Canícula Book

I should divulge that I formerly lived along Cane River (the in-town part) and was given a free copy by our local National Park unit at a public symposium. I started the book that night at bedtime, thinking I'd read for an hour or so, per usual. Well I was up until well after 4:00 a.m. finishing this thing! When I showed up slightly bleary-eyed for class the next day, one of our observant grad students (thanks, Melissa!) asked whether I'd been up all night finishing "the Book of Crack" as she called it. So true--you just couldn't put it down. It was a wonderful story--kind of an Alex Hailey's _Roots_ set along the region surrounding Cane River in northwest Louisiana (roughly spanning Natchitoches to Cloutierville). For anyone not from the region (as with Mom and mother-in-law who both received and loved their copies), it's a great introduction to a region and to the complexities of Louisiana's creole communities. And the fact that the author wrote the book as something of a voyage of discovery of her own family roots, just makes it that much more bittersweet after you become so invested in characters from whom she is actually descended. This is a beautiful book about a beautiful and complicated place.