- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Headline Book Publishing; New edition edition (1 Nov 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747266492
- ISBN-13: 978-0747266495
- Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 13.1 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 184,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Lalita Tademy's riveting family saga Cane River chronicles four generations of women born into slavery along the Louisiana river. It is a tale about the blurring of racial boundaries: great-grandmother Elisabeth notices an unmistakable "bleaching of the line" as first her daughter Suzette, then her granddaughter Philomene and finally her great-granddaughter Emily choose (or are forcibly persuaded) to bear the illegitimate offspring of the area's white French planters. In many cases these children are loved by their fathers, and their paternity is widely acknowledged. However, neither state law nor local custom allows them to inherit wealth or property, a fact that gives Cane River much of its narrative drive.
The author makes it clear exactly where these prohibitions came from. Plantation society was rigidly hierarchical. The only permissible path upward for hard-working, ambitious African Americans was indirect. A meteoric rise, or too obvious an appearance of prosperity, would be swiftly punished. To enable the slow but steady advance of their clan, the black women of Cane River plot, plead, deceive and manipulate their way through history, extracting crucial gifts of money and property along the way.
In her introduction, Tademy explains that as a young woman she failed to appreciate the love and reverence with which her mother and her four uncles spoke of their lively Grandma 'Tite (short for "Mademoiselle Petite"). She resented her great-grandmother's skin-colour biases, which were as much a part of Tademy's memory as were her great-grandmother's trademark dance moves. But the old stories haunted the author, and armed with a couple of pages of history compiled by a distant Louisiana cousin, she began to piece together a genealogy. The result? Tademy eventually left her position as vice president of a Fortune-500 company and set to work on Cane River, in which she has deftly and movingly reconstructed the world of her ancestors. --Regina Marler, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'An accomplished first novel weaves fragments of real-life family lore into a vivid tale of four generations of African-American women struggling to hold their families together, first as slaves, then as freed people subject to Jim Crow laws and white vigilantism ... The result is a richly textured family saga that resonates with intelligence and empathy' '... this excellent novel... a moving tribute to the force of love and the unseverable connection of family ties' 12/1 -- the Times 20020112
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read,
By norahcarroll@yahoo.co.uk (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cane River (Oprah's book club) (Paperback)
I, like another reviewer, picked up this book because of the Ophrah show recommendation on the cover. Once I started the book I could barely put it down, the story focuses on the family history of the author who became interested in researching her family after coming across the original bill of sale for one of her ancestors. It is a beautifully written book bringing us into the minds and the lives of the women who shaped Lalita Tademy's family. It is a heartbreaking, deeply moving story of three generations of women spanning the time of slavery before the Civil War to the uncertain 'freedom times' after. It is a beautifully written account with it's roots based in fact, the book is peppered with original documents and photographs of Tademy's family. This book is a wonderful read, read it and then pass it on to all your friends.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding,
This review is from: Cane River (Oprah's book club) (Paperback)
After seeing the introduction to Cane River on Oprah,I too decided to order this book.I was instantly mesmerized by the author's ability to spin her story.This is a story of heart wrenching love between the generations of mothers and daughters caught up in the web of slavery,and their unbelievable struggles just to survive.Abuse,rape,starvation,insanity and being ripped away from their families just barely touch on the deep rooted pain that these women faced.Through sheer determination and love,sharing tears and sometimes laughter,they manage to tell their stories...even so many years later. It is impossible to read this book without shedding a tear.Not only did I feel the women's pain and fury,but I felt their hopelessness as well,and felt like I was literally transported back in time,to Cane River.An absolutely outstanding book.http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?q3=a8hSLdoY6Pc%253d
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
amazing, unputdownable, haunting...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cane River (Oprah's book club) (Paperback)
This book took over my time and my heart. As an African (born and bred in middle class Africa), I was on the 'other side' of the slavery scenario: i.e. I knew nothing at all about it. I've read Roots, Amistad, Malcom X (all insightful...), watched the dreadful Gone with the wind...but this boook did one thing no other book did - it put flesh and bone and blood and heart and soul into cahracters, making me feel with them, cry with them, hurt and laugh with them, and understand slavery much more than I'd ever done (I actually felt sorry for Fredieu!). The funny thing is that this isnt a book on slavery - its a chronicle of the hopes and struggles of 4 generations of fantastic women and it just happens to be set in slavery times. I felt Suzette haunting me, waking me up to read this book, to finish it - the way Lalita felt (spooky ei?). I've tried to pass this book on to friends and family but no one wants to read it - America I don't feel is celebrating this book enough, it should be on the National Curiculum over there. You just don't know what you are missing by not reading this book. It is definitely the best read I've had in my 25 yrs on earth.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
