Cane River by Lalita Tademy

To be discussed May 6, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.

It was here, on a medium-sized Creole plantation owned by a family named Derbanne, that author Lalita Tademy found her family's roots--and the stories of four astonishing women who battled vast injustices to create a legacy of hope and achievement. They 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 twentieth century. Through it all, they fought to unite their family and forge success on their own terms. Here amid small farmhouses and a tightly knit community of French-speaking slaves, free people of color, and whites, Tademy's great-great-great-great grandmother Elisabeth would bear both a proud heritage and the yoke of slavery. Her youngest daughter, Suzette, would be the first to discover the promise-and heartbreak-of freedom. Suzette's strong-willed daughter Philomene would use determination born of tragedy to reunite her family and gain unheard-of economic independence. Emily, Philomene's spirited daughter, would fight to secure her children's just due and preserve their future against dangerous odds.

1. The relationships between Suzette, Philomene and Emily and the white fathers of their children range from flat-out rape, to calculated financial arrangements cemented by childbearing, to real forbidden love. What did you find most surprising about these often complex relationships?

2. Do you think Doralise was in a position to help Suzette and Philomene more than she did?

3. Emily is described by the author as being "color-struck." In what ways does color-consciousness continue to afflict black and mixed-race societies today? How was the color-struck attitude a help or hindrance in successive generations' rising fortunes?

4. What surprised you most about some long-held beliefs about slavery? In which ways did you find Tademy's depictions believable? Upsetting? Eye-opening? 5. The free people of color considered themselves neither black nor white. Can you think of any parallels in today's society?

6. Do you think that each of the women was a good mother? Was there more that any one of them could have done for their children than they did?

7. In many ways, Cane River, a rural farming community established by French Catholics, was unlike other southern communities of the time. What did you find most surprising about the community and its leading citizens?

8. Which living situation do you think was easier: big house or quarter?

9. Emily, in the very last scene in the book, takes a seat in the front row of the bus to return home from her trip to town. Is this something you believe she would do? Why or why not?

10. Joseph stays close to Emily in his later years. Why do you think Emily continued to allow Joseph into her life after he kicked her out of their home and married another woman?

11. Elisabeth says that everyone along Cane River was 'waiting for the spider to come home." What did she mean?

12. The author of Cane River made the decision to turn her family's story into a work of fiction rather than nonfiction? What motivated her to do so, and do you think it was the right decision?