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Cane River

Lalita Tademy (Goodreads Author)

4.06 · Rating details · 45,600 ratings · 2,056 reviews

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

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Paperback, 522 pages

Published April 1st 2002 by Grand Central Publishing (first published January 1st 2001)

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Jan 23, 2018 Jaline rated it it was amazing

Shelves: xx2018-completed

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 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.
...more

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Sep 03, 2008 Julie H. rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

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

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May 29, 2007 Sammy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: a-the-best

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

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Jan 13, 2017 Monica **can't read fast enough** rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aa-authors-reads, my-favorites, goodwill-thrift-store-find, aa-fiction, historical-fiction, own-physical-book

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 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.

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Jun 28, 2011 Anne rated it really liked it

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

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Aug 11, 2009 Marvin rated it it was ok

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

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Sep 11, 2013 Megan Baxter rated it liked it

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

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Aug 11, 2012 Cindy rated it it was ok

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).

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Sep 16, 2010 Leslie rated it really liked it

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, 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. ...more

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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

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Mar 24, 2013 Judy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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

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Mar 04, 2010 Kinga rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pub-2001

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

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May 02, 2019 Keyona rated it it was amazing

Shelves: i-own-these

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

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Dec 07, 2007 Corby rated it liked it · review of another edition

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

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Jul 16, 2016 Annie rated it liked it

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.

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Apr 13, 2011 Leah Beecher rated it it was amazing

Shelves: for-lovers-of-history

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

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Jan 10, 2014 Terry rated it liked it

"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

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Jan 13, 2009 Kathy rated it liked it

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

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Mar 03, 2014 Nenette rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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

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Mar 21, 2014 gaudeo rated it really liked it

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.

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Jul 11, 2014 Tasha rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

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.

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Jul 01, 2017 Cynthia Marie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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!

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Jan 27, 2009 Rachel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

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.

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Dec 18, 2019 Elise rated it it was amazing

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

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Mar 29, 2018 Donna rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

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

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May 21, 2018 Carolyn Quenneville rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Historical fiction

Well written novel of one family’s history of challenges and success. Each character comes alive to weave the determination to better themselves.

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Dec 22, 2010 Aubrey rated it it was ok

Shelves: reality-check, person-of-reality, 2-star, person-of-everything, r-goodreads, reviewed, antidote-think-twice-all, 1-read-on-hand, antidote-think-twice-read, r-2018

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.

...more

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Sep 01, 2007 SassyMama rated it it was amazing

Wonderful and Soulful

Publishers description: "Five generations and a hundred years in the life of a matriarchal black Louisiana family are encapsulated in this ambitious debut novel that is based in part upon the lives, as preserved in both historical record and oral tradition, of the author's ancestors. In 1834, nine-year-old Suzette, the "cocoa-colored" house servant of a Creole planter family, has aspirations to read, to live always in a "big house" and maybe even to marry into the relatively Wonderful and Soulful

Publishers description: "Five generations and a hundred years in the life of a matriarchal black Louisiana family are encapsulated in this ambitious debut novel that is based in part upon the lives, as preserved in both historical record and oral tradition, of the author's ancestors. In 1834, nine-year-old Suzette, the "cocoa-colored" house servant of a Creole planter family, has aspirations to read, to live always in a "big house" and maybe even to marry into the relatively privileged world of the gens de couleur libre. Her plans are dashed, however, when at age 13 a French migr takes her as his mistress. Her "high yellow" daughter Philomene, in turn, is maneuvered into becoming the mother of Creole planter Narcisse Fredieu's "side family." After the Civil War, Philomene pins her hopes for a better future on her light-skinned daughter, Emily Fredieu, who is given a year of convent schooling in New Orleans. But Emily must struggle constantly to protect her children by her father's French cousin from terrorist "Night Riders" and racist laws. Tademy is candid about her ancestors' temptations to "pass," as their complexions lighten from the color of "coffee, to cocoa, to cream to milk, to lily." While she fully imagines their lives, she doesn't pander to the reader by introducing melodrama or sex. Her frank observations about black racism add depth to the tale, and she demonstrates that although the practice of slavery fell most harshly upon blacks, and especially women, it also constricted the lives and choices of white men. Photos of and documents relating to Tademy's ancestors add authenticity to a fascinating story."~~~~~~~
I picked up this book on a whim and was worried I wouldn't enjoy it due to it's volume. However, once I began reading, I was unable to stop. This is a book for any woman who wants to walk in the life of those who came before her, to really appreciate the hardships women have endured in order to make this life for current women possible. Engrossing, wonderfully and vividly written, your emotions go up and down with the characters'. ...more

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Jul 09, 2019 Marilyn rated it really liked it

Cane River covers 137 years of a rich family history by the author. In the beginning of researching her family, this was not destined to be a novel, however I am so glad author Lalita Tademy saw it differently and brought us a spell binding work of fiction to be enjoyed by those of us who love this genre in the days when working hard for a dollar by women takes on a whole different meaning. Elizabeth, Suzette, Philomene and Emily (great grandmother of the author) are the best.

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Feb 18, 2013 Cleo rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, adult

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: ...more

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About Lalita Tademy

Lalita Tademy

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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