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57th out of 404 books
—
465 voters
Cane
by
Jean Toomer
A literary masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance, Cane is a powerful work of innovative fiction evoking black life in the South. The sketches, poems, and stories of black rural and urban life that make up Cane are rich in imagery. Visions of smoke, sugarcane, dusk, and flame permeate the Southern landscape: the Northern world is pictured as a harsher reality of asphalt str...more
Paperback, 144 pages
Published
August 17th 1993
by Liveright
(first published 1923)
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This one is a gem; the writing is gorgeous, the stories absorbing. P-thought of you, this is a definite genre bender with episodic chapters/short stories and poetry, always referred to as a novel. Toomer is often grouped with the Harlem Renaissance and the stories center on the reverse migration of a urban Northern man to the rural South. However, Toomer never worked with black themes again and did not consider himself part of that community. As such the book exhibits a fractured experience and...more
Though not as well known as Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer is considered one of the shining stars of the Harlem Renaissance and this collection of short stories and poems is his best work. Published in the early 20's, it shows the influence of many writers of that period who were especially fascinated with the technique of repetition -- sentences, clauses, phrases, words, you name it. It's a tricky skill, as repetition can be both effective and annoying. Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway, in...more
3 likes
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like
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Toomer had an interesting pedigree: he was considered a Northerner by many Southerners, and a Southerner by many Northerners. This in part is because both of his grandmother were left plantations by white men, making them among the most prosperous citizens in the dirt poor communities around Sparta, Georgia. Toomer spent some summers with his grandmothers during childhood, and even was the principal of a school in Sparta for a short time before leaving for Paris.
From this perspective, he wrote...more
From this perspective, he wrote...more
I read this for the first time as an undergrad. It didn't appeal to me then, but this time 'round, things were a bit more clear. I think that the most important issue this novel touches is that of identity. For Toomer himself, this was a huge problem. We see this come to the surface in many (if not all) of his character sketches.
The jagged style of writing is a bit confusing for many, but for your students, relate it to the movements of jazz music and the lights turn on.
This is a stunning exampl...more
The jagged style of writing is a bit confusing for many, but for your students, relate it to the movements of jazz music and the lights turn on.
This is a stunning exampl...more
Un capolavoro assoluto, un'opera unica in quello che forse fu il decennio d'oro della narrativa statunitense; qui pubblicato in un'ottima edizione.
Dicono sia fuori catalogo; ma se vi capita di averlo per le mani (biblioteche, bancarelle, prestiti, furti...) questo �� un libro che vale assolutamente la pena di leggere.
Nathan Eugene "Jean" Toomer, nipote per parte di madre del primo governatore di colore della Louisiana (che guardacaso fino a quel punto si era dichiarato bianco), pass�� infanzia...more
Dicono sia fuori catalogo; ma se vi capita di averlo per le mani (biblioteche, bancarelle, prestiti, furti...) questo �� un libro che vale assolutamente la pena di leggere.
Nathan Eugene "Jean" Toomer, nipote per parte di madre del primo governatore di colore della Louisiana (che guardacaso fino a quel punto si era dichiarato bianco), pass�� infanzia...more
Classic of the Harlem Renaissance. First heard of via Alice Walker, who adored the pictures of black Georgian farmwomen. The first section is vignettes set in the rural south, the second is slightly longer stories set in the urban south, the third is a single long story with play-like aspects from the perspective of a biracial Northern visitor to a small Southern town (much like Toomer himself). The language is gorgeous and singing in the first two sections, although the actual poems (among the...more
I think the only reason I did't LOVE this book is because I didn't understand all of it. Most of what I DID understand was only after my professor pointed it out. Such as the importance of Arcs (which is how the book is divided instead of by chapter), they are divided as such because arcs are sections of circles that don't connect. This ties in to one of the overarching themes of the novel of alienation and distance. The men & women in these stories can't be together either because of themse...more
Toomer, Jean. (1899-1967) CANE. (1923). ***.
This novel is included in The Library of America’s collection of works from “the Harlem Renaissance.” This is a short novel with no visible plot, but a series of portraits of people who lived in the Georgia town where Toomer taught. It is a conglomeration of poems, songs, and prose narratives. Most all of the portraits are of black people, though their white antagonists are also featured. It’s difficult to describe this “novel.” It is like a merger of...more
This novel is included in The Library of America’s collection of works from “the Harlem Renaissance.” This is a short novel with no visible plot, but a series of portraits of people who lived in the Georgia town where Toomer taught. It is a conglomeration of poems, songs, and prose narratives. Most all of the portraits are of black people, though their white antagonists are also featured. It’s difficult to describe this “novel.” It is like a merger of...more
It's so difficult to categorize Cane. For the sake of convenience, one could call it a novel, and that is generally how the work is treated. But novel really neither describes the book accurately nor does it justice. Cane is an incantory combination of poetry and prose, vignettes that are loosely held together by the common theme of black American life in rural Georgia at the turn of the twentieth century. But the prose is highly poetic:
"Pine needles, like mazda, are brilliantly aglow. No rain...more
"Pine needles, like mazda, are brilliantly aglow. No rain...more
May 29, 2011
shanties
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
20th-century,
african-america,
anglo-america,
library,
modernism,
poetry,
short-stories,
theatre
Un capolavoro assoluto, un'opera unica in quello che forse fu il decennio d'oro della narrativa statunitense; qui pubblicato in un'ottima edizione.
Dicono sia fuori catalogo; ma se vi capita di averlo per le mani (biblioteche, bancarelle, prestiti, furti...) questo è un libro che vale assolutamente la pena di leggere.
Nathan Eugene "Jean" Toomer, nipote per parte di madre del primo governatore di colore della Louisiana (che guardacaso fino a quel punto si era dichiarato bianco), passò infanzia e g...more
Dicono sia fuori catalogo; ma se vi capita di averlo per le mani (biblioteche, bancarelle, prestiti, furti...) questo è un libro che vale assolutamente la pena di leggere.
Nathan Eugene "Jean" Toomer, nipote per parte di madre del primo governatore di colore della Louisiana (che guardacaso fino a quel punto si era dichiarato bianco), passò infanzia e g...more
Suppose I'll read Norton's critical edition (eds. Henry Louis Gates Jr/Robert Byrd) too. Or, eventually. Let's say I'm apprehensive, on many fronts: just reading the New York Times review made my blood run cold. It's only a review. That said, this review suggests intellectual "sloppiness" in service to a race (ha) to the top of the pristine Mountain o' Academe. In other words, inconsistency, license, self-aggrandizement, locked hypothesis disguised as open inquiry & examination of evidence e...more
Jean Toomer's Cane is a work of in-betweens, of liminal spaces that resist categorization. And based on its author's biography, it's easy to see why. Toomer, the light-skinned grandson of the first person of African descent to become Governor of a US State, grew up in an upper-crust Washington DC society; he went on to attend first all-black, then all-white, then all-black area schools. In a city halfway between historical North and South, Toomer had the experience of being of mixed racial desce...more
What a stunning work of literature, and shame on me for taking so long to get to it. Check out this prose: "Night, soft belly of a pregnant Negress, throbs evenly against the torso of the South. Night throbs a womb-song to the South, cane- and cotton-fields, pine forests, cypress swamps, sawmills and factories are fecund at her touch. Night's womb-song sets them singing. Night winds are the breathing of the unborn child whose calm throbbing in the belly of a Negress sets them somnolently singing...more
2 likes
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One of my favorites is Jean Toomer's 'Cane,' which is considered by many to be a principle literary work of the Harlem Renaissance. It is an unusual and innovative text-part drama, part poetry, and part fiction- and this aesthetic structure is extremely appealing to me as a writer. The book is broken into three parts with the first taking place in the South and focusing on six different women who act in ways that are outside of the conventional Christian morality of the time. The second part tak...more
The thing about genius is that, as we're often told, it's ahead of its time. Perhaps a good theory about the whole thing is that geniuses tend to see where things are heading and thus their work is often passed over during their own lifetime only to be glorified and exalted in perpetua ten years after they're six feet under. Which seems to be the case with this book, which wasn't well-received on first debut but whose reputation has only grown in the years since.
What makes this book so forward-l...more
What makes this book so forward-l...more
Well. That happened. I was really excited for this one and I think my excitement destroyed the prospect of actually enjoying it. The book felt incomplete and I understand what Toomer was attempting to do. He was creating snapshots of Negro life. But he dwelled a lot longer on Kabnis than I could stand. The character rubbed me the wrong way and I was hating every minute I had to read about him.
The rest of the book is fantastic. I love the little stories and most of the poems throughout. Some wer...more
The rest of the book is fantastic. I love the little stories and most of the poems throughout. Some wer...more
'Cane' by Jean Toomer is a book consisting of poems, short stories, and one longer narrative about slavery in the Southern states of America. I'm not a huge fan of short stories as it is, I much prefer long novels, so that's probably a main reason why I didn't like this book very much. I have to say, the content didn't interest me very much either - the plot lines of the stories were a little all over the place, and I found it hard to keep on top of what was actually happening.
However, the lang...more
However, the lang...more
Oct 22, 2011
Charles
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone
Recommended to Charles by:
Beth Schultz
This year I seem to be re-visiting books I read long ago. Cane is a book I read as an undergraduate and remember being quite moved by it. Decades on it remains a powerful book, but it didn't stun me the way I remember it. Still, it is an amazing series of poems, dialogues and short stories that in a few hundred pages takes the reader through the Jim Crow south of the 1920s. The cultural mix of northern blacks who've fled the South and those that go back along with the blacks who never left resul...more
Read this in college, now re-read, and still not as blown away as apparently I should be. The book is a collection of short fiction, poetry, and one longer, semi-dramatic piece. The intro by Byrd and Gates is infuriating because they end their discussion of Toomer's rather complex sense of his own race by declaring that he was a Negro trying to pass as white. As if that solves anything or sheds any sort of light on Toomer as an author. Skip Gates's obsession with biological roots drives me insan...more
“Cane” blew me away. Southern literature, in my opinion, contains some of the most powerful and immortal books in the American literary canon. The dark, enchanted history of the South brings forth ample material for colorful characters and complex social issues. Novels born in the South are born out of and into its troubled past–a landscape fraught with the difficult union of charmed myth and bloody reality. Toomer taps into the tragic legacy of slavery to write one of the best, most enduring no...more
Cane is a mixture of verse, prose, and drama, making it a challenging collection to read. Most of Toomer's pieces are set in the South, though he also writes about Chicago and D. C. Toomer's focus in this collection was on alienation - between races, sexes, and largely any two people who happen to come together. The stories and poems reflect much of the alienation Toomer felt as an African-American who was light-skinned enough to pass for white, but also the alienation of African-Americans from...more
Jul 13, 2012
Kaitlyn
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
for-school,
classic-lit
I don't really have a lot to say about this book. It's basically a combination of short stories and poetry, dealing with blacks in both the North and South. It's a great example of modern literature, and that being said, I had a hard time understanding a lot of it. The parts that I understood were powerful; but much of it just let me scratching my head.
For someone who understands this type of writing and Jean Toomer better, I'm sure this is a great read.
I also think this would be a good book g...more
For someone who understands this type of writing and Jean Toomer better, I'm sure this is a great read.
I also think this would be a good book g...more
Stunning and kind of terrifying. Cane is a very complicated, experimental novel, interspersed with some related vignettes, a couple of short plays, and many poems that frame the vignettes surrounding them. The point isn't to get attached to any one character but to get a brief glimpse into the psychological and emotional troubles that visit white, black, and mixed-race Americans alike in the South during the early twentieth century. Toomer shows the myriad levels on which racisms (in the plural)...more
It is a crime this slim book doesn't get more critical attention and a wider readership. Perhaps Norton needs to release an updated version of the text with more recent critical interpretations. Regardless, the actual text of Cane is phenomenal. Similar in ethos to Winesburg, Ohio by Anderson, but completely unique in structure, Cane is a collection of short stories, poems, drawings and a reconfigured play. Elliptical and mysterious, these loosely linked character-driven sketches of African-Amer...more
Beautiful, lyrical, complex, maddening, amazing. You feel like you can taste the dust, the blood, and the music of the rural South after reading it. This is one of the "masterpieces" of the Harlem Renaissance. The interesting metaphor of "dusk" recurs in parallel with the northward migration of blacks during Reconstruction and the loss of indigenous life and music. This book is experimental in terms of genre-blending (including poetry, short story, factual narrative, etc.) in way that gets one t...more
Oxford American magazine had a list of the best Southern books with my favorite 'Absalom, Absalom!' leading that list but I had never heard of this. I read the first couple of stories and poems and realized I have been fortunate to make an incredible discovery-almost 90 years from when it was written. Living here in Georgia is fortunate, but discovering Jean Toomer now is what makes all the reading worthwhile. Are there more of these out there? Those of us who write in quiet seclusion never seek...more
Dec 21, 2011
Andrew
added it
This was a thoroughly strange and surreal book, made all the more surreal by the fact that it was one of the first avant-garde black American novels. Toomer's world explodes with color and light, with shades of Faulkner and Sherwood Anderson. If there is a document of American magical realism, this is it.
It's too easy when describing the rural black South to rely on stereotypes and minstrelsy (Zora Neale Hurston, I'm looking at you). Toomer, to his credit, doesn't, at all. His world is too damn...more
It's too easy when describing the rural black South to rely on stereotypes and minstrelsy (Zora Neale Hurston, I'm looking at you). Toomer, to his credit, doesn't, at all. His world is too damn...more
Jean Toomer's Cane is a perplexing, paradoxical, surprisingly stunning piece of modernist literature. It is brilliant and blurry, perfect yet flawed. The characters are brief but complex, and they are (to play on the title of a Zora Neale Hurston novel) drenched in darkness. Toomer's emphasis on the female body as Object with very little voice was a little difficult to swallow during my first reading, but the ambiguity of the text and the figurative nature of several repeated motifs makes Cane a...more
Jean Toomer explains New York really well:
Beehive
Within this black hive to-night
There swarm a million bees;
Bees passing in and out the moon,
Bees escaping out the moon,
Bees returning through the moon,
Silver bees intently buzzing,
Silver honey dripping from the swarm of bees
Earth is a waxen cell of the world comb,
And I, a drone,
Lying on my back,
Lipping honey,
Getting drunk with silver honey,
Wish that I might fly out past the moon
And curl forever in some far-off farmyard flower.
Beehive
Within this black hive to-night
There swarm a million bees;
Bees passing in and out the moon,
Bees escaping out the moon,
Bees returning through the moon,
Silver bees intently buzzing,
Silver honey dripping from the swarm of bees
Earth is a waxen cell of the world comb,
And I, a drone,
Lying on my back,
Lipping honey,
Getting drunk with silver honey,
Wish that I might fly out past the moon
And curl forever in some far-off farmyard flower.
I had a really hard time with this book. My edition is the "critical" edition with all kinds of biography and correspondence and things to help the student understand context and all good things (although the footnotes are sometimes ridiculously distracting and also humorless and uncool, like telling me that "licker" means "liquor" or "sho" means "sure." Woof.). And mostly what I felt while reading this book was that I wish I were taking a class for this so someone could help guide me through it...more
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Jean Toomer (1894–1967), whose full name was Nathan Eugene Pinchback Toomer, was born in Washington, D.C., the son of educated blacks of Creole stock. Literature was his first love and he regularly contributed avant garde poetry and short stories to such magazines as Dial, Broom, Secession, Double Dealer, and Little Review. After a literary apprenticeship in New York, Toomer taught school in rural...more
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“If you have heard a Jewish cantor sing, if he has touched you and made your own sorrow seem trivial when compared with his, you will know my feeling when I follow the curves of her profile, like mobile rivers, to their common delta.”
—
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“You are the most sleepiest man I ever seed.”
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Jun 20, 2008 02:31pm