Red River

I'm not sure where I picked up Red River by Lalita Tademy, a historical novel set in Louisiana during the Restoration. It's an advance reading copy (ARC-a paperback book printed ahead of finished books to send to reviewers and bookstore buyers), so I must have picked it up at one publishing event or another. It seemed promising--Tademy's first novel, Cane River, was a New York Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club pick. Roll your eyes if you must, but Oprah doesn't pick out and out clunkers. Even the way the ARC was produced shows that the publisher had high hopes for the book. Most ARCs have slick, cheaply printed covers and use either Xerox or super pulpy paper on the inside. This one has a matte, embossed cover with flaps, high quality cream-colored paper, and even rough cut pages! (That's when the pages are slightly uneven on the edge--you usually see it on fancy novels or books that are trying to look vintage.)

Well, this book was a bit of a disappointment. I seriously considered ditching it around page 100. The first half of the 400 page book describes a horrible massacre in the town of Colfax, Louisiana. In 1873, blacks are allowed to vote for the first time and they vote in the Republican party--who, I gather from the text (my AP American History Class too distant in the past to be of much help) are sympathetic to the newly free black population. The incumbent government refuses to shift power, and when blacks protest at the town's courthouse, white supremacists blast them out, killing 150 men. Now, I'm not denying that this is an important story that should be told. But this section of the book could (and should) have been cut to 100 pages.

The second half follows the next 2 generations of the Tademy and Smith families, both who played an important part in the courthouse standoff. (The author used her own family's history as a source for the story, so it is based on actual people and events.) This part was a much better read, although I still didn't think the book was exceptional. I assume from the accolades that Tademy's first book, Cane River, was better than this one. Which leads me to believe that my friend, a former children's book editor, is on to something when she says most people only have one good book in them. Of course, when I googled Red River to see how it was received, it had glowing reviews from respectable sources, so what do I know? Still, part of me thinks those reviewers got sucked in by those rough cut pages . . .