Beau Boutan is dead, lying out in the weeds beside his shotgun, and everyone knows who killed him. He was shot in Mathu's yard, and Mathu is the only black man on the place that has ever stood up for himself against the Boutans. By the time Sheriff Mapes arrives on the scene, the situation is far from simple, though. Eighteen old black men are assembled in the yard, each with a shotgun and an empty shell of the type that cut Beau down, and each one of them says he killed Beau. Candy is there, the white lady half-raised by old Mathu after her parents were killed, and she is determined to defend Mathu and all of the blacks on her land the way her parents and grandparents defended them in the past. She says she killed Beau and will confess the crime in court. Mapes has a problem on his hands. Fix Boutan, the dead man's father, is sure to come down to the quarters seeking revenge, and there is bound to be a lynching if Mapes can't get everything straightened out before Fix has time to get there. All the old black men gathered in the yard are there because of Fix. Each one of them has lived a long time without ever really standing up for himself; they've all taken abuse quietly, and they have seen their women and children abused right in front of their eyes for what seems like forever. Now, they see they have a last chance to stand up for themselves against Fix and his cruel gang. They have come for a fight, and no one is going to talk them out of it.
Gaines gives us multiple points of view in this novel. Each chapter is related in first person by one of the characters, and the results are incredibly revealing. We learn a great deal about these men, the lives they have led, and their own feelings about those lives. It's really quite intense and revealing. This is not a story of racial hatred, however, despite the fact that a number of white characters have led hateful lives. Twenty years earlier, Fix Boutan would have been revenged his boy's murder without even thinking about it, and this is the Fix Boutan the old black men expect and indeed hope to take their stand against. Times are changing, though, and the younger generation, men such as Beau's brother Gil, don't think the same way that the older generations do. Thus, there is as much hope as anguish in this novel. To some degree, not a lot happens in terms of action over the course of the story, so some may find the reading a little long and boring, but even those who don't fully appreciate the human dimensions of the story will be rewarded by the path the final chapters take and the action that does take place toward the end. I have to say that Ernest J. Gaines proves himself to be an incredible writer, able to communicate thoughts, feelings, and history itself in a manner most writers can never hope to match. A Gathering of Old Men isn't overly complex or lengthy, so there is no reason why anyone should deny himself or herself the pleasure of enjoying and learning from this true landmark of a novel.
There's no hiding the fact that Gaines thinks he's Faulkner. There's the same complicated voice, the same introduction of too many characters, the same obsession with the South, and the same jumping from scene to scene. Although Gaines isn't Faulkner and shouldn't pretend to be, the book is nevertheless stunning and (unlike Faulkner) readable.
