487



T

Tademy, Lalita (1940– )
Lalita Tademy was born and reared in Castro Val-
ley, California. Her life story is embedded in her
debut historical novel, Cane River (2001). Tademy
was a former vice-president of Sun Microsystems
when she began to trace her family’s history. The
two-year project began when Tademy found a
bill of sale for her great-great-great-great-grand-
mother, Elisabeth, who in 1850 was sold away from
a Louisiana plantation in Cane River for $800.
This bill of sale became the genesis of Tademy’s
search for facts about Elisabeth, as well as about
her great-grandmother, Emily. Tademy went back
to Louisiana and absorbed herself in researching
her family’s lineage. Cane River covers 137 years of
her family’s history, written as fiction but rooted in
historical fact and family lore.
In Cane River Tademy focuses on four gen-
erations of African-American women. The first
generation is Tademy’s ancestor, Elisabeth, who
is born in slavery. The second generation is Elis-
abeth’s youngest daughter, Suzette, who discovers
freedom. The third generation of women explored
in the novel is Suzette’s strong-willed daughter,
Philomene, who uses determination to reunite her
family and gain economic independence. The last
generation is Emily, Philomene’s daughter, who
fights to preserve her children’s freedom against
all obstacles. In an interview with Jamie Engle of

Bookreporter.com, Tademy comments on her in-

terest in her great-grandmother, Emily:

Among the many stories I heard about my

roots in Louisiana, the stories about my great

grandmother, Emily, especially fascinated

me, but puzzled me more and more as I got

older. There was such a contradiction between

the “elegant lady” that my mother and her

brothers described and the image I began to

piece together of a snuff-dipping, homemade

wine drinking, fun-seeking dancing diva of a

woman from the backwoods of Louisiana. I

found myself wanting to know which one of

these memories was true, what made her the

way she was, and how she was raised.

In addition to its grand historical scope, the novel

explores a number of complex issues Tademy’s

family had to face: slavery, war, freedom, injustice,

color and class bias, interracial relationships, and

loss.

Tademy’s novel, which includes photographs

and other documents of authentication, was se-

lected by Oprah’s Book Club.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Engle, Jamie. Interview with Lalita Tademy. Bookre-

porter.com. Available online. URL: http://www.