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

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.

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.

This book was historical fiction at it's best! About the color issue for Black women.. New Orleans had it's own rules among black women and Tadmey does a great job at giving us insight

16/20

Une lecture importante, de celles qui nous rappellent ce que l’esclavage était vraiment, comment il se perpétuait génération après génération et combien certains êtres humains ont pu souffrir en raison de la prétendue infériorité raciale. Un très beau roman, même s’il comportait quelques longueurs un peu regrettables.

Ma chronique : https://littleprettybooks.com/2021/08...

Although this novel is historical fiction, it makes a strong case for descents of enslaved people to receive reparations. When you read this, you are equal parts drawn to the strength and resilience of a long line of Black women forced or otherwise into miscegenation, and horrified by all they endured. It gives credence to the stereotype that Black women are physically stronger than other races thereby not needing as much medical attention or overall care. Lalita Tademy took on such an amazing feat here by diving into her family’s complicated lineage, and it makes me want to do the same. What an excellent read.

Cane River is an interesting, if easy book. Lalita Tademy traced her ancestry through four generations of remarkable woman, each struggling for her freedom in different ways. This is their story. First we have Elisabeth and then her daughter Suzette, who is the first to know the joys and the heartbreaks of freedom, her daughter Philomene, Philomene's daughter Emily. All of these women are different, and they all go through different trials and tribulations, but they all have one thing in common: their unbreakable spirit. And I know that sounds really cliche, but it's true. They never lose hope, and they stick together, despite the occasional spats.

The most interesting thing about Cane River is that most of the things that happen in the book, are, presumably, things that actually happened in real life. Lalita Tademy also wrote a book about her father's side of her family, which I may or may not read.

I read Cane River for Language Arts class, and it did not help my reading experience. Normally, I would read a book this size in 2 or 3 days, but it got stretched out over two months. Two months. I know, right? So I would read the 40 some-odd pages assigned for four days in one day, and then kind of forget about the book, and then read another 40 pages 4 days later, and etc. In the intermediate time, I would kind of forget what happened. Not forget, exactly. It was more like the book lost its immediacy. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed Cane River.

There are some really disturbing things in this book. Both Suzette and Philomene have children with white Frenchmen, and Emily, Philomene's daughter, ends up having relations with a white man over twice her age. But he genuinely loves her, I think. Cane River is not for the faint of heart, though there's nothing too intense. Just some disturbing stuff. I would highly recommend this book, despite my short review.

www.novareviews.blogspot.com

Kelly's Favorite.

Beautifully, if plainly written, and epic in scope, this is the story of of multiple generations of Black women living in Cane River, Louisiana. It is the fictionalized history of Tademy's family. The people in the book are all real people, discovered through painstaking research and a short family history written by a cousin. The research included wills, newspapers, family photographs, and bills of sale for some of the enslaved people. The people, and especially the women must have been amazing, making as much of their lives as they could under slavery and Jim Crow. While the people were real, the author does a good job of filling in the gaps through imagined dialog and feelings. The people come alive, the women and the men who loved them, black, and in one case white, who gave his life because he couldn't give up the woman he loved.

The beginning took place during slavery and it ended in the 1930s well before the civil rights era. What would Elizabeth, Suzette, Philomene, and Emily think of the United States today? They would probably be thrilled and pleased but also disappointed.

A story of resilience in the face of evil.

4.25

This book demonstrated the importance of knowing our history and touched me in ways most books do not because of the narrative of the strength and resilience of black women. It resonated with me deeply because I come from a family of strong black women. This book covered 137 years of the author's incredible family history. Black women have always been strong and these women persevered, no matter what!

My mom passed this book to me a couple of years ago and said it was very good. I picked this up recently after seeing another review that caught my attention. This is a story of the author’s research of her personal family history. It gets back around 5 generations of the women and how they lived and survived the years prior to the civil war and the aftermath. To say the women especially were strong and made decisions to help keep their family as intact as possible. It does pull back the curtain of slavery - especially women and their children, many by their masters and land owners of French descent in Louisiana. Although the book is based off the authors genealogy, she does an amazing job with putting it into a story form and highlights the lives of 3 of those amazing women in her family. I highly recommend it.

This book followed one African-American family for four generations - from the 1840s to the 1930s. It was fascinating to read about how much life both changed and stayed the same for black people over that time period. The story was based on the author's ancestors and was really engaging.