6,835 books
—
28,275 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Cane River” as Want to Read:
Cane River
by
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 ...more
Beginning with her great-great-great-great grandmother, a slave owned by a Creole family, Lalita Tademy chronicles four generations of strong, determined black ...more
Get A Copy
Paperback, 522 pages
Published
April 1st 2002
by Grand Central Publishing
(first published January 1st 2001)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Cane River,
please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
Pam Veach
yes a child is raped
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of Cane River

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
...more

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 ca
...more

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 ...more
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 ...more

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
...more

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
...more

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-
...more

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 re ...more
Note: The rest of this re ...more

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).
...more

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 ...more
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 ...more

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, ...more
The story, ...more

Oct 01, 2008
Sally
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
anyone -- the strongly portrayed characters will draw you in
Shelves:
mostly-literary-fiction
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 ...more
San Francisco Bay Area native ...more

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 farme
...more

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 - s ...more
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 - s ...more

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 t
...more

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 r
...more

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.
...more

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 fict ...more

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 in ...more
The narrative is broken in ...more

"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
...more

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 inspi
...more

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, Lal ...more
The author, Lal ...more

This is a captivating novel, based on the author's own genealogy. Set in antebellum Louisiana, it traces the lives of African Americans, particularly women, from slavery to freedom. Tademy's ancestors lived at a fascinating, if often grim, time in the nation's history, and the novel depicts the many obstacles they faced even after the Civil War, particularly for couples of mixed race. Highly recommended.
...more

The author weaves together a wonderful story based on her research of her family history. I love the fact that along with the story are wonderful photos of those she writes about. These women have endured so much sadness, hardships and heartaches yet remain so strong until the day they died. This is a touching and powerful read. I definitely rec this one. I'm still on the fence about the rating...4 or 5 stars...for now a 4 but I may change to 5 later.
...more

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!
...more

**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 educa ...more
"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 educa ...more

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 her
...more

I enjoyed the historical fiction aspect of this. It covers a particular time in history that I always love to get lost in.
This started out strong. The balance of both the historical and the fiction seemed to work right out of the gate. They were married well together, but as the story shifts to different generations, sometimes one or the other gets lost. It sometimes felt like an info dump, which is not a good thing. And sometimes it felt like a character parade. So somewhere after the first gen ...more
This started out strong. The balance of both the historical and the fiction seemed to work right out of the gate. They were married well together, but as the story shifts to different generations, sometimes one or the other gets lost. It sometimes felt like an info dump, which is not a good thing. And sometimes it felt like a character parade. So somewhere after the first gen ...more

I liked this book about a world that is foreign to me but so interesting - the deep South just prior to just after the Civil War. Based on facts the author discovered about her family and wove into a novel, this book deals with distinctions based on race and traces several generations of strong women from slavery through freedom. I like novels that trace generations and ones that are people-centered - this one fits the bill.
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Reading Until Inf...: June 2018 Book Selection Cane River | 2 | 13 | Jun 12, 2018 04:28PM | |
Stockton Lady's L...: Cane River | 1 | 2 | Apr 02, 2018 02:09PM | |
Which of these great women did you like best? | 7 | 77 | Nov 14, 2015 06:48PM | |
Cape Saint Claire...: October Meeting | 2 | 11 | Oct 08, 2013 08:23AM |
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 sto ...more
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 sto ...more
News & Interviews
Happy Women's History Month! One of the undisputedly good things about modern scholarship is that women’s history is finally getting its due....
29 likes · 5 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“You can't tell how heavy somebody else's load is just from looking. The Lord doesn't give us more than we can carry”
—
37 likes
“Reaching too deep into something not meant for you is full of pain. Figure out what you can have and work on that”
—
22 likes
More quotes…