Helpful Score: 2
It wasn't a bad book, obviously, as so many loved it. Great writing, too. I just couldn't form any feelings for the characters. Didn't care what happened to any of them. I didn't finish the book.
Helpful Score: 2
From Library Journal
This first novel explores the stickily enduring bonds of love. Nine characters speak in alternating chapters: a reluctant psychic; a selfish, philandering husband; a sensitive, eccentric one; a finicky undertaker; a young soldier; an unhappy little girl; a Haitian migrant; and two widows, one merry, one grief stricken. This unlikely cast inhabits a narrative spanning 30 years. Some, like Soleil Marie, a sugarcane laborer, or Inez, who can't avoid seeing the future, speak with startling vividness. Others, like the child Luella, are less convincing. All are trapped behind the sweetly poisoned bars of the "sugar cage"--a "sign" in the dregs of one character's glass. Inez spots it: "bars glistening like white sand," a sure sign "she was going to let love eat her up." Runaway emotions devour some, others struggle to both love and survive. A Southern gothic tale, magically imaginative, yet harshly real.
This first novel explores the stickily enduring bonds of love. Nine characters speak in alternating chapters: a reluctant psychic; a selfish, philandering husband; a sensitive, eccentric one; a finicky undertaker; a young soldier; an unhappy little girl; a Haitian migrant; and two widows, one merry, one grief stricken. This unlikely cast inhabits a narrative spanning 30 years. Some, like Soleil Marie, a sugarcane laborer, or Inez, who can't avoid seeing the future, speak with startling vividness. Others, like the child Luella, are less convincing. All are trapped behind the sweetly poisoned bars of the "sugar cage"--a "sign" in the dregs of one character's glass. Inez spots it: "bars glistening like white sand," a sure sign "she was going to let love eat her up." Runaway emotions devour some, others struggle to both love and survive. A Southern gothic tale, magically imaginative, yet harshly real.
Helpful Score: 1
Connie Mae Fowler writes a book rich in character about people from Southern Florida. You can almost sense the cane fields of Florida, the jungles of Vietnam, and the voodoo ceremonies of the cane workers.
Interesting story about the intertwined lives of two newlywed couples in 1950s Florida, their children, and the black woman who helps anchor their lives together in a rapidly-changing world.. Secondary plotline about the migration of the voudon tradition from Haiti.
I loved Sugar Cage! It's my favorite of Connie May Fowler's books.
At Amazon.com it received a 5-star rating from the readers. Here is what one reviewer had to say:
This was the type of book that you can never put down. I read it all in one night. The best part about the book is the way the author displayed each character individually. It then ended up showing how each of the characters were uniquely linked together. It's a book that I will always love to read again and again. I would most definitly reccomend it.
At Amazon.com it received a 5-star rating from the readers. Here is what one reviewer had to say:
This was the type of book that you can never put down. I read it all in one night. The best part about the book is the way the author displayed each character individually. It then ended up showing how each of the characters were uniquely linked together. It's a book that I will always love to read again and again. I would most definitly reccomend it.
"Connie May Fowler weaves this beautiful tale that takes you away to faraway places. The characters are so alive and rich, you wish you had gotten to know them even better." amazon review
