One Cause Too Many [Paperback]

Claire Datnow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 2000

Disillusioned by years of work as a civic activist, Valerie makes a bid for a fresh start with multimillionaire Sid. After she is gunned down by an unknown assailant she realizes that she cannot leave her past behind. Only when Valerie makes peace with the memory of her brother who died as a Freedom Rider for civil rights, and reaches out to her interracial son whom she gave up for adoption can she find romantic happiness. Valerie's struggle is played against the conflicting dynamics of the American South.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christine Redman-Waldeyer is the author of I Swim Seas of Thirty-Two Legions, The Talisman Pick - Voices and Hats, and Around the World with Rosalie, a pre-K children's book, projected date of release, May 2003. A life-long resident of Manasquan, New Jersey, she is both a professor and instructor of history and business. A number of her poems have been published in local newspapers, newsletters, and in a Mom's in the Kitchen cookbook. You may also find her lyrics in a projected CD for Hilltop Records, CA titled America.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (August 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595125034
• ISBN-13: 978-0595125036
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,175,559 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Entertainment, October 10, 2000

By 

Robyn Usdan (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Cause Too Many (Paperback)

In ONE CAUSE TOO MANY, Claire Datnow, writes a story about a fast-paced voyage through the drastic social and economic changes that have taken place in the South over the last fifty years. Valerie Sue Crider, the heroine, is a woman who dares to seek her own identity in the turbulent South of the 1960's. She falls in love with a black gentleman which causes her deep pain and complicated consequences in a white society. Twenty years later, she challenges multimillionaire Sid Rusakoff. Datnow portrays Valerie Sue Crider as a compassionate woman struggling to take control of her future. A woman desperately trying to do what is right, but is faced with cataclysmic events out of her control. The choices that she makes ask the reader to consider their own moral standards. The end of the book is surprising. Datnow is a talented writer. The characters in her book will remind you of people that you have in met in your own life. As you finish the book, you will ask yourself what you would have felt and done if you were in Valerie's shoes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to be savored., October 9, 2000

By 

"citizenew" (Boise, Idaho) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Cause Too Many (Paperback)

Claire Datnow's novel, One Cause Too Many, is the rich and complex story of Valerie Crider, a forty-year-old Southern-born activist struggling to rise above her past. The daughter of a Klansman, Val is haunted by several spectres: her patents' innate bigotry; the death of her brother, Byron, a martyr for the cause of civil rights; her grown son Jason, the product of an interracial affair, whom circumstances forced her to give up for adoption while he was an infant; and her own inability to sustain a meaningful relationship with any of the men who enter her life.

As the novel opens, Valerie has established a semblance of stability after working, and failing, at various charitable or humanistic causes. She is living with Sid Russakoff, a wealthy, 65-year-old entrepreneur; a German Jew who escaped the Nazis as a young man, Sid has his own set of prejudices to deal with. Valerie designs bamboo furniture for a company Sid has set up, assisted by Johnny, a craftsman, and by Medlin Medea, a Mexican who oversees the processing of bamboo from plantations on the Yucatan. The business is thriving, when suddenly Valerie is shot and seriously wounded by an unknown assailant.

Her near-death experience and long recovery force Valerie to confront a number of deep-buried issues. Is Sid truly the man for her? Are the workers Sid employs being fairly treated, or do they deserve a greater share of the profits from the business? Can she-should she-reconcile with the son she gave away? Will she finally be able to come to terms with the death of her beloved brother? Can Val and her bitter mother, Marilyn, ever achieve an understanding of one another?

One Cause Too Many sweeps across three tumultuous decades, encompassing settings from the steamy Amazon to hurricane-wracked Florida, and involving a cast of unique characters who step fully formed from the pages speaking believable dialogue. Claire Datnow's prose is lyrical and evocative: the reader can feel the heat and humidity of the Deep South, see the kudzu creeping like a living carpet and the Spanish moss dripping beard-like from the trees, and smell the magnolia blossoms in the night air. One Cause Too Many is a book to be savored like fine, expensive wine, a vintage with a heady bouquet and an acrid aftertaste that tarries, titillating the tongue.