Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Like the characters in the novel, Ernest J. Gaines was also born on a plantation in Louisiana. He bought it and built a house on it. (Source.)
The novel was adapted for the theatre in 2000. (Source.)
A Lesson Before Dying mentions all sorts of Cajun food, and shows how food is a special sort of communication. (Source.)
Gaines created an imaginary parish in Louisiana based on his boyhood home. (Source.)
Much like Grant, Gaines' mother also lived out in California, and he went out to be with her as a teenager. (Source.)