"Cane" by Jean Toomer: One of the prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance, Jean Toomer struggled his entire life with issues of racial identity. Born in 1894 from a family of various European and African bloodlines, Toomer easily passed as Caucasian, living as both black and white at different times throughout his childhood. But as he grew older, Toomer began to realize that in America, "A speck of black makes you black." He felt an affinity towards the African-American community, emerging as one of its literary luminaries, examining such issues as racism, acceptance, and love.

"Cane," Toomer's first and greatest work, was published in 1923. It's a mix of short stories and poetry, depicting the struggles for racial equality and personal freedom. The book is divided into three sections. Part one contains seven short stories and 10 poems, with the pattern being story, poem, poem, story. The first six tales are descriptions of strong Southern women, the most famous being "Fern," a beautiful female of undetermined race who attracts and confounds every man she meets. The seventh story breaks from the theme, telling of racial vengeance and disgustingly vile Southern "justice."

The scene shifts up north in the second section, focusing on urban African-Americans in Chicago and Washington DC. It's comprised of five poems and seven short stories, although a few are little more than brief character sketches.

The final portion of the book consists entirely of "Kabnis," a novella starring an educated black man in the rural south struggling to make peace within himself and the world around him.

The first few pages of "Cane" were amazing. Mr. Toomer has a deft hand for imagery, vividly painting scenes and characters with poetic prose. He's a true artist, forsaking conventional sentence structure for rhythm and flow, allowing style to take center stage. Keep in mind, he was doing it in 1923, creating a blueprint for modernism that would influence an entire generation of writers.

I fully expected to give "Cane" four shots, but the charm quickly faded as one story blended into the next. None of the characters or situations were particularly memorable, as Mr. Toomer's style overpowered everything in its wake. It's difficult to employ a poetic, unique prose repeatedly over numerous stories and still maintain individualism. Repetition of imagery even further dilutes the whole. Eventually it gets like a broken record, the many starts and stops only reenforcing the one constant, which in this case was Mr. Toomer's style. Once I got acquainted with his singular pace, I soon lost interest with the arrival of each successive story. By the time the second section came around, I was completely done, merely reading to add another conquest.

Mr. Toomer was clearly inspired by Sherwood Anderson's masterful "Winesburg, Ohio" (1919), which cobbled various stories together to depict life in a small town. But where Mr. Anderson won the day with plot, penetrating dialogue, and significant character studies, Mr. Toomer's style proves unable to carry such a weighty burden.

Basically, Mr. Toomer seems like a poet dabbling in prose. His poetry is spectacular, but one needs more than colorful imagery and innovative word choice to power fiction. "Cane" works in pieces, not as a whole book. I feel he would have been more successful attempting to tackle one subject, perhaps extrapolating "Fern," his most interesting creation, into a full-length novel. One subject, one style. Talent can be dazzling in a single story but distracting in a collection of shorts.

I have a tremendous respect for Mr. Toomer, and I appreciate his innovation and contributions to Literature, but reading "Cane" was a sadly dull, disappointing experience. The poetry deserves four shots, a few stories reach three-shot status, but I can't give the overall product more than two.

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