Saturday, October 27, 2007

Cane River - a glimpse into African-American history


This month WOW Exchange book group is reading the wonderful historical fiction book, Cane River by Lalita Tademy, a book sponsored by San Francisco Public Library's One City One Book Program.

In the small Louisiana farming community of Cane River, Lalita Tademy's ancestors were women whose lives began in slavery, who weathered the Civil War, and who grappled with the contradictions of emancipation through the turbulent early years of the 20th century. Through it all, they fought to unite their family and forge success on their own terms.
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In Cane River, an accessible novel that combines painstaking historical reconstruction with unforgettable storytelling, Lalita Tademy presents an all too rarely seen part of American history, complete with a provocative portrayal of the complex, unspoken bonds between slaves and slave owners. Most of all, she gives us the saga of real, flesh-and-blood women making hard choices in the face of unimaginable loss, securing their identity and independence in order to face any obstacle, and inspiring all the generations to come.

Come join our discussion of this interesting book at Cafe Kaleo (Hawaiian theme) in the Inner Sunset on Sunday October 28 at 2pm.