Cane River

by Lalita Tademy

A New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club Pick-the unique and deeply moving saga of four generations of African-American women whose journey from slavery to freedom begins on a Creole plantation in Louisiana.

Beginning with her great-great-great-great grandmother, a slave owned by a Creole family, Lalita Tademy chronicles four generations of strong, determined black women as they battle injustice to unite their family and forge success on their own terms. They are women whose lives begin in slavery, who weather the Civil War, and who grapple with contradictions of emancipation, Jim Crow, and the pre-Civil Rights South. As she peels back layers of racial and cultural attitudes, Tademy paints a remarkable picture of rural Louisiana and the resilient spirit of one unforgettable family.

There is Elisabeth, who bears both a proud legacy and the yoke of bondage... her youngest daughter, Suzette, who is the first to discover the promise-and heartbreak-of freedom... Suzette's strong-willed daughter Philomene, who uses a determination born of tragedy to reunite her family and gain unheard-of economic independence... and Emily, Philomene's spirited daughter, who fights to secure her children's just due and preserve their dignity and future.

Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Cane River presents a slice of American history never before seen in such piercing and personal detail.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Book Club, Historical, African American, Southern, Adult

522 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

LALITA TADEMY left the corporate world to immerse herself in tracing her family's history and writing her first historical novel, CANE RIVER. Her debut was selected by Oprah Winfrey as her summer book group pick in 2001.

Lalita Tademy's second historical novel, RED RIVER is set during Reconstruction-era Louisiana a time period and subject matter often summarily skimmed in our history books. The story of Red River begins in 1873, and follows the ramifications of an incident on Easter Sunday of that year on successive generations of two families involved.

In her latest work, Citizens Creek, Tademy brings us the evocative story of a once-enslaved man who buys his freedom after serving as a translator during the American Indian Wars, and his granddaughter, who sustains his legacy of courage. Citizens Creekwill be released in November 2014.

Photograph courtesy of the author.

Reviews

[Jaline · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the strongest parts of this book that stood out for me was the depth and breadth of the characters, particularly the women. This novel is a fictional depiction of the author’s own family tree for six generations exclusively through the female line with one exception: her grandfather. The personalities and portrayals of all the people throughout this novel are so real that it felt like I personally knew each one of them. I could picture each one like a finely detailed pen and ink portrait that is then filled in with watercolour shadings applied with a thin brush.

I was also deeply impressed by the honesty of these depictions. There is no candy-coating of flaws or quirks of personality – these are all layered generously on the portraits. Underlying the surface and the day-to-day interactions, are the qualities that are passed down through each generation like a family legacy: inner strength, the ability to endure and persevere, respect for others – especially their elders – and above all, dignity.

Yes, the earlier generations were slaves and forced into humility when serving their masters, yet they did so with dignity. Some people in this family were bought and sold, females were subjected to being used sexually by their masters, yet dignity remained. Largely, this seemed to come about because no matter what – no matter who the fathers were - each child born became part of the women’s family. They were loved, cared for, and taught to uphold the family values.

There were also separations and illnesses and conflicts and deaths. Through these six generations, there were wars and there were gains and losses. There were times of freedom, yet in the Louisiana of the day, that freedom came at great cost, too, and that freedom only went so far.

This family saga, based on hundreds of documents and years of research, carried me on a journey to a place and a time that feels so much more familiar to me than it ever did before. Through the stories of this family, I was able to live a part of history and come away inspired by the courage and determination they utilized to move them through some of the hardest years of those times past.

I am grateful, and I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys reading historical family sagas. I also look forward to reading more of Lalita Tademy’s novels.

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should divulge that I formerly lived along Cane River (the in-town part) and was given a free copy by our local National Park unit at a public symposium. I started the book that night at bedtime, thinking I'd read for an hour or so, per usual. Well I was up until well after 4:00 a.m. finishing this thing! When I showed up slightly bleary-eyed for class the next day, one of our observant grad students (thanks, Melissa!) asked whether I'd been up all night finishing "the Book of Crack" as she called it. So true--you just couldn't put it down. It was a wonderful story--kind of an Alex Hailey's _Roots_ set along the region surrounding Cane River in northwest Louisiana (roughly spanning Natchitoches to Cloutierville). For anyone not from the region (as with Mom and mother-in-law who both received and loved their copies), it's a great introduction to a region and to the complexities of Louisiana's creole communities. And the fact that the author wrote the book as something of a voyage of discovery of her own family roots, just makes it that much more bittersweet after you become so invested in characters from whom she is actually descended. This is a beautiful book about a beautiful and complicated place.

[Sammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gorgeous novel. The key thing is, is that this novel was based on Lalita Tademy's own family history. She calls it fiction, though, because she had to elaborate and add rich detail to the simple stories she had been told of her grandmothers before her.

What shocked me most about this novel was that it was Tademy's first. Her writing seems to reflect years and years of writing before her, it flows so well and the language is so rich. You can't criticize her characters, because they are real, even so she added layers on to them that just increased their likeability.

It was funny, because I didn't think I was going to like the fact that the book followed every generation closely. I thought I would bond with Suzette and feel slight resentment when her daughter and granddaughters story came up, but I didn't. Somehow I loved it. I loved it because the mothers and grandmothers weren't shoved to the side when the story switched focus, which is further reflection on how Tademy's family thinks of their elders, especially their grandmother's.

This book is a surprisingly enjoyable novel, and I'd say if the story doesn't sound like something you would want to read, give it a try anyway. I really don't need to say too much about this novel because it doesn't need much. Everything about it is great, and really, that's all I need to say.

[Monica **can't read fast enough** · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for historical fiction that focuses on the lives and struggles of African American women, I highly recommend picking up Cane River. Lalita Tademy has turned her family story into a fictionalized account of three generations of women who have each faced physical and emotional trauma with strength, dedication to family, and a burning need to move their families forward. When faced with no choice but to physically submit themselves to the men who hold the power of life and death over them, each woman ultimately does what she feels is best for the resulting children.

The means by which the family is moved forward is by bleaching the line through the generations. This process isn't truly by choice, but these strong women use whatever advantages that they can grasp for their children. Suzette and Philomene never actually have a choice in who the father of their children will be, but their perseverance, resourcefulness, and pure grit is impressive. Having modern sensibilities, it is upsetting to know that the skin color helped to define the hopes of a mother for her children. Yet, women with no power over their own bodies and futures had to maneuver and manipulate advancement as best they could.

It was Emily's story, the last generation delved into in Cane River, that was the most heartbreaking for me. Emily had a taste of love, even though it was a tarnished one. Emily's desire to just be without being harassed for simply existing, and being audacious enough to attract and acquire love from a white man, was what made her an even larger target for savage mistreatment. Tademy actually had me feeling sorry for a man who couldn't defend a family that he knew would never be accepted. Even though I felt compassion for Joseph, his arrogance and sense of entitlement is what led to his downfall and eventually cost him everything. Both Emily and Joseph were naive in their belief that they could be left alone to live as they wished, but especially Joseph. As a white male living in their community after the Civil War, he should have know that he could not be a successful businessman and expect others not to balk at the idea of him having a woman with even a trace of black blood. The ending of the book had me upset knowing that after all that Emily had endured and survived, society still made sure that she knew her place.

However, toward the end there is a bit of joy given to me via the choice of Emily's son T.O. to break the line by his choice of a wife. It was a step that not only set him apart as a man who thinks for himself, but also a step to break the cycle that T.O. saw as destroying his own sense of self worth. Ya'll....There is so much to experience in Cane River!

I generally haven't had the best of luck with Oprah Book Club picks, however Cane River was a home run for me and is going on my favorite reads list. I am so glad that I grabbed this one when I saw it in my local Goodwill for only a dollar. Spending a dollar and discovering a new favorite read is about as good as it gets! Reading this one makes me wish that I belonged to an organized book club so that I could discuss all of the issues and feelings that Tademy evoked. This was a hard review to rein in. It would be so easy to write a review on each woman featured! Cane River is a very well paced read that will hit you in all of the feels and provides food for thought long after you close the cover. I am now going to have to get a copy of Red River, which focuses on the Tademy side of the family.

Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monica Is Reading*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @monicaisreading
Instagram: @readermonica

[Taury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cane River by Lalita Tademy these kind of books about white plantation owners owning slaves make me so sad. The way blacks were treated even when thought to be good was abominable. This was a story based on the authors true family history. A black thorn forever stuck in America’s eye. And rightfully so. This was a hard book to read. But to ignore the past is to continue the sins to the present. Everyone deserves love and respect.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little cautious entering this book. First off, it's an Oprah book choice and those are generally a bit on the depressing side. Secondly, what I knew of the plot of the book was that it was about a family of women slaves during the Civil War era....which could be depresing, graphic, etc. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Granted, some of the situations that happen to the family of women in the book are sad, and make me frustrated that people were ever treated that way, the overall tone of the book, for me, was one of hope. These women hoped for a better future for their children. They perservered through all of the hard times with hope in their hearts, along with some other well deserved emotions. Another pleasant surprise with this book is that it is not graphic - there were plenty of times when some white master came to the slave women and the author could have let these situations be pretty awful - but she didn't. It was a relief to not have to cringe when I was reading.

[Debbie W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This debut novel, written by Lalita Tademy who left her career at Sun Microsystems to write it, is a “work of fiction deeply rooted in years of research, historical fact, and family lore.” Sometimes this book read like a narrative, and at other times, like a family history book. A semi-fictional/biographical account focusing on three generations of African-American slave women living in Louisiana, this story is interspersed with pertinent copies of documents, newspaper clippings (which are incredibly subjective and racist) and photos that coincide with sections in this book. I found the story to be quite straightforward and fast-paced, but slow enough to build strong characters. Tademy occasionally used some interesting metaphors (e.g. comparing Doralise’s blackened-eyed face to a rotten ripe peach). Overall, an interesting ROOTS-like look into one woman’s ancestry!

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A work of historical fiction focusing on the lives of 4 generations of women in Creole Louisiana, from the slave woman matriarch brought to Cane River from Virginia in 1820 to the early 20th century, with a brief epilogue in 1936. All but the first generation had children by white fathers--one by force, one by a coldly calculated relationship intended to benefit the children, & one by a long-term loving relationship hampered by ostracism & legal constraints. The special challenge of these mixed-race relationships is--along with the resources of family strength--the main focus of the book. Moderately engaging & somewhat didactic, with serviceable but not inspiring prose, it's worthwhile reading but not worthy of the enthusiastic recommendation it got from Oprah, Darlene, & my Mom.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really not good. Which I knew by around page 5. But I read all 500 pages to the end, mostly because my next set of books from Amazon hadn't arrived yet. Interesting story and concept, but the writing is just stinky. It's definitely got the vibe of "I quit my job at Sun to write a fiction book." The dialogue is really bad and the characters are just poorly developed (even though they're real people).

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I come from two long lines of strong women. They survived the hard life of settling in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, the pain and loss of childbirth, disease, economic hardship, the Depression, the helplessness of dealing with alcoholism and many other tragedies and difficulties of life. But none of them, to my knowledge, had to suffer the indignities of slavery. Lalita Tademy's book, Cane River, tells in fictional form the stories of four generations of the women in her family.

The story, focusing on the women that raised children, mostly by white men, in rural Louisiana during the years before the Civil War and into the 1930s, brings home the true tragedies of slavery. The first woman of the family to come to Cane River was Elizabeth, torn from her two children in Virginia and shipped South, still a slave with no control over her fate or the fates of her children. Generation after generation struggle with the truth of being of dark skin in the South, as her daughters and granddaughters bear children to white plantation owners against their will, finally using the desires of these white men against them to better the lives of their children.

The great tragedy for me in this book was that these wonderful women, each beautiful and strong, was unable to realize the glory of their color. Being dark was a burden, and lightening the skin of the next generation became an unacknowledged goal for Suzette, Philomene and Emily as they fought for security in white society for their children. Being able to "pass" as white made life easier, but the resentment that built up in the community against the white men who lived openly and acknowledged their children by these black women shattered lives. Tademy's search for her heritage began in a resentment against the attitudes of the earlier generation against dark skin. What she discovered was that each generation dealt with prejudice and hardship in the only way they knew, and her respect for these women and their difficult choices becomes a wonderful story of their lives.

Although this is fiction, there is a lot of truth in this portrayal. The story doesn't end with a "happy ever after", and it sometimes seems to me that the struggle is still as hard as ever. It's long past time that we learned lessons from our tragic history.

[Kinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always wary when it comes to books written by regular people who decided to discover their family history. They more often than not are of interest only to the authors and their relatives. And they are usually badly written.
Also this was an "Oprah" book, so I was expecting lots of gooey 'women power' yadda-yadda.

I was pleasantly surprised. Wheares Ms Tademy might not win Nobel Prize for literature anytime soon I don't feel I have wasted my time. She doesn't over-romantacise her heroines - something hard to avoid when you write about your ancestors, so she earned one star for that alone. The remaining three stars are for an interesting story and insight into life in Deep South during the slavery and post-Civil War era. The book seems extremely well researched so I trust my vision of that time is not distorted.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cane River is an odd mix of fiction and non-fiction, and I'm not sure it entirely works. It feels like trying to find the balance between the two constrains the narrative in ways that either one by itself would not. As non-fiction, it is limited by the availability of sources, and it truly seems like there is much that has to be speculative. As fiction, it is equally limited by the sources - the author is hemmed in by what she does know, and that structure seems binding.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Laura • lauralovestoread · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best parts of being involved with a community of fellow readers, is by discovering a book that you wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

Cane River is one of the best five star reads that I’ve read this year, and it’s not only the writing of Lalita Tademy, but the generational stories that are woven through this book, and partly based on her own family.

Told through generations of women from the Creole plantation in Louisiana, to through years that followed, it was such a powerful story and I loved it more than words can even express.

Each woman tells a story more heartbreaking than the last, yet I found myself admiring them for their strength. Books like this can be so heavy, yet the author brings a lightness to the book through slivers of hope and a future for each new generation.

[Keyona · Rating 5 out of 5]

So..I wrote an in depth review of this but Goodreads didn't save it so in short I loved this book! The fact that it was loosely based on Lalita's own personal family history adds an extra layer of love to it. Even though there's many characters, we mostly focus on 4 generations of women and they have such depth to them. They each are very unique in what they want out of life and for their own children. Some make decisions that are hard but understandable based on their circumstances. We follow this family through slavery, civil war, reconstruction and the Jim Crow Era. I love a good family saga that isn't cluttered and this was perfect. I would definitely reread this long but fast paced novel.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cane River is a wonderful novel, which I highly recommend. I learned a lot about the slave/plantation/small farmer experience of Creole Louisiana. Especially interesting are the details about the gens de couleur libre and the long line of interracial unions (both forced and chosen) among Tademy's ancestors. An important thread that runs from beginning to end in Cane River is the impact of skin color biases within the black community, and Tademy's family specifically.

San Francisco Bay Area native Lalita Tademy has a unique story to tell about her family lineage, and I'm glad she took the time to research and write this novel. She convincingly portrays strong, interesting, complex women -- starting with her great-great-great-grandmother Suzette, whose nine-year-old fictionalized character launches the novel in 1834. Lalita Tademy brings a cast of memorable characters to life, with a great literary flair.

I selected this novel for the February 2009 meeting of my library-based Mostly Literary Fiction Book Discussion Group. Book group participants described the book as a "page turner," and recounted many passages that moved them to tears.

Lalita Tademy visited the Hayward Public Library for a special event on March 11, 2009, as part of our NEA-sponsored Big Read of A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines -- a novel set in Cajun Louisiana in the late 1940s. It was a memorable opportunity to meet Tademy and hear more details about her research and writing. I also recommend her second novel, Red River, which explores (again in fictional form) her father's ancestors, and the devastating Colfax, Louisiana, Massacre of 150 black freedmen in 1873.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

How did I miss this book? Lalita Tademy's family story is so well written, and the product of such excellent research that it could be considered history. Tademy not only gives us her family saga based upon stories, historical documents, but she gives us a picture of slavery in Louisiana. Of course, I knew that many French people settled that area, but I didn't realize that French men didn't have the aversion to Negros/ slaves that was characteristic of most white slave owners. Some French farmers fell in love, lived with negro women and loved their children by those women. But law didn't allow them to marry or pass property to them. This is also a story of the strong women in Tademy's heritage. Starting with her great-grandmother, Elisabeth, through three generations, the women who chose or were forced to bear children of the French men, the family becomes a lighter skin color. Also these women could not hold property through the years, but plot and persuade fathers of their children to give them money and eventually hold land. So the family gradually bring themselves out of slavery. It is a fascinating story and so well told. These were real living people who fostered strong family ties. I'm so thankful to Lalita Tademy for leaving her Sun-Microsystems, where she was a vice-president, to research and write this book.

[Melissa (Distracted by New Grandbaby) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story. Family history of the author, slavery and progression of multiple generations.

[Briana · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Black American from the South, I am proud of my family’s story of survival. With roots in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, I can relate to different accounts by people a few generations from slavery. The things that our people endured back then don’t always feel real. It wasn’t until my time at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana that I found myself surrounded by people from families such as Lalita Tademy’s in Cane River. This book has been on my to-be-read shelf for a decade and after reading it, it should be a contemporary American classic, especially of Southern Literature.

Cane River is about four women; Elisabeth, Suzette, Philomene, and Emily who spent much of their lives surviving and creating a world for their offspring. These are all formidable women throughout Lalita Tademy’s family history and each part of the book details their trials and tribulations on a small plantation during the back end of slavery and the era of reconstruction until Emily died in 1936. It is a family saga filled with reverence and an honest portrayal of what many “Creole” or mixed-race Black people went through during this time. Early in the book, a white man raped Suzette, and by the end of this book, Suzette’s granddaughter Emily is fighting for her children’s inheritance after the death of her beloved, a white man who is the father of her children. It details the complexities of what “Black” and “white” is and the relationship between Black and mixed-race women with white men as lovers and enslavers. Because interracial relationships were illegal, white men might love their children but they could not inherit.

As I mentioned, there is a rape that occurs early in this book that was disturbing to read but unfortunately, that was the reality for Black enslaved girls of the time. What holds this book together is the enduring spirit of these women. It is a family saga based on hundreds of documents of research and word of mouth. I was jealous that something like this doesn’t exist in my family. I don’t want to detail the entire book in this review because it is a family epic with so much happening. What I can say is that the writing is strong and engaging. These are real people but since they lived in a different time, they could have been caricatures but they don’t feel like that.

My only complaint is that it was a little hard to follow at times. Early in the book, there was a year listed but as it continues, there’s nothing that tells us what year it is besides some documents here and there. I would have liked to be able to follow the story along better. I realize that because of the lack of documentation on Black families, a lot of it is guesswork so I don’t want to focus too much on that complaint.

Another complaint is the fact that this is marked as historical fiction but it’s not as literary as I would have hoped. It is more like a family history or memoir which is also not a huge complaint, just something that made me question publishers. There is a lot of recounting in this book but it does not flow like a more literary historical fiction.

All in all, this was an excellent read that will stick with me for a long time. I am a big fan of stories like this, particularly in Louisiana which is a state filled with so much haunting, magic, pain, festivity, and complexities.

[Camille Hallot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une fresque familiale émouvante et extrêmement bien écrite. 4 générations de femmes qui ont connu l'esclavage et la discrimination aux Etats unis.
Des passages très durs mais qui reflètent ce que les femmes esclaves devaient subir pour survivre.
Des personnages fascinants et uniques.
La question sur la couleur de peau est très intéressante car on peut apercevoir du racisme chez les personnes de couleurs.

Une lecture que je vous conseille pour le Black History Month mais aussi pour le reste de l'année :).

[Gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

**note: scroll far, far down for the meme summaries

"When the census taker looked at them, he saw colored first, asking questions like single or married, trying to introduce shame where there was none. He took what he saw and foolishly put those things down on a list for others to study. Could he even understand the pride in being able to say that Emily could read and write? They could ask whatever they wanted, but what he should have been marking in the book was family, and landholder, and educated, each generation gathering momentum, adding something special to the brew."

This is truly a 4.5-star review, as Cane River is a touching combination of familial research, incomplete records, and the reimagined lives of Lalita Tademy’s ancestors in the eponymous section of Louisiana. Recently, I've been learning about how researching your genealogy is a form of ancestral work, one that is made infinitely harder by the unfeeling historical documents one finds in a county or parish's records. Through a slightly fictionalized account, Tademy colors in what the Census and slave records left out from the story of her great-grandmothers, four of whom were born into and lived out of slavery.

I am in love with the way she intersperses Elisabeth, Suzette, Philomene, and Emily's narratives with family photos, personal letters, historical versions of data I use every day (like the Census), and also "property records" of enslaved people. I was struck by the tonal similarity of the 1850 plantation bill of sale and the 1880 Census--if not for Tademy's work in between the documents, it would be hard to see any different treatment of the subjects captured in each report. I am struggling against this technocratic orientation towards public records in my own professional work, and it was touching to see how Tademy uses her own family's stories to provide a "people-first" context for this data. In one of Emily's sections, she remarks that certain people in the Cane River society “saw him from the outside and offered up one piece of the man at a time, like it was the whole cloth. He was more than that.” With this work, Lalita Tademy helps weave the whole cloth of her family, and I am incredibly grateful for it.

In addition to the genealogical work in this novel, Cane River is also an amazingly crafted story: Tademy gracefully takes us from Antebellum to near present day, summarizing trends of the changing Louisiana landscape and expansion of the family tree with a measured cadence that mirrors the passing of time. Each new section begins with a preview of the family tree to come, and asks us to unravel what Elisabeth later calls "a conscious and not-so-conscious bleaching of the line." Each time I saw Eugene Daurant, Narcisse Fredieu, or even Joseph Billes lurking around Cane River, I became both upset and incensed by the sexual manipulation and abuse we know will follow them (Lalita Tademy lays out this crushing cycle all too well.) In the later sections, Tademy explores the growing irony in the Jackson-DeNegre-Daurant-Fredieu-Billes clan's ideological separation from the white people in their parish and their family, even as they try to become closer to whiteness.

On that point: it's interesting to see how various women in this story internalized that colorism over the years, and how it led to lost relationships and love for many offspring. At first I judged the characters, but that probably wasn’t fair to people trying to do the best in the worst of circumstances, and probably doesn’t recognize similar histories in my own family. While I can’t relate to having family who tried to paper bag test any potential romantic partners, I’ve definitely heard stories of how my dad was his grandmother’s favorite at least in part because of his light skin. There is also a class dynamic I recognized, as Suzette and Emily wanted their kids to “strengthen the blood of [their] own children” in order to “give the children a better chance.” In later years, Elisabeth and Philomene recognize that their relations with white men didn’t necessarily guarantee their biracial children better lives than their half-siblings, who were the products of consensual, loving relationships between enslaved people. However, many mothers today are still struggling to learn this lesson—that someone’s skin color or bank account doesn’t determine whether they will be a good parent or partner. Due to the libidinal and capitalist economies we live under, parents' skin and wealth surely provides significant opportunities for their offspring, but this is not the same as security or even contentment.

I will be thinking about this book for a long time to come, and think it's a masterful guide for those of us attempting to "fill the dashes" in our family tree.

****Meme corner***
In 2021, I am trying to summarize my books in written and visual format, so here goes a rough try:

Meme 1: whenever the white characters try to tell the women what a good life they've had in the big house

Meme 2: live footage of Elisabeth on her deathbed and T.O. choosing a wife

[Cassidy (Cassidys.Bookshelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book for the most part, but found it to be about 100 pages too long. 4/5

[Corby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't ever remember reading Roots, by Alex Haley. I do remember liking the miniseries when it came out, more for the experience of understanding how lives so different from my own unfolded in times very different from my own. Cane River is like Roots. Maybe not quite as non-fictional, but nonetheless a compelling story of the lives across three generations of African-american women in the 1800's and early 1900's. It's thick, very thick. It touches upon the issues of "bleaching the line", the reasons for lack of strong male presence in many African-american families during that transitional time in history, and of course the racism of the south. The nice thing about the book is that it does this without hitting the reader over the head -- it is quite matter-of-fact. The detracting thing about this book is that it doesn't set up these issues as issues very well or in any intellectual sense, thus the importance of these issues in shaping future generations is lost to most readers. It might have been better as a series of stories, and continued on through to the author's generation and their struggles. Then a comparison of the struggles of each generation, and the different paths chosen in order to overcome those struggles, would really have added importance or some intellectual meaning to the work.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A friend really loved this book, so maybe my expectations were too high. I just didn't love it as much as I thought I would.

[Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[A]s much as she would do to protect the new life inside her, their making had nothing to do with how careful she was allowed to be.

Judging by the fallout, this work spent too much time on my shelves, but then again, I don't think I would've put up with the level of the quality and structural integrity of the writing even back when I first acquired the book, or even when I first digitally added it to my shelves. I've read critiques of the handling of swinging back and forth between fiction and non, and I have to agree that the composition, however well intentioned, merited a more thorough editing, even on the level of fixing dangling pronouns and properly punctuating clauses. The story is fascinating when one takes into account the context, but considering the amount of money and time and ideals that went into this piece and the fame that resulted, it should have stood well on its own, rather than as a patchwork monotone structure whose contextual story of gumption merits the reading more than the reading actually sustains itself. It is laudatory to rescue one's history from a land which has spent so much time denying said history ever occurred, but the hype this work has receives does a disservice to the rest of the books of the genre, of which this is likely the most well known representation. There are no A's for effort in literature; just a violently enforced imbalance of demographics.

What am I to do with a white man's heart?...I want his head, his mind.

It does well for my reading if I have something to fall back upon when my energy is low and my mood is not in for any of my more intense works, but it doesn't bode well for the appraisal of the fall back work itself. For all that this work is 500 pages, it is either less densely packed in typography or more familiar in historical context than the other works I had on hand, so it was a breather in more ways than one. However, the number of mistakes made in grammar, as well as the too blurred consistency between dialogue and description made for a disappointingly crafted piece, especially when taking into consideration that the two more arduous works I had on hand were both translation and thus, theoretically at any rate, should've been more prone to such mistakes. In addition, the history the story covers was not too me, and while following the family tree and related historical records added a measure of intrigue, I didn't come away with feeling of having gained anything. Again, I may have learned more had I read the work when i first acquired it, but this is no children's book, and a few choice quotes can't justify how poorly the fiction elements were handled. I didn't expect the level of Memoirs of Hadrian, but reading historical fiction shouldn't feel like trawling through poorly disguised plagiarism.

They can make me marry, but they can't make me live.

This is the second to last work that I have leftover from Black History Month 2018, the penultimate being Queen Margot. I'm rather disappointed, to say the least, more so because I know for a fact that many will treat this work as their one and only knowledge bank with regards to US-centric slavery and freedom in blackness, seeing as how it's both technically fiction and non and on an acceptable respectability politics platform. To be perfectly honest, Tademy's doing some interesting things in her later books than she is here, but the lack of editing that went into this work is off-putting, and doesn't bode well for the future of her prose. It's admirable to look at the sections of history that are the most commonly passed over, but I hope Tademy's grasp on historical fiction has improved over time, no amount of The More You Know justifies choosing poor fictioning over less easily fudgeable nonfictioning.

Generations had been sacrificed for his look.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful family saga to sink your teeth into over the holiday break, Cane River takes place in Creole French Louisiana and tells the story of 4 generations of women who enduredthe indignities of slavery as well as racial discrimination for many years after "freedom." You will fall in love with these characters, their strengths, weaknesses, heartbreaks, and triumphs. I will forever be haunted by the powerful matriarch, Philomene, her glimpsings, and her ability to take care of business for herself and her children and grandchildren. This is a story that needed to be told, and Lalita Tademy did a beautiful job doing so here in this fictional retelling of her family history that pays tribute her ancestors who came before her. These women are inspirational, from strong stock, but the world is unkind to them nonetheless. How they found the strength to continue to fight is a kind of miracle. I hope those who get emotionally invested in these characters' stories can shoulder at least some of the responsibility of never letting these injustices against human dignity happen again. I especially love that Tademy quit her corporate job to write her family's story. How very important, especially since so many descended from slaves could not trace their roots as far back as she does here. What a gift! Tademy is as fearless and inspirational as the women who came before her, and she has honored them beautifully in these pages. I highly recommend Cane River.

[Leah Beecher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one a while ago and did not jot it down in my Book Lover's Diary Journal, so I will relate what I remember. This was an Oprah Book. It has such an interesting backround in that the author Lalita Tademy, wrote this after quitting her job to research her own family heritage. Real documents and photos of the characters, her ancestors, fill the book. The author successfully researched back to her what I think was her great-great-great-great grandmother. A slave.
The narrative is broken into three parts. Told from the perspective of her ancestors, spanning three generations.
This is a heart-wrenching book; very similar to Uncle Tom's cabin.
I think that the fact it is written by a black woman, and about her own heritage and family makes this story more compelling and personal. Uncle Tom's Cabin did the remarkable job of bringing to light the horrors of slavery and prejudice through a fictional cast of characters. Cane River is about a real family and their very real experiences. The dynamics of creoles, blacks and whites, living in Louisiana at that time, somethig I knew nothing about, was very interesting and enlightening as well.
The cruelness of humans to others humans is staggering.
Yet, it shows the strength of woman, and the power of mothers to survive for their children.
Great, sad, read.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Cane River" is a family saga of 4+ generations of African American women from slavery to the 1930s. The writing is straightforward, even simple; not great. I found it hard to engage at first, but the narrative eventually becomes engrossing. This is actually a fictionalized family history -- real people, real dates, real events but re-imagined with dialog and inner thoughts of the characters. That gives it a resonance that is deeper than the writing. As I said, it's about the women. The only men of significance are the white men who bed but cannot wed (even though some of them want to) the women. Over generations, members of the family have lighter and lighter skin and some pass for white. Almost totally absent: black men. This is not an oversight by the author; she's telling us the story as it was. The absence of the black men was part of the culture of slavery and its legacy. The black husbands and wives (or lovers) in "Cane River" are consistently and intentionally separated, leaving the women dependent on their white masters and lovers (who are depicted relatively sympathetically). This helps explain the chronic weakness of black families--or rather the absence of men. Actually, the families are strong matriarchies.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cane River covers 137 years of the author's family history, written as fiction, but rooted in research, historical fact and family stories. The matriarch of the line was the Negress, Elisabeth, sold away from a plantation in Virginia to the backwaters of Louisiana. It was heartbreaking at times to read the stories of her descendants' families as they were torn apart by slave auctions, abandoned by their fathers who were white, and faced the sentence of illiteracy. At the same time, it was inspiring to read of the resourcefulness of the women I met in the book. They were smart, strong, hard working, loving mothers who were human just like me. Through Tademy's words and easy-to-read writing style, I could smell the wood fires and cooking greens, see the sweat glisten around the cotton pickers' necks and the dust on their feet, and hear the lilt of the Creole French spoken by the inhabitants of Cane River, Louisiana. That period in time was wrong, and if there is a judgement day, many sins must be accounted for from that ugly time in our history.

[Nenette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book after I read the author's story in Chicken Soup. I admire her, having taken that leap of faith, deciding to leave her top corporate job, just so she can concentrate on her mission to find out about her family, her roots. She herself admitted that she didn't really know what compelled her to resign; and she didn't have any idea then where that decision would take her. Well, it took her to a two-year long discovery of he lineage, and eventually to a bestseller.

The author, Lalita, is of the seventh generation down from Elizabeth in a mixed-race family who went through the tough times of slavery and discrimination from as early as the 17th century. It demonstrates the strength of women, so evident nowadays, but it had been so even before. They may have been looked down upon, but they bore the weight of the hard times and made sure that their children were raised right under whatever circumstances.

A good story to draw strength upon.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lolita Tademy gave up a successful career to concentrate on writing this absorbing, informative and moving book, which looks at four female generations of her family, women who were born into slavery in Louisiana.
It wasn't an easy read....books about the evil inhumanity of slavery are never easy to read....I felt angry many times, not only about how those sold into slavery were treated, but also at the unfairnesses shown to these men and women after emancipation....I fail to understand how otherwise decent people could behave in this way.
I've read quite a few books set in this era, each with a different perspective, this book gives a very personal view of those times, as we see it through the eyes of real people, and the author's use of original family documents and photographs really did give substance to the story she wove around the lives and experiences of her ancestors.