Jean Toomer

Cane A Novel Jean Toomer

Cane explores spiritual and emotional frustration, failure of basic communication between individuals, and repression of natural energies. It reveals the chaos of contemporary black American life and calls for a spiritual awakening. A land mark novel that changed the way America looked at black writers.


I love it passionately; could not possibly exist without it. -- Alice Walker

This book should be on all readers' and writers' desks and in their minds. -- Maya Angelou

[Toomer avoided] the pitfalls of propaganda and moralizing on the one hand and the snares of a false and hollow race pride on the other hand. -- Montgomery Gregory