One of the best books I've ever read. I've shared it with many, but it will remain in my library.

The depth, insight, and experience lacking in most books are found here. As an African-American woman, Lalita Tademy has the life experience that the majority lacks. Genuine empathy and insight is very hard to come by, but Tademy has it, and makes it come alive in her female ancestors. I actually felt depressed when I finished this book because I wanted to continue tagging along with her characters. Thank you for this amazing gift. BRAVO!

I am another reader, leery of "Oprah Books". I was pleasantly surprised with this one. This book was a fascinating history lesson for me! The project Lalita took on is something a lot of people have been doing lately especially with the help of the internet. Researching genelogy has always intrigued me. Lalita took this one step further and filled in the gaps of her research with a fictional story that was so good, it was hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction. Lalita began with Elisabeth who was born around the turn of the 19th century and progressed forward with Suzette, Philomene and Emily. Each woman felt the hardships of life as a slave in Louisiana but they also found a way to get what they needed to live as well as they could during their oppression. Tademy includes pictures, letters, bills of sale in her book that help give her people a voice to share their lives with us. Despite all the prejudices and oppression these women had to deal with, they still came through their hardships with their heads held high. I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

The story of her family history is very interesting. I enjoyed the book, the character development could have been better.

I purchased this book on a Friday and finished reading it on Sunday afternoon. I couldn't put it down. I banned my kids from my room and soaked in the tub for 2 hours just so that I could get some uninterrupted "me" time. This story was wonderfully told and had my imagination fired up. I felt like I was there. I'm looking forward to reading Red River.

I loved this book for its history and family theme. Very well written and for me it was a "page turner".

I am so disappointed that I waited so long to read this book! We've all seen or heard of it, and I bought it on sale, then put it at the bottom of the pile. I enjoy historical fiction, but reading a story set in my home (Louisiana), about people who could have been my own family, was especially touching. I have new respect and curiosity for Lousiana's creoles, of both races.

In other words, read it. This is a story that needs to be heard.

Surpassed my expectations. This well told, well written story has depth and historical accuracy. It is the equivalent of at least 10 history books on race relations. The book, which spans several decades, explores the complexities and legacies of race relations, prejudice, slavery. Thank you L. Tademy for this work you have produced. It should be required reading in every HS and college.

I really enjoyed this book, Lalita actually took you there with the characters. I've tried to start a family tree just because of this book. The women in the story are very strong and this is a page turner, high five to you Lalita.

Lalita Tademy spent hours upon hours researching
her family's background in order to write Cane
River, a book about her family's journey from
slavery to freedom and afterwards. Though I thought
there wasn't much else to be said about slavery
after reading Toni Morrison's Beloved and Edward
P. Jones' The Known World, I was intrigued by the
cover and some of the pictures.

Tademy certainly has a fascinating history and it's
interesting to see how even light-skinned black
people who were too dark to pass but too light to
fit in among other black people were caught between
both worlds. The book is an easy read but there
wasn't anything in it that I hadn't read already.
Still, an overall decent effort for a first-time writer.

Cane River is a reconstruction of historical events during slavery in the 1800s. Ms. Tademy added well written fiction to fill in the gaps. The book is about four generations of women and their determination for survival for their families. The book is written into three chapters of three of the women.

Ms. Tademy writes about forbidden love, betrayal and how these women fight for their identity in a world that sees them as less than human.

When I first started reading this book it moved slow and some parts were troubling to me but I'm glad I kept reading the book.

Really enjoyed this book. I loved the combination of fact and fiction and the famliy photos. It flowed well and was interesting. It's amazing how times have changed and how racist this country was and is.

This book captivates you from the beginning to end. I am not a fan of "historical" books because I usually find them boring! But I took a chance with this one and I was left speechless. This book haunted me for days, I kept thinking about the characters and what they experienced. The author wrote the book so beautifully...it's a must read. This book has made me proud to be an African-American, because I know I come from a lineage of strong Black women!

I loved this story the entire way through. The fact that it is based on real people and real events gives it an extra added sense of fascination. I read a lot of historical fiction, and this book is one of the better ones in the list of my reads. It really gave me a sense of what the world looked like for slaves, and freed slaves. Very Engaging the entire way through.

I was looking for a very enjoyable, readable and engaging book, and I found it! You will love the characters, the history and the insight this book has to offer, and you won't be able to put it down. Enjoy.

This is Lalita Tademy's fictionalised but historical reconstruction of the lives of four generations of women in her family.

Through their eyes, we view some of the realities of life for women born into slavery, living through the Civil War, and then dealing with the consequences of emancipation. Throughout this novel there is a quiet sense of strength, dignity, purpose and endurance.

While it is Ms Tademy's ancestors who are speaking, they are speaking on behalf of many. From my perspective, this has two separate impacts on the novel: while it sometimes makes the individual characters more shadowy and difficult to discern, it underlines the reality that slaves of the time were viewed as possessions rather than as people.

I recommend that those who read this novel also read 'Red River'.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I was expecting a great book...Instead I got so-so. All the reviews I read were positive. However, I found the book boring in the beginning. It was hard for me to get really into it. Once we were introduced to Philomene and Emily the book was a much faster read.

The author did an amazing job tracing her families roots. I give this book 3.5 stars!

I don't do Oprah books usually, every now and then I will try one. This one I bought from the library book sale, so I thought if I didn't like I wouldn't be out much. Boy was I shocked, the book is very good and I found myself so wrapped up in it...that I was there. I think Oprah knew what she was doing when she picked this one! A winner

My experience of Cane River was heightened by the phenomenal Ms. Robin Miles, who was the very accomplished narrator of the unabridged audiobook version. Ms. Miles was utterly spellbinding in her use of French Creole and other early Louisiana dialects. The book version of the novel contains copies of actual historical documents and photos which were gathered through the author's extensive genealogical research. Ms. Tademy was inspired to leave her status position as vice president of Sun Microsystems to give voice to her ancestors' trials, tribulations, courage and steadfast determination to rise above and evolve during the travails of the holocaust of slavery and emancipation in southern Louisiana. This is an absolutely stunning work . . . I was blown away by the details and insights about life as a person of color during those times, and the utter bigotry and cruelty of white "society".

I received this book for Christmas 2006 and finally got around to reading it this past week. As many of the other reviewers have conveyed, I just cannot say enough about it. From the first few pages, I was hooked and could not put the book down. The characters (well they aren't really characters since they are real people that lived these events in the past) are so memorable and well-developed and the narrative is so vivid. I loved the way the book was structured and how it progressed chronologically, how the story was told over three generations' worth of family. While the book was fairly long (418 pages), I found myself not wanting it to end.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this book. A great book to read while it's cold and gray outside!

I recieved this book for Christmas 2006 and finally got around to reading it this past week. As many of the other reviewers have conveyed, I just cannot say enough about it. From the first few pages, I was hooked and could not put the book down. The characters (well they aren't really characters since they are real people that lived these events in the past) are so memorable and well-developed and the narrative is so vivid. I loved the way the book was structured and how it progressed chronologically, how the story was told over three generations' worth of family. While the book was fairly long (418 pages), I found myself not wanting it to end.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this book. A great book to read while it's cold and gray outside!

I have taken a break from reading this book after going through one-third of the story. I think the idea to chronicle the author's family history is a great one, and I'd like to read the rest of the book at some point. However, the writing does not keep me interested enough. At times I feel that the symbolism is forced and that any poetic nature is lost. I'm not led to care about the characters.

I am one who refuses to read any Oprah Book Club pick, but this book came highly recommended. I was captivated by the very first page and found it hard to put the book down. What a wonderful story about strength, courage and the value of family. This is well worth the read. Everyone I hae lent the book to absolutely loves it as well.

I have taken a break from reading this book after going through one-third of the story. I think the idea to chronicle the author's family history is a great one, and I'd like to read the rest of the book at some point. However, the writing does not keep me interested enough. At times I feel that the symbolism is forced and that any poetic nature is lost. I'm not led to care about the characters.

I read the book because of the very complimentary reviews but was disappointed. The writing, I'm sorry to say, is very mediocre. A much better book on the subject of slavery is The Known World by Edward Jones. I couldn't put it down and the writing is superior, lyrical and excellent in every way.

This book made me feel guilty for being white...I have never considered the depth of the abuse that black women faced during the days of slavery but after reading this book, I have a new respect for black women. Ms. Tademy took a big step to leave her prestigious job to write this book and she did a great job...this book stays with you long after it's finished and it keeps you interested until the very last word. Bravo!

An heroic book full of larger than life characters that remind us all "just because something is impossible, is no reason not to do it!"




Reginald V. Johnson, Author, "How To Be Happy, Successful And Rich"

I am a Louisiana native. I very much love my Louisiana culture. In Louisiana I have heard many stories about our people of color. This book has enlightened me. I really love this book.

I loved this book. This is a story of Lalita Tademy's family years ago during the slave days. It gives a good perspective of life from the slaves feelings. Read it you will not be sorry.

While I avidly read the first half of "Cane River", I had to slog through the last half. I found the events and characters of the first half a lot more compelling.

The photographs and family trees were extremely interesting, but that same documentation of real people placed within the context of a novel set up a dichotomy that made neither platform work very well. I kept wondering where the truth ended and the fiction began. Either these people were real and did these things, or they were not, so why include pictures? "Cane River" would have been much more effective if all the pictures and documentation had been left out, and the story line expanded and enriched.

I certainly understand the bitterness the cruel slave life perpetrated over so many years. The disgusting utilization and subjugation of a race of people is beyond comprehension. Yet I found Ms. Tedemy's depictions slanted. The slaves were portrayed as without blemish, and the white characters were always flawed. In historic truth nothing is that polarized. While the author points out that Narcisse's and Joseph's children loved their white fathers very much, the reader never really understands why this could be so. The white characters are two dimensional at best. And I found the photo caption, "Old man Narcisse and his white family" to be an amateurish slam unworthy of a professional writer.

"Cane River" presented a heartbreaking picture of the cruelty and dehumanization of slavery, particularly its impact on women and children, and for that I feel enriched for having read the book. I just wish that I didn't also feel a little manipulated when I finished reading it.

That's what it took to get through this one. Another "woe is me, life ain't fair, been done wrong by the white folks". Enough already! The setting could have been described in a richer sense. The heritage could have been portrayed better. Probably one of the most boring books I've read. Too bad Tademy didn't take advantage of the rich history and geography. No entertainment here.

This book is engaging from the first page. My high school did a poor job of explaining the life of a slave woman. This book covers five generations of women from slavery to freedom. While reading, I found myself deeply connected to each of the characters. They struggle with loss of babies, husbands, lovers, but never a loss of perseverance. They are strong both physically and mentally as they raise their children by themselves. A thought provoking book that is not easy to put down.

CANE RIVER's an easy read. I love the way Ms Tademy paints a picture of her ancestors and gives me a taste of life in LA's past. The book was pulled me in and I simply could not read it fast enough. It was as though there was a mystery me before me that I longed to solve. In the end, I came away from it valuing her family as though they were my ancestors too. This book should be a reminder to African-American women everywhere that we have and we can endure and soar despite our circumstances.

I was very excited to read this book. I didn't bother to continue after the first several chapters however. Its too bad really because its a great concept to spin a yarn from one's heritage but I found the verbiage forced and clearly written by an amatuer. Since I'm not a writer, I expect to read books written by people who can write better than I can. In this case, I felt like I was reading a story written by a teenager whose English teacher assigned her the task of writing a story. That's the last time I will bother with "Oprah's" club...that endorsement alone should have made me know better. The last book I read was by Pat Conroy and while his books might be more about "fluff" than this, the literary value is so superior, perhaps that was the problem. Literature is a gift...you either have it or you don't.
This one didn't.

I thought this novel was very well written and moving. I liked the way the author researched her family's history and heritage and wrote a beautiful story about it. It was very interesting being able to read a story about the struggles of African-American women and what they went through. Those women survived all the hardships of slavery and discrimination against blacks in the South.
Reading this book you get to see how these women tried so hard to keep their families together and stable. They each try so hard to give their children the best that they can offer, especially since most of the children are from white fathers and could possibly move up in their status, from a slave to a free colored person with a last name.
This book shows the strength and perserverance of these four generations of African-American women in this family and how important family really is. It shows the struggle and difficulties that these women went through just so that they could make something of themselves, and give their children a better life then what they had.

This book is well written and heartbreaking...
For us to know where we are going, we need to know where we came from.

I loved loved loved this book. The characters were well developed. I felt like I knew them and just wanted to give them a hug if given the opportunity. This book evoked so many feelings; I felt pride, sadness, strength, outrage, triumph, inspiration, and defeat.

I cannot imagine holding the bill of sale of my great-great-great grandmother as Lalita Tademy did. This author did a lot of research and the pictures and documents in the book were a nice touch. I really liked seeing the pictures and the handwriting of the people I was getting to know.

The evolution of black women from Elizabeth to Emily to Lalita Tademy is amazing. I am inspired by the strength of these women. As I read the book I felt myself wondering how Lalita Tademy's ancestors came about having so much strength and self-control. I found myself wishing I could change the outcome knowing full well the atmosphere of the times wouldn't allow for a different life for them.

My heart is warmed by the love and sacrifice of Joseph Billes. He loved Emily and struggled because of it. His courage is inspiring. How his life ended and the torments he endured because of racism is disappointing.

After reading this book I am left wondering how proud Elizabeth would be of her offspring. I cannot express enough how much I was touched by this book. I highly recommend it.

Researching family roots sometimes brings surprising results. As the author describes in her forward, she wasn't planning on writing a book when she quit her corporate job to do nothing but genealogical research. But as the details of her family's slave background slowly emerged, she combined factual information with family lore to create this saga of her mixed black and white heritage. "Cane River" starts out like any novel with one difference. All of a sudden we see a copy of a letter, a legal document, a newspaper clipping or a photograph. Something clicks then - and transports the reader into the reality of the institution of slavery - a shameful dark legacy that is part our American history.

The book is 522 pages long, but I read in a few days, in the heat and humidity of a New York City summer, finding time after work to read on a park bench Washington Square Park as twilight fell around me. That's when I opened the book and let myself be transported to Louisiana, at a time when everyone spoke French and the white families ruled the land and there was no way that slaves could ever rise above the institution that held them captive. The book begins with two 9-year old girls. One is white. One is black. The black girl is the white girl's slave. The slave might be able to go to church with the white girl and even take first communion. But she will never learn to read. And she will always have to serve the white masters. Yes, it's true she is a "house" slave. She will never spend her life bending down in the field. But she will spend her life standing up. Because, with the exception of a few kitchen chores, if a house slave has a few moments when she is not actively working, she is standing and waiting to be told what to do next.

Through the character of Suzette, who was a real person in the author's family history, we meet this girl child who will never learn to read, as she is raped as by a white man and bears his child. And later, bears a second child from him. We meet her mother Elizabeth who had been sold away from two young sons in her former home. We meet her deaf mute sister who works in the fields like a man has her three young children sold away from her. We meet the white slaveholder who treats his slaves like children with a bit of benevolence. But when he dies, his widow is helpless in running the plantation and the cruel overseer takes over. Sooner or later all the slaves get sold off. The author just doesn't simply tell us about it though. She makes us feel it. She has the slaves first come to be listed as inventory. They have to line up by age, separated from their families. They are all panicked. Their families are all that they have. Suzette begs the white father of her children to buy the children.

But this is just the first generation. Suzette's daughter Philomene has a story of her own. She's lucky because she knows real love for a short time with another slave and bears twin girls. Then he is sold away. There's a white man interested in her though. He takes care of her somewhat for awhile and she bears him eight children Their oldest, Emily, is taught to read and write. And even has her portrait painted in New Orleans. A photo of that portrait shows a young girl with light skin who looks as if she leads a privileged life. That is not the case though.

We follow these people through the Civil War and through emancipation. There are moments of joy and family bonding. And, through the years, their situation does improve a bit. But even if there is no more slavery, there is still angry racism which often results in murder. And even though Emily's French lover and father of her five children wants to protect her, he still cannot give her any land, and finds his own life in danger from his fellow white men.

Through it all, though, there is the family, held together by the women, who live through all the horror and somehow stay strong. The book ends in 1936, with a glimpse of the racism which had replaced the institution of slavery. There were tears in my eyes then, mostly for the sorrowful lives so many people had been forced to live. But those tears were also of admiration for the endurance of this family who actually lived though it all. My own life is very different from the characters in the book and I hesitate to say that I'll ever really feel what they felt. But I couldn't help thinking that "at last, I understand."

Just wanted to plug my favorite Aunt. Can't wait for the next one. Hurry up!!!!

Brennan Lothery

Wow! This is my all time favorite book. It is something everywoman should read. Once you start you won't want to put it down!

I attended school in Natchitoches, Louisiana, one of the towns situated on Cane River. It is really an amazing thing that all of these years after Cane River and countless other stories happened, the effects can still be observed. The book explained so much of why people think and act the way that they do. The futility of all of that effort does not seem to be lost on T.O., Tademy's grandfather, mocked and deprived of his just inheritance, or his sisters who die alone, never having met a man who passed mustard with their mother. Philomene's words (While you wait for what is better, what is good enough slips away) ring painfully true in their lives. Despite all of thie pain, Cane River also interweaves a tale of triumph over adversity as Emily obtains a private New Orleans education during a time when it was not available to most young girls of color.

And as good as both! I don't know what I could possibly say that has not been said as well or better by other reviewers.
All I can tell you is that this is a lovely, enjoyable, interesting, emotional, historically rich novel. I highly recommend it. I haven't enjoyed a book so much since I read AZTEC by Gary Jennings in 1995. Or Connie Willis' DOOMSDAY BOOK. Something about these books stays with you over the years and you never forget them. Like THE BLACK STALLION when you were a kid.

Author Lalita Tademy had always heard of her great-grandmother Emily being referred to with great reverence and respect by her family. She was not particularly interested in hearing family stories until 1995, when she quit a lucrative job and begin researching the Louisiana plantations along the Cane River where her ancestors were slaves. What she discovered among family papers and oral history was the impetus for this novel. She chose to present it as fiction, but it is based squarely on the real lives of real people, who seem to be representative of a lifestyle in the American South in the early and mid-1800's. The book chronicles the lives of the strong women who preceded Lalita Tademy in her family line. They were women who did whatever was necessary to survive and to provide a better life for their children. Each of these women bore illegitimate children fathered by the Creole plantation owners along the Cane River. The men loved their children, and tried to provide for them, but the laws and social customs of the day did not allow interracial marriage or the transfer of property from white fathers to black children. After so many years of producing half-white children, Tademy's family could have passed as white, but almost all of them chose not to. I was totally captivated by the stories of these women, and I learned a lot about a very unjust time in our country's history.