Lalita Tademy's Cane River

Lalita Tademy's Cane River

I started reading this book at my daughter's place (which is my old house in Boise). While the first several chapters were a bit amateurish in writing style, once past that point, it improved quite substantially. This is, I gather, Tademy's first novel. Like some other first novels that I have read, it appears that she substantially improved her skills along the way--and I find myself wondering why her editor didn't go back and have her do a rewrite on those first few chapters. The rest of the book, while I wouldn't call it spectacular writing, is certainly entertaining, and well enough written.

I confess that I stuck through those first few chapters because black history was one of my specialties in grad school, and I am always curious to see how well the history gets translated into historical fiction. In this case, the answer is "very well." Of course, Tademy has the advantage that her novel was built around the actual historical facts of her family, the Louisiana descendants of blacks, Indians, and French settlers. She has taken some liberties with the facts, she tells us, to make a better story. It is also obvious that she has filled in many of the blank spots with her imaginings--but they work well.

One historical aspect of Cane River that pleased me is that Tademy has recognized and illustrated the transformation of racial attitudes--how interracial romantic relationships that were tolerated (if kept discrete) in antebellum Louisiana became increasingly unacceptable by the close of the 19th century. There are many little details of interactions and relationships between the races that convey the complexity of real people, with real differences. Everything doesn't boil down to the binary models that many people (including many intellectuals) just assume for the period.

Do you have a long plane flight to go on soon? You might find this sitting in the used book store for a few dollars--and you could do a lot worse.