Cane

By: Jean Toomer

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Mirron Willis, Lisa Renee Pitts

The Harlem Renaissance writer's innovative and groundbreaking novel depicting African American life in the South and North, with a foreword by National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree Zinzi Clemmons....

Jean Toomer's Cane is one of the most significant works to come out of the Harlem Renaissance, and is considered to be a masterpiece in American modernist literature because of its distinct structure and style. First published in 1923 and told through a series of vignettes, Cane uses poetry, prose, and play-like dialogue to create a window into the varied lives of African Americans living in the rural South and urban North during a time when Jim Crow laws pervaded and racism reigned. While critically acclaimed and known today as a pioneering text of the Harlem Renaissance, the book did not gain as much popularity as other works written during the period. Fellow Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes believed Cane's lack of a wider readership was because it didn't reinforce the stereotypes often associated with African Americans during the time, but portrayed them in an accurate and entirely human way, breaking the mold and laying the groundwork for how African Americans are depicted in literature.

©2019 Foreword: Zinzi Clemmons (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Awesome!

This is different than what I am used to reading however I enjoyed this book tremendously! I would highly recommend this book! The narration was also great!

Too low

While the story was fine, the volume was of poor quality. At full volume the telling at times sank to a whisper.

Superb

Cane by Jean Toomer is a superb mélange of Black voices. He has a great ear for Black dialect and cadence. His imagination is immense, kaleidoscopic. I highly recommend that forgotten gem of the Harlem Renaissance.

After reading “Erasure” …

It was interesting to listen to this after “Erasure,” which mentions “Cane.” To me, this book was the blueprint for the very trope the protagonist in “Erasure,” is rallying against. I know I am looking through “Cane,” with 21st Century eyes, but as such I found it racist, misogynistic and just-mean spirited. I didn’t finish reading it because I feel as though I already have, a thousand times over.