How much of Cane River is fact and how much is fiction?
All except for two of the names are real and are based on real people. Most of the larger events are real. That’s also why I wanted to put real documents, photos, newspaper articles and records in the book. As the reader is thinking that I’ve gone off onto some fictional tangent, they turn the page and see the bill of sale and know that really did happen. In the interest of narrative art, I had to make sure that it was readable and that a reader was flipping the pages and that there was suspense. But 80 percent of it is real and based on real events. • What was the most challenging part about writing Cane River? I had never written so much as a short story before. I was full of insecurity about whether I could deliver this story. I knew that I had hold of an incredibly powerful story. I just didn’t know whether I was up to the task of telling it. So, everyday I felt a tremendous responsibility and burden to teach myself to write in time to deliver the story. I must have written about 1
