This historical novel describes Creole society shortly after the Louisiana Purchase. Educated and rich, the free people of colour had a unique culture, customs and mores. Their position, however, was tenuous, very much at the mercy and whim of white people, especially in-coming Americans. This novel doesn't sugar coat the difficulties despite the advantages.
Rice showcases her style, full of flourish and drama, and the book is about 100 pages too long, but I found the read rewarding. ( )

Tried this book after surgery and could not get past page 4. Maybe it was the effects of the anesthesia, or maybe it's just not my style of writing, but I'm glad I only paid $0.01 plus postage! I was out of town for the book group discussion, so I don't know how it went over with the rest of the group. ( )

La noche de todos los santos está protagonizada por una casta muy peculiar que existió en el estado de Luisiana antes de desencadenarse la guerra de Secesión. Sus miembros eran descendientes de los esclavos, pero llevaban también la sangre de los esclavista franceses y españoles, que tenían por costumbre liberar a los hijos de sus concubinas negras. les llamaban los Negros Libres, aunque vivían apartados de la sociedad blanca y no gozaban de ningún derecho político. Sin embargo, eso no impidió que fuera surgiendo toda una aristocracia entre la que no faltaban artistas exquisitos y gentes de posición desahogada. algunos incluso llegaron a ser dueños de plantaciones. Y la fascinación que sus hermosas mujeres ejercían entre los blancos de Nueva Orleans acabó por convertirse en una leyenda.

I hate to bail on yet another title this month, but I'm just not feeling this one. Even just in the first few dozen pages, the flashbacks and ambiguous character references (similar names, unclear antecedents) have made the story incredibly tedious to follow, and I'm just not interested enough to put in the effort of unraveling the threads.

This was a very fascinating read, and I did enjoy it; honestly, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought it would. The setting was good, and the story was good as well. The characters were a little…ehh in my opinion. They weren’t bad, but there wasn’t anything really special about them in my opinion. There are certain parts that lagged a bit, but that was pretty much it. I’m hoping to reread it so that I can maybe understand it a bit better. ( )