Search - Cane River

this book is great! It is a historical account of Ms. Tademy's family heritage. Three generations of women play major roles in this book. It was very touching and heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

This book surprised me. Author Tademy gave up a plumb job at Sun Microsystems, I believe it was, to research her roots and bring us this novel (she's since written a second.).

The story is strong and vividly written, with characters it is easy to love and who stay with you for a long time after you close the book.

This is one I liked so much, I've picked up spare copies to spread around.

I liked this book a lot. It did not dwell upon the detailed cruelty of slavery but rather the strength of the people who endured through generations of changes. It was an interesting look at plantation life in central Louisiana for over 125 years.

I really enjoyed this book -- it's a true story of a slave woman and her descendants through freedom and how they survived once slavery was abolished.

I like this book and I admire the way the author didn't let difficulties in research keep her from writing a great story.

We can be thankful that Lalita Tademy found an interest in her family's history...sparked by family memories of Emily "Tite"....a strong woman that passed many generations before Lalita experienced Colfax and Cane River, Louisiana.

The passion she poured into her search for her family's history provides the gift of this novel, which weaves the details and truths she was able to unearth about the generations of slaves that came before her with her own imaginings of the details and happenings of their days.

Unlike some novels about the slave experience, Cane River is written in straight-forward prose with a focus on the people and personalities - not dwelling unnecessarily on the cruelty and ugliness inherent in slavery. In fact, the ugliness of their situation is treated somewhat matter-of-factly, which I supposed it would have been by the slaves themselves, who would have had no choice but to accept their circumstances.

The players in this book are powerful, passionate and intriguing. The action is engaging and plot propelling. A tremendous work of historical fiction.