Erin's Book #12: Cane River by Lalita Tademy

Blythe mentioned that her favorite books tend to be ones where she learns about something she didn't know. I've recently come to the same realization. Cane River is no exception.

Lalita Tademy was a VP at a Fortune 500 company when she began researching her family history. What she found was so engrossing, she quit her job to write a novel about it. Cane River is loosely based on fact. She draws from what she she has found and creates the narrative around it. You would never know that Tademy was not really a writer before this. It's beautifully and evocatively written.

Cane River spans 137 years and way too many generations for that amount of time. We begin with Elisabeth and her daughter Suzette, slaves on a plantation in Cane River, Louisiana. The book progresses on down the line, choosing a daughter to focus on and take over the narrative from her mother. I was shocked and horrified by their roles as slaves, how insignificant these women were considered to their masters, to not have last names or be able to legally marry. Obviously I already knew that slaves were merely property, but it's very different to actually read about people in that situation. Fourteen year old girls forced to repeatedly bear the children of older white men they didn't even like, over and over, generation by generation, until you have great-grandmothers that are in their mid-40s. Robbed of their dreams of marriage and family and freedom. Separated from their loved ones, sometimes forever, when times got tough for their masters.

The characters are rich, each generation shaped by its changing time. At times, particularly later in the book, I got a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters and had to rack my brain to remember the relationships, especially if I'd gone a few days without reading. I was fascinated by the way the characters changed as their freedoms increased. Their strength and resolve faded somewhat from their mother's consuming passion for change, to find something better. In Tademy's skilled hands, the character focus shifts happen at precisely the right time. Although I loved each character, I was always ready to move on to the next.

It's a beautiful book about the strength of family and a reminder that we're all the same, no matter what our situation or privilege or color. At one point, after reading about how one of the characters literally owned nothing, not even herself, I looked around my room at all the crap I called my own and was so grateful (and a little guilty) for the opportunities I have. I may not have a steady job or central air conditioning, but I'm lucky in so many ways and it's really good to be reminded of that sometimes.

Once again, Oprah proves she's got a knack for choosing books! I highly recommend it.