assertion of self-respect an act of majestic—and sometimes suicidal—heroism. Bloodline is a miracle of storytelling.
STORIES
A Long Day in November
The Sky Is Gray
Three Men
Bloodline
Just Like a Tree
249 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
57 people are currently reading
773 people want to read
About the author
Ernest J. Gaines
56 books1,167 followersErnest James Gaines was an American author whose works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. Four of his works were made into television movies.
His 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Gaines was a MacArthur Foundation fellow, was awarded the National Humanities Medal, and was inducted into the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) as a Chevalier.
His 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Gaines was a MacArthur Foundation fellow, was awarded the National Humanities Medal, and was inducted into the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) as a Chevalier.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
January 24, 2008
The five stories in Ernest Gaines' Bloodline explore various stages of life from the perspective of poor African Americans in the early 20th century. The first two stories are told from the perspective of a child, the second from the perspective of a 19-year-old, the fourth from the perspective of a 70-year-old, and the final from a variety of quickly shifting perspectives.
From these very different perspectives, Gaines is able to provide an in-depth analysis of racism, poverty, and masculinity among black people in the South (most stories seem to be set in Louisiana). The final story does not focus on masculinity, but the other four do. They raise questions of what responsibilities a man has toward his family ("A Long Day in November"), what kind of pride and self-reliance a man (or, really, any responsible person--the lesson learned here is not specifically for males, but the child who learns it is a young boy) ought to have ("The Sky Is Gray"), what social pressures and attitudes work to create a certain class of black man and destroy the manhood that the first two stories show characters trying to develop ("Three Men"), and what a man who is willing to stand up for himself and demand his rights looks like ("Bloodline"). Interestingly, in these four stories, the actions that transform these men into real men or that represent true manhood are coded as insane. One man burns his nice car up to save his marriage, a mother teaches her son to turn aside even minor assistance, a young man determines to go to prison rather than get bailed out by a white man, and a mulatto man returns to his white father's plantation to demand his birthright. To some degree, all of these actions counter received ideas about what is sane or normal, but these actions are necessary to establish manhood, responsibility, personal dignity. The fact that they are or can be read as insane says a great deal about the culture in which these people must live and that culture's response to them.
As a secondary theme, religion is repeatedly set aside by these stories. Sometimes the preacher figure simply lets down a character where a hoodoo woman is able to help, other times characters speak out against religion explicitly, but in no case is Christianity a real solution to the problems inherent in society or in individual's lives. In fact, the characters who rely on God to answer their problems are shown to be weak or deluded. As Copper says, in "Bloodline," "I used to pray once. . . . I used to pray and pray and pray. But the same God I was praying to was created by the same ones I was praying against. And Gods only listen to the people who create them. So I quite my praying--there would have to be another way" (214).
Of the five stories, I would definitely teach "The Sky Is Gray," "Three Men," or "Bloodline." Each of these stories develops an intriguing central character and raises important questions for discussion.
From these very different perspectives, Gaines is able to provide an in-depth analysis of racism, poverty, and masculinity among black people in the South (most stories seem to be set in Louisiana). The final story does not focus on masculinity, but the other four do. They raise questions of what responsibilities a man has toward his family ("A Long Day in November"), what kind of pride and self-reliance a man (or, really, any responsible person--the lesson learned here is not specifically for males, but the child who learns it is a young boy) ought to have ("The Sky Is Gray"), what social pressures and attitudes work to create a certain class of black man and destroy the manhood that the first two stories show characters trying to develop ("Three Men"), and what a man who is willing to stand up for himself and demand his rights looks like ("Bloodline"). Interestingly, in these four stories, the actions that transform these men into real men or that represent true manhood are coded as insane. One man burns his nice car up to save his marriage, a mother teaches her son to turn aside even minor assistance, a young man determines to go to prison rather than get bailed out by a white man, and a mulatto man returns to his white father's plantation to demand his birthright. To some degree, all of these actions counter received ideas about what is sane or normal, but these actions are necessary to establish manhood, responsibility, personal dignity. The fact that they are or can be read as insane says a great deal about the culture in which these people must live and that culture's response to them.
As a secondary theme, religion is repeatedly set aside by these stories. Sometimes the preacher figure simply lets down a character where a hoodoo woman is able to help, other times characters speak out against religion explicitly, but in no case is Christianity a real solution to the problems inherent in society or in individual's lives. In fact, the characters who rely on God to answer their problems are shown to be weak or deluded. As Copper says, in "Bloodline," "I used to pray once. . . . I used to pray and pray and pray. But the same God I was praying to was created by the same ones I was praying against. And Gods only listen to the people who create them. So I quite my praying--there would have to be another way" (214).
Of the five stories, I would definitely teach "The Sky Is Gray," "Three Men," or "Bloodline." Each of these stories develops an intriguing central character and raises important questions for discussion.
June 3, 2025
My knocking out reviews of Gaines’ ‘lesser’ work first comes to an end here; beyond this fine collection, it’s nothing but frame-bursting strikes straight down the middle of the lane.
While short story collections can normally fuck along on their merry way, exceptions do exist. While this isn’t exactly batting alongside Carver or Chekhov—or even those first four T. Coraghessan Boyle collections—it is damned fine stuff. I refer to the stories with the singular ‘it’ because that’s how they function. Though not linked in the formal sense, Gaines’ stock taking of five distinct generations of his Fabulous Bayonnet’s may very well be his most generous gesture to his Complete Reader. There is more connective tissue left in as explicatory device of Gaines’ Bayonne proposition (and its swooping grandeur) than in any of his other books. Warts and all and all that hand jive. This exposed sinew, those electrical diffusions pinging between synapses too-cleaved; in other words, the collective effect of who and what Bayonne, and thus Gaines, is all about positively SING(!) all along the vibrating strings of this once and motley instrument.
Or:
These Singing Sutures chanter une chanson of Dixie blood and, good hot and goddamn, I’m a thirsty sumbitch.
While short story collections can normally fuck along on their merry way, exceptions do exist. While this isn’t exactly batting alongside Carver or Chekhov—or even those first four T. Coraghessan Boyle collections—it is damned fine stuff. I refer to the stories with the singular ‘it’ because that’s how they function. Though not linked in the formal sense, Gaines’ stock taking of five distinct generations of his Fabulous Bayonnet’s may very well be his most generous gesture to his Complete Reader. There is more connective tissue left in as explicatory device of Gaines’ Bayonne proposition (and its swooping grandeur) than in any of his other books. Warts and all and all that hand jive. This exposed sinew, those electrical diffusions pinging between synapses too-cleaved; in other words, the collective effect of who and what Bayonne, and thus Gaines, is all about positively SING(!) all along the vibrating strings of this once and motley instrument.
Or:
These Singing Sutures chanter une chanson of Dixie blood and, good hot and goddamn, I’m a thirsty sumbitch.
April 6, 2020
So I don't know how this ended up on my to-read, but it has been sitting there a while and I decided to tackle it. I liked the overall tone and I think it is an important perspective (poverty stricken Blacks in the south) and time period (post-slavery and seems to be pre-Jim Crow for most of these). However, I don't like short stories in general (I find it annoying that just when I get into a story it ends) and there was something about these that felt too repetitive. The voices were not different enough to me to make it feel like they were separate; they were so similar as to feel like a caricature or stereotype rather than authentic different people.
I have notes below for each of the five stories:
A Long Day in November--This is not the title story, but it was my favorite in the book. I liked the innocent point of view (narrator is a 1st grader) and the language choice that went along with it. Eddie/Sonny is pretty observant and knows a lot of what is going on, but he is also very naive and that shows through as well. I also felt a huge cultural wall because I absolutely could not understand the waste of burning up the car. I understand that Amy wanted Eddie to dramatically separate himself and that he needed to burn the car to symbolically put her ahead of everything else. However, they are so desperately poor it seemed so stupid to waste it rather than sell the car. Personally this made me aware of the fact that my economic security is such that I would never consider asking a loved one to make an economic sacrifice as a way to re-establish my dignity.
The Sky Is Gray--This story was heartbreaking and felt the most authentic. The boy doesn't want to be a burden (he is 8 years old!) on his family and is both willing to suffer the toothache and willing to go without food out of economic necessity. The characters felt believable and the old lady who ends up helping them (but only if they can pay her back by helping to carry the empty garbage cans) is a great illustration of the importance of dignity and self worth. As in a Long Day in November, it is not about real value of things, it is about presentation of self.
Three Men--This was my least favorite story. I found it rather repetitive and expository: black men have two choices, they can either accept their humble (non-human) position or resist; resistance will yield continual jail time. This is true and heartbreaking, but rather than creatively illustrate this the story just kind of preached at the reader. I wondered about another mechanism by which the lesson could have been more subtle.
Bloodline--The cover story is the longest and it the most obvious discussion about slavery and the importance of self esteem. The main character is an older man (former slave) who still lives on the plantation and is loyal to the current owner. The current owner is the "softer" of the two former slave-owing brothers, but he is still not willing to disrupt the status quo. There is lots of drama surrounding the return of a former slave who was the son of the current owner's "hard" brother. The title is obliquely referenced several times: Copper (the disruptive agent) is the product of the white man's rape of his black slave. Copper is both of a distinguished bloodline (he is repeatedly noted to have power and authority of his father) and a negligible bloodline (his mother was a slave). The story illustrates both that his parentage is important (he is making a claim to the estate) and that all races are people and should be treated as such (bloodline is not important, a man is just a man). I found it to be nuanced, but a bit long and the several different ways in which Copper avoided entrapment to be unnecessary.
Just Like a Tree--This was almost several short stories in one. It describes a going away party for an elderly woman on a plantation. She was formerly a slave and on the eve of her departure, a huge crowd (including her former white master) shows up to say goodbye. Each chapter was a different perspective during the party. The story linked back well to the importance of people as individuals and the power and impact we all have on those inter-personal relationships (even if we don't have any actual power in the world), but I found it disjointed and hard to read with the constant shift in perspective.
Overall, this is a nice collection that gives voice to an underrepresented segment of the population, but I would have preferred a novel.
I have notes below for each of the five stories:
A Long Day in November--This is not the title story, but it was my favorite in the book. I liked the innocent point of view (narrator is a 1st grader) and the language choice that went along with it. Eddie/Sonny is pretty observant and knows a lot of what is going on, but he is also very naive and that shows through as well. I also felt a huge cultural wall because I absolutely could not understand the waste of burning up the car. I understand that Amy wanted Eddie to dramatically separate himself and that he needed to burn the car to symbolically put her ahead of everything else. However, they are so desperately poor it seemed so stupid to waste it rather than sell the car. Personally this made me aware of the fact that my economic security is such that I would never consider asking a loved one to make an economic sacrifice as a way to re-establish my dignity.
The Sky Is Gray--This story was heartbreaking and felt the most authentic. The boy doesn't want to be a burden (he is 8 years old!) on his family and is both willing to suffer the toothache and willing to go without food out of economic necessity. The characters felt believable and the old lady who ends up helping them (but only if they can pay her back by helping to carry the empty garbage cans) is a great illustration of the importance of dignity and self worth. As in a Long Day in November, it is not about real value of things, it is about presentation of self.
Three Men--This was my least favorite story. I found it rather repetitive and expository: black men have two choices, they can either accept their humble (non-human) position or resist; resistance will yield continual jail time. This is true and heartbreaking, but rather than creatively illustrate this the story just kind of preached at the reader. I wondered about another mechanism by which the lesson could have been more subtle.
Bloodline--The cover story is the longest and it the most obvious discussion about slavery and the importance of self esteem. The main character is an older man (former slave) who still lives on the plantation and is loyal to the current owner. The current owner is the "softer" of the two former slave-owing brothers, but he is still not willing to disrupt the status quo. There is lots of drama surrounding the return of a former slave who was the son of the current owner's "hard" brother. The title is obliquely referenced several times: Copper (the disruptive agent) is the product of the white man's rape of his black slave. Copper is both of a distinguished bloodline (he is repeatedly noted to have power and authority of his father) and a negligible bloodline (his mother was a slave). The story illustrates both that his parentage is important (he is making a claim to the estate) and that all races are people and should be treated as such (bloodline is not important, a man is just a man). I found it to be nuanced, but a bit long and the several different ways in which Copper avoided entrapment to be unnecessary.
Just Like a Tree--This was almost several short stories in one. It describes a going away party for an elderly woman on a plantation. She was formerly a slave and on the eve of her departure, a huge crowd (including her former white master) shows up to say goodbye. Each chapter was a different perspective during the party. The story linked back well to the importance of people as individuals and the power and impact we all have on those inter-personal relationships (even if we don't have any actual power in the world), but I found it disjointed and hard to read with the constant shift in perspective.
Overall, this is a nice collection that gives voice to an underrepresented segment of the population, but I would have preferred a novel.
February 25, 2017
Another gem, or more accurately, 5 more short gems by Gaines. Loved them
February 21, 2014
Loved this collection of stories from Ernest J. Gaines. The stories include "A Long Day in November" where a man have to choose between keeping his family or his car (loved the conversations); "The Sky is Gray" is about keeping one's diginity even in hard times; "Bloodline" is about claiming one's birthright (loved the writing, even made the fight scene hilarious); "Three Men" is about defining 'manhood'; and "Just Like a Tree" is about family and family history. Here's a quote from Aunt Clo in Just Like a Tree that caught my attention: "You get a big hole in the ground, sir; and you get another big hole in the air where the lovely branches been all these years... Two holes, sir, you can't never fill no matter how hard you try."
November 12, 2016
Great Story Telling
These are well written and descriptive stories as told through the voices and eyes of children and adults living in a small rural town in Louisiana. The characters are attention-grabbing, authentic, and many-sided, focusing on love, family discord, internal and external struggles, mistrust, secrets and lies, hypocrisy, Jim Crow laws and segregation, the exploits of an unjust prison system, birthrights, and its impact on people of African ancestry and society at large. The stories remind us how a people, who have been marginalized, mistreated and reviled, continue to exemplify power, love, resilience, faith, hope, redemption and absolution, in spite of the barriers they face on a daily basis.
These are well written and descriptive stories as told through the voices and eyes of children and adults living in a small rural town in Louisiana. The characters are attention-grabbing, authentic, and many-sided, focusing on love, family discord, internal and external struggles, mistrust, secrets and lies, hypocrisy, Jim Crow laws and segregation, the exploits of an unjust prison system, birthrights, and its impact on people of African ancestry and society at large. The stories remind us how a people, who have been marginalized, mistreated and reviled, continue to exemplify power, love, resilience, faith, hope, redemption and absolution, in spite of the barriers they face on a daily basis.
August 16, 2007
Love your review, Leslie! "The Sky is Gray" is the reason I went to grad school...
August 18, 2022
A collection of five short stories beautifully told by Ernest J. Gaines. The first two stories are told from the point of view of young boys. The first story titled "A Long Day in November" is about a mother who, along with her young son, moves back to her own mothers home because her husband is spending all of his time driving his car around. The second story "The Sky is Gray" is about a young boy with a toothache being taken to see a dentist, the third story "Three Men" is about a young man being put into jail for killing another man in a fight, the fourth story "Bloodline" is about a man who is the son of a white landowner and a black woman who has come back to claim the land as his in spite of the laws in the South at the time and the last story "Just Like a Tree" is about a gathering of people who have come out in stormy weather to see an old woman who is being moved out of her house. All of the stories deal with the extreme poverty and harsh racism that black people faced during this time period.
November 28, 2015
This is the only collection of short stories that Gaines ever wrote. They all take place in and around Bayonne Louisiana and reflect the struggle of blacks in the rural south during the years following the civil war and leading up to the sixties. Despite the thirteenth amendment which outlawed slavery, the south was still deeply marked by that experience and shadows of caste and privilege remained.
The main theme of the five stories is manhood -- not in terms of dominating women, but in terms of men taking responsibility for their actions and working for the greater good. Gaines uses the strong black women in his stories as the model for that behavior. There are also recurring themes of gender roles and family relationships embedded in each tale.
The first story “A Long Day in November”, is told from the point of view of six year old Sonny. The reader listens in as his parents have a prolonged dispute and Sonny is shuffled between them. Sonny’s mother Amy feels that her husband Eddie spends too much time with his car and not enough time with his family. Eddie is forced to burn his beloved car to show his commitment to his wife and son.
The next story “The Sky is Gray”, is also told from the perspective of a child, this time James, an eight year old boy with a bad toothache. James and his mother travel from their small black community to the dentist in the mostly white town of Bayonne. On this trip, Sonny experiences the segregated culture of the south and the beginning of dissent among the black population. The dialogue in the dentist office between a black man and a preacher is masterfully done. This was my favourite story in the collection.
In “The Three Men”, the narrator Proctor Lewis is a young black man in prison for stabbing another man during a fight. When Proctor first entered jail, his initial thought was to contact a wealthy white man named Roger Medlow to secure his release, a common practice of the time. But after he meets his two cellmates, Bazille Mumford, a violent man who has spent much time in prison and Hattie a homosexual, and they discuss their future, Proctor reconsiders. Bazille convinces Proctor to take responsibility for his behavior and serve his time in prison as a man should. Eventually Proctor decides on that choice rather than be obligated to the white man.
The title story “Bloodline” follows the conflict between Frank Laurent, an old white plantation owner and Copper Laurent, the mixed race son of Frank’s brother Walter and a black woman from the quarters. Although the story takes place after the time of slavery, the reader quickly becomes aware of the vestiges of the old system that still remain. Copper insists he should inherit the plantation when Frank dies, but Frank resists, insisting that Copper’s mixed racial heritage would not allow it.
In the final story a going away party for Aunt Fey, a well-loved old woman from a plantation is being taken from the home she has lived in her entire life. Her family is concerned about the violence generated by the civil rights movement and are frightened she may be harmed. Aunt Fey is opposed to the plan and in fact dies the night before she is to leave her beloved home.
Each of these stories is full of authentic rural southern dialect (which takes some time to get used to) and paints a picture of the unwritten and unspoken conventions of class that were so deeply rooted in the south at this time.
An excellent collection which I really enjoyed.
The main theme of the five stories is manhood -- not in terms of dominating women, but in terms of men taking responsibility for their actions and working for the greater good. Gaines uses the strong black women in his stories as the model for that behavior. There are also recurring themes of gender roles and family relationships embedded in each tale.
The first story “A Long Day in November”, is told from the point of view of six year old Sonny. The reader listens in as his parents have a prolonged dispute and Sonny is shuffled between them. Sonny’s mother Amy feels that her husband Eddie spends too much time with his car and not enough time with his family. Eddie is forced to burn his beloved car to show his commitment to his wife and son.
The next story “The Sky is Gray”, is also told from the perspective of a child, this time James, an eight year old boy with a bad toothache. James and his mother travel from their small black community to the dentist in the mostly white town of Bayonne. On this trip, Sonny experiences the segregated culture of the south and the beginning of dissent among the black population. The dialogue in the dentist office between a black man and a preacher is masterfully done. This was my favourite story in the collection.
In “The Three Men”, the narrator Proctor Lewis is a young black man in prison for stabbing another man during a fight. When Proctor first entered jail, his initial thought was to contact a wealthy white man named Roger Medlow to secure his release, a common practice of the time. But after he meets his two cellmates, Bazille Mumford, a violent man who has spent much time in prison and Hattie a homosexual, and they discuss their future, Proctor reconsiders. Bazille convinces Proctor to take responsibility for his behavior and serve his time in prison as a man should. Eventually Proctor decides on that choice rather than be obligated to the white man.
The title story “Bloodline” follows the conflict between Frank Laurent, an old white plantation owner and Copper Laurent, the mixed race son of Frank’s brother Walter and a black woman from the quarters. Although the story takes place after the time of slavery, the reader quickly becomes aware of the vestiges of the old system that still remain. Copper insists he should inherit the plantation when Frank dies, but Frank resists, insisting that Copper’s mixed racial heritage would not allow it.
In the final story a going away party for Aunt Fey, a well-loved old woman from a plantation is being taken from the home she has lived in her entire life. Her family is concerned about the violence generated by the civil rights movement and are frightened she may be harmed. Aunt Fey is opposed to the plan and in fact dies the night before she is to leave her beloved home.
Each of these stories is full of authentic rural southern dialect (which takes some time to get used to) and paints a picture of the unwritten and unspoken conventions of class that were so deeply rooted in the south at this time.
An excellent collection which I really enjoyed.
December 12, 2011
(FROM JACKET)In these five stories one of America's most passionate and authoritative writers returns to the cane fields, sharecroppers' shacks, and decaying plantation houses of Louisiana, the terrain of his great novels "A Gathering of Old Men" and "A Lesson Before Dying". As rendered by Ernest J. Gaines, this country becomes as familiar, and as haunted by cruelty, suffering, and courage, as Ralph Ellison's Harlem or William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County.
Gaines introduces us to this world through the eyes of guileless children and wizened jailbirds, black tenants and white planters. He shows his characters eking out a living and making love, breaking apart and coming together. And on every page he captures the soul of a black community whose circumstances make even the slightest assertion of self-respect an act of majestic-and sometimes suicidal-heroism. "Bloodline" is a miracle of storytelling.
Gaines introduces us to this world through the eyes of guileless children and wizened jailbirds, black tenants and white planters. He shows his characters eking out a living and making love, breaking apart and coming together. And on every page he captures the soul of a black community whose circumstances make even the slightest assertion of self-respect an act of majestic-and sometimes suicidal-heroism. "Bloodline" is a miracle of storytelling.
October 2, 2010
Four stories, many of which feature children as the pov character. Loved how the author made each world so vivid in a short space. He mostly focused on small incidents that incapsulated entire personalities and relationships, if that made sense. And everything played against a backdrop of oppression.
February 14, 2014
This is a collection of 5 short stories all set among share croppers in the segregated deep south. Each is so emotionally charged with tenderness, pain, genuine love and longing that I was a bit breathless after each.
February 17, 2016
A book of short stories about the lives of Louisana plantation sugar cane workers in the 1940s. Ernest Gaines paints with words.
July 2, 2017
One of my all-time faves. I wish I'd had this masterful collection under my belt when I was teaching A Lesson Before Dying!
February 1, 2025
It has been far too long since I read some Ernest J. Gaines. I plan to rectify that now, and I think I've started off Black History Month properly with this collection of stories from early in his career.
"Bloodline" contains five stories written about Black life in postwar Louisiana, all centered for the most part on Black male voices of varying ages. What they all have in common is an unflinching look at the ways in which Black life in the South was difficult but, in the wake of the burgeoning Civil Rights movement, beginning to look like it might improve somewhat. But there's plenty of things to occur that could keep the world of plantation sharecroppers down, because bigotry and economic hardships pay little heed to the law of the land. To paraphrase Nina Simone, "Louisiana, Goddam."
These stories are miniature masterpieces, evocative portraits of Black men and women and children living life in poor circumstances and doing their best to get by. The tangled web of racial lines between Black and white plays a role here as well, as in the title story of a Black man who has returned to his childhood home to claim his legacy thanks to his white father. There is a lot of violence and pain at work in these tales, but there are also moments of shared humanity. "Bloodline" has a lot to say about the South, much of it echoed in Faulkner but, thanks to Gaines, coming from a Black perspective. The two writers complement each other.
"Bloodline" is a fine return for me to the fiction of Ernest J. Gaines; having read "A Lesson Before Dying" and "A Gathering of Old Men" a couple of years ago, I regret that it has taken me this long to start back up with him. But I plan to work my way through two other books of his that I own, and soon.
"Bloodline" contains five stories written about Black life in postwar Louisiana, all centered for the most part on Black male voices of varying ages. What they all have in common is an unflinching look at the ways in which Black life in the South was difficult but, in the wake of the burgeoning Civil Rights movement, beginning to look like it might improve somewhat. But there's plenty of things to occur that could keep the world of plantation sharecroppers down, because bigotry and economic hardships pay little heed to the law of the land. To paraphrase Nina Simone, "Louisiana, Goddam."
These stories are miniature masterpieces, evocative portraits of Black men and women and children living life in poor circumstances and doing their best to get by. The tangled web of racial lines between Black and white plays a role here as well, as in the title story of a Black man who has returned to his childhood home to claim his legacy thanks to his white father. There is a lot of violence and pain at work in these tales, but there are also moments of shared humanity. "Bloodline" has a lot to say about the South, much of it echoed in Faulkner but, thanks to Gaines, coming from a Black perspective. The two writers complement each other.
"Bloodline" is a fine return for me to the fiction of Ernest J. Gaines; having read "A Lesson Before Dying" and "A Gathering of Old Men" a couple of years ago, I regret that it has taken me this long to start back up with him. But I plan to work my way through two other books of his that I own, and soon.
June 27, 2025
I read two of these stories in college for a Southern US Fiction class. I revisited those now, and read the other three to finish the book. I wish I had Professor Smith to discuss the remaining stories with. There was so much to discuss. I feel that the short story, Bloodline, encapsulates so much of the violent experience of the Jim Crow south without spending hundreds or thousands of pages on the history. It’s spare and poignant and heartbreaking.
August 11, 2024
Overall it they were interesting stories, but it was still a hard read. They didn't grasp my interest as much as I thought it would
October 9, 2017
Gaines' fiction is, as ever, worth reading and re-reading. His works practically vibrate with the power of voice, and with subtle discussions of race, power, poverty, and history--and the stories in this collection are no different. The title story, "Bloodline" might be the most striking of the ones included here, but then again, they're all intoxicating and worthwhile, and "A Long Day in November" is one that will stay with me for a long time.
All told, I can't recommend his work highly enough--whether you've already appreciated his novels or not, whether this would be your first taste of his work or not, this collection is worth wandering through, and the stories included are varied enough (and offered in enough depth) that you won't be bored if you decide to read the collection straight through.
Absolutely recommended.
All told, I can't recommend his work highly enough--whether you've already appreciated his novels or not, whether this would be your first taste of his work or not, this collection is worth wandering through, and the stories included are varied enough (and offered in enough depth) that you won't be bored if you decide to read the collection straight through.
Absolutely recommended.
September 16, 2015
What a fantastic book. I couldn't put it down. It was so sensitively written, such brave souls. I read his novel "A Lesson Before Dying" loved that, but the short stories were so powerful that I actually like this book better.
September 2, 2016
These short stories showcase Gaines' writing ability well, and the racial tension in them is palpable, the same as in his novels. The 3 stars is lower than I have given any of his other books (I think), but that is just because the short story is not my favorite form of fiction.
January 11, 2018
A powerful collection of short stories from a powerful author. After finishing "Bloodline," the story with gave the collection its name, I had to step away and rest. I needed time to let the story -- and me -- settle.
May 12, 2018
Is it culturally appropriative for this white woman to stand amazed by these words and stories. Gaines writing puts me in the time and place he is describing with startling authenticity. While I cannot understand a life like his and his characters, I can see it in my mind with each page read.
February 5, 2019
“The sky is gray” and “A long day in November” are one of the best short stories I’ve read. Gaines’ forms of writing and the creation of those characters which are somehow linked together by a big inner dialogue are brilliantly well made. Very sentimental and tender stories.
August 15, 2007
"The Sky is Gray" is a fave and I give a shout for "A Long Day in November" too (in the latter, a hubby worships his car a bit more than his wife -- LOL ;o).
October 27, 2010
Gaines tends to drag on a little but there are many parts in this novel that really stuck with me. It's an amazing read and I highly suggest it.
January 2, 2011
Author who has the ability to tell stories of the poor residents of the south in a passionate and authoritative way.
May 28, 2013
This is not light reading though there are touches of humor in the stories. I'm not a great lover of short stories but these are well worth it. Other reviewers have said it all.
August 10, 2016
Great collection of stories.
October 16, 2018
Mr. Gaines is a brilliant writer. This collection of short stories is
gripping, and saturated with feeling. Mr. Gaines pulls no punches when dealing with the profound problems of racism.
gripping, and saturated with feeling. Mr. Gaines pulls no punches when dealing with the profound problems of racism.
April 30, 2019
Extraordinary stories, 4.5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews