Rating: 
Summary: Cane is my favorite book, ever
Review: Alice Walker once said of Cane that she "could not possibly exist without it." I feel the same way. This is the most glorious, complex, heartwrenchingly beautiful collection of poems and prose that I have ever encountered. Toomer was a lyrical, insightful writer. He was someone who understood and could convey pain. Whatever racial classification people may settle upon, it is clear that Toomer was influenced by the black experience in the U.S. -- Cane reads like jazz sometimes, like blues at other times, and every once in awhile like gospel; in any case it is musical, rhythmic, and it gets to your soul.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the weak hearted
Review: As a casual read this book is not something you want to pick up. The plots are subtle and the presentation is almost inaccessable if you're planning on using this book as a bed-time read.However, if you're willing to make a commitment to give this book the close reading it deserves, you may find yourself surprised. I highly recommend this edition with the critical essays in back--it may help make some sense of the book--especially the Reilly and Watkins' essays. Well worth the time spent!
Rating:
Summary: Not for the weak hearted
Review: As a casual read this book is not something you want to pick up. The plots are subtle and the presentation is almost inaccessable if you're planning on using this book as a bed-time read. However, if you're willing to make a commitment to give this book the close reading it deserves, you may find yourself surprised. I highly recommend this edition with the critical essays in back--it may help make some sense of the book--especially the Reilly and Watkins' essays. Well worth the time spent!
Rating: 
Summary: Cane
Review: I did not like this book at all. It was boring and I did not really understand it because it was like reading more than one book at the same time. It felt like that because the author kept jumping back and forth to to different subjects. There was also a lot of poetry in the book wich made it more confusing.
Rating:
Summary: Cane
Review: I did not like this book at all. It was boring and I did not really understand it because it was like reading more than one book at the same time. It felt like that because the author kept jumping back and forth to to different subjects. There was also a lot of poetry in the book wich made it more confusing.
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Summary: Jean Toomer and the Romance of language
Review: I read Cane for the first time when I was a Freshman in college. I believe that it was the first time that I'd noticed how beautiful it is when the energy of poetry is fused with prose fiction. Particularly interesting is the fact that, while Toomer wrote a deep portrayal of the issues of race in America at that time, he functioned more as an anthropologist than an insider for, while he was black, he was descended from the socially detached black middle class and had to learn about most aspects of black culture through observation rather than experience. This makes the work that much more powerful. I especially loved to read "Blood Burning Moon", a story about the fatal competition between a black and white man for the affections of a young, alluring black woman. All in all, Cane is not to be missed by anyone who digs poetry/prose fusion or anyone who loves the romance of language.
Rating:
Summary: Don't be in a hurry
Review: I think this was the third time I started Cane, and I'm glad to have finished it, though, and I mean this as a compliment, it isn't the kind of book that begs to be finished. It has a strong mood that I remembered instantly from previous readings even though the plots and particular characters had been forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: Don't be in a hurry
Review: I think this was the third time I started Cane, and I'm glad to have finished it, though, and I mean this as a compliment, it isn't the kind of book that begs to be finished. It has a strong mood that I remembered instantly from previous readings even though the plots and particular characters had been forgotten.
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Summary: the question of toomers race
Review: It is irrelevant whether you choose to refer to Jean as black or as a MIXED CAUCASIAN. That is as riduculous and naive a moniker as you claim black to be. All caucasians are mixed, as all blacks are mixed. If the matter of his race was so simple, then he would not have fretted so much about it. He IS black in the sense that, by identifying him with black people, you get a more realistic sense of the context in which he lived his life. Labels such as "mixed caucasian" do nothing save give a mislesading starting point for evaluating his work. Oh, and by the way...His family WAS a member of the ealy African-American elite. He is from an old gaurd black family.
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Summary: Wind is in the cane
Review: It was a product of the Harlem Renaissance. It was published in 1923 in a small edition. Toomer believed that in CANE he was writing of a way of life that was dying. CANE is a collection of poetry and prose. It contains portraits and descriptions. Toomer was something of a detached observer. He questioned the harmonies and values of his society. In the Norton Critical Edition the material at the back of the volume includes biographical and critical information. In an autobiographical section Toomer states that CANE was a swan song. He consciously sought to embody in the work the folk spirit. Before Toomer began to write he thought of becoming a composer. Critic Gorham Munson writes that CANE is the projection of a vivid personality.
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