Cane River

Rating:
Summary: Good read; fast paced re: slavery and post civil war
Review: A fast read of the matriachs of four generations starting around the mid 1800's. The story mostly discusses the families of slaves that had white fathers and the difficulties that they faced after the civil war. Really loved seeing the pictures of some of the characters and really felt it was non-fiction. However, when I read the ancestoral chart that was presented before each woman's story, it somewhat gave away the story that was going to be told.

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Summary: Top 100 Best AA Books!
Review: Cane River is a fascinating and intriguing historical debut novel from Lalita Tademy. As Tademy tells the story of her family history she transports the reader back to the early 1800s, to an isolated, close-knit rural community on Louisiana's Cane River. Tademy takes historical fact and mingles it with fiction to create a vivid and dramatic account of what life was like for the four remarkable women who came before her. Beginning with her great-great-great-great grandmother Elisabeth, this is a family saga that spans from the early days of slavery through the Civil War/Reconstruction and into a pre-Civil Rights South. Cane River is not just another novel about the injustice of slavery but is the saga of real, flesh and blood women making hard decisions and facing the consequences. Tademy tells a moving story about the females on the maternal side of the family who came before her'Suzette, Philomene and Emily. She writes about the intimate relationships that each of these women had with white men and how children were conceived from flat-out rape, to calculated financial arrangements, to real, if forbidden and dangerous liaisons. Each of the four women in the book approached life differently and handled relationships to the men and children in their lives very differently. Cane River's major female characters were all born into slavery, but even so, each made distinct choices regarding how she was going to live her life. Each women fought to keep their family intact and to gain a better life for their children. Via Cane River, Tademy also dramatizes the roots of turmoil within the African American community regarding the issues of skin color. As I read the story of Emily who was very color struck and a strong believer of "bleaching of the line"'I was often saddened and upset by her actions. While I didn't condone Emily's actions, Tademy provided enough insight that I was able to understand why Emily held the beliefs that she did. If there was anything I could change about Cane River it would be that the stories of the main female characters(Suzette, Philomene, Emily) were told from the first person rather than the third person perspective. By writing in the first person, the storyline could have had more dialogue and less narrative which sometimes was a little dry.

But that aside, Cane River is still a well-written story and a wonderful tribute to the author's ancestors. Tademy provides the reader with a touching and poignant story about the lives of four strong women challenged by their lives as slaves, women, mothers and daughters. The storyline is an emotionally rich and heart wrenching story with real characters that will stay with you for years to come. I'm glad that this book was chosen as an Oprah Book of the Month choice as all folks need to read Cane River in order to understand that there is another perspective to slavery that needs to be told. More importantly, I hope this book becomes one of the QBR 100 Essential Black Books and that it will be considered a must read for high school and college literature courses.

Rating:
Summary: Rich and Inspiring
Review: Lalita Tademy has created a novel that is as rich with character as it is with history. In search of her own roots, Lalita Tademy, embarked on a journey to her past and discovered four very strong and remarkable women. The strength shared individually and collectively between these four women is inspiring.

Cane River tells the story of Elizabeth, Suzette, Philomene, and Emily. Each woman endured unspeakable hardships during the time of slavery. Each woman, more oppressed than the one after, suffer inmeasureably, all in hopes to better the future.

Cane River is a powerful novel. It is the story of family and the knowing that when you've lost everything, you always have your family.

In a society dictated by color. The Cane River women struggle against the establishment, each wishing and plotting for the greater future for their children. Through hardship, tragedy, and loss, the Cane River women triumph on their own terms.

To Elizabeth, Suzette, Philomene, Emily, and all those that came before, and to all those that will follow, I thank you for your stories.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Thank you Lalita for dropping out of the business world to research and write this book! It was an awesome story and oh so well written. This is historical "fiction" at its finest. Knowing that all of these people actually existed made the book come alive. Couldn't put it down. Great book!

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Summary: Fredieu Family Member
Review: This book revealed my great-grandfather to be Emily's brother. Or, that would appear to be the case by information that is recorded in the book. I am interested in more discussion on the subject but cannot make contact through any other email address listed for the author. Is it possible for me to write to the author? My mother's maiden name is Fredieu.

Rating:
Summary: a wonderful read, all-around
Review: First, I just wanted to comment on some of the other reviews: Given that the project behind this book has been so rarely attempted, and given that the author wasn't even a professional novelist, to call _Cane River_ "ambitious" is, obviously, to understate the case. Still, it's a good word for the novel; and in my opinion, it surpassed even its own ambitious expectations.

That said, I respectfully disagree with the reviewer who remarked that the writing was not compelling: I found the author to have a remarkably well-tuned ear for dialogue (side-note: I did notice passages where I think another reviewer called the dialogue "stilted"; but where I noticed that, it was Emily speaking -- and the "stilted" nature of her speech seemed to me to serve a purpose where narrative and characterization were concerned. Those passages served to remind me, anyway, that Emily spoke both French and English; and that she preferred to speak French), particularly for someone who has never written fiction before. I also remember feeling that the author was obviously well-read, herself, where superb fiction is concerned; and that she drew from this well-read sensibility in ways that not only provide a testimony to her own talent (that's what writers do, after all -- they/we fall in love with other writers, and demonstrate that when their/our own work effects lovers' nods to them), but that also reveal the ways in which _Cane River_ takes its place in a long and complex African American literary tradition, and particularly a tradition established by women. It's as much indebted to this tradition as it is involved in picking it up, re-shaping it, and carrying it on. There are, here, echoes of the stunningly beautiful language that characterized Toni Morrison's _Beloved_; thematic movements indebted as much to Richard Wright as to Maya Angelou; and a careful effort toward research, revelation, and reconstruction that has roots reaching back through Alice Walker to Zora Neale Hurston, among others.

Clearly, there's a lot to be said for the socio-historical value of a book like this one; and probably a lot will be said. It bears some very, very interesting comparison and contrast with Alex Haley's _Roots_, as well; and I'll look forward to reading those. Here, I'll assume both of these points as givens, and just move on to agree with the reviewer who noted that _Cane River_ is a "masterpiece of historical fiction." I'd agree with that, I think -- given the terms of what it set out to do, and of how it set out to do it. This isn't a novel too deeply concerned with lush descriptions of setting, and it doesn't involve any of the sort of fictional brushes with "famous" people in history that marks a lot of popular historical fiction. That is, of course, exactly this novel's greatest triumph: the women of Cane River, flesh-and-blood ancestors of this author, are written here as the history-makers that they were: making history as they shelled peas, snapped beans, planted rosebushes, loved and married and gave birth and wove stories and provided for their children's futures and did what they had to do, needed to do, and -- so important -- finally, and at least occasionally, what they wanted to do.

It must, I think, be a thrill for Lalita Tademy, herself, to have written this book: to have brought back to life these women whose blood runs in her veins and whose lives informed the stories that have shaped her own. But it's a thrill to read it, too. The opportunity to meet, know, and love characters who come alive and enter my life is the most compelling reason I love to read. When, in addition to having written a cast of magnificent characters and a compelling story, an author tells me that these characters once actually walked around, that their lives have real and rooted connections to people now living, that the compelling story was lived by real people, the result is for me a reading experience that is truly sublime.

That's the kind of reading experience this book was, for me; and I couldn't recommend it more highly.

Rating:
Summary: Real people and a really great book!
Review: I finished Cane River 2 days ago and keep thinking about it, remembering the characters. It was easy to read and layed out well. I enjoyed this book very much, I am already wanting to read it again. After researching her family in Louisana I can understand why Lalita Tademy quit her job to pursue this novel. A remarkable account of life, love and hardship her realatives endured from the days of slavery to the turn of the century. A job well done, the book is beautifully written, definatley a labor of love. Thank you so much for sharing your family history. It should be a must read for all young woman. A great account of these woman's strength, resolve and determination during the most trying of times.

Rating:
Summary: Different Perspective
Review: I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to read Cane River. Lalita Tademy did a wonderful job filling in the blanks with fiction in order to create a harmonious flow. This story was very interesting to me because it was told from a different perspective. Without giving away too much detail, I would like to say that I never imagined loving relationships developing between the people that had them in Cane River. I never knew that certain people coexisted as such in the this land during that time. I never would have imagined that the hue of my skin could actually be a result of my ancestors encouraging the relationships that in my mind had always been forced upon them. This book is a very good read and flows quite nicely. The real life pictures of her family add so much more to the story than one can imagine. I would highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Realistically Saddened
Review: This story is relatively realistic in its references to the "color-struck" syndrome that yet exits among black people. As always, the class structure is a reminder that intelligent human beings still do not appreciate the uniqueness that God has created. Racial prejudice is rampant in this story, and that (plus the things listed above) is what saddens me most. The Cane River women live by a code of survival that is admirable because they are the root of the family. However,I fail to see the uniqueness of THIS story. Who says that lighter is better? Do we have to accept that? What is success within the family, community, society, nation, or the world even? This story is a reminder of the valuable things about our history, as well as the ugly reality that is still with us so many years later than the perils of the women of Cane River.

Rating:
Summary: Cane river
Review: Great Book made me for the first time feel what it must have been like to have been a slave.