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Book Review
Cane River
by Lalita Tademy
Publisher: Warner Books
Published: April 2001
| About the Book | About the Author | The Review | Where to Order |
About the Book
Cane River...It was here, on a medium-sized Creole plantation owned by a family named Derbanne, that author Lalita Tademy found her family's roots-and the stories of four astonishing women who battled vast injustices to create a legacy of hope and achievement. They were women whose lives began in slavery, who weathered the Civil War, and who grappled with the contradictions of emancipation through the turbulent early years of the twentieth century. Through it all, they fought to unite their family and forge success on their own terms. Here amid small farmhouses and a tightly knit community of French-speaking slaves, free people of color, and whites, Tademy's great-great-great-great grandmother Elisabeth would bear both a proud heritage and the yoke of slavery. Her youngest daughter, Suzette, would be the first to discover the promise-and heartbreak-of freedom. Suzette's strong-willed daughter Philomene would use determination born of tragedy to reunite her family and gain unheard-of economic independence. And Emily, Philomene's spirited daughter, would fight to secure her children's just due and preserve their future against dangerous odds.
In a novel that combines painstaking historical reconstruction with unforgettable storytelling, Lalita Tademy presents an all too rarely seen part of American history, complete with a provocative portrayal of the complex, unspoken bonds between slaves and slave owners.
Most of all, she gives us the saga of real, flesh-and-blood women making hard choices in the face of unimaginable loss, securing their identity and independence in order to face any obstacle, and inspiring all the generations to come.
Copyright 2001 by Time Warner Bookmark. Printed with permission from www.twbookmark.com
About the Author
LALITA TADEMY is a former vice-president of Sun Microsystems who left the corporate world to immerse herself in tracing her family's history and writing her first book, CANE RIVER.
The Review
I am almost ashamed to admit that I don’t think I’ve ever read an “Oprah Book” before this one. I have tried - but wound up too depressed to finish. I have heard from others that most of the books she chooses are so hard to read that they’ll throw you into a state of depression. Most of the time I don’t need any help getting depressed. I was glad to read this before hearing it became one of Oprah’s select. Although it wasn’t what I’d consider an “easy read”, and it was about difficult times, it wasn’t depressing. It wasn’t the most cheerful, but it was a well told story of 4 generations of women. Through the hardest times, the saddest sorrows and the greatest triumphs.
Lalita Tademy has made her anscestors proud. The blending of her family history, documentation, and a ficticious story (that very well could have been closer to the truth than not) was beautifully told with a masterful voice.
~Trixie, August 2001
Buying Info
This book is available in hardcover, and also in paperback!
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