A Cajun Life

A Cajun Life is a tale of love, loss, grief and recovery as Clovis and his son Jacques come of age in the heart of Cajun country. Clovis falls in love with Celeste at the tender age of thirteen. The story follows Clovis as he grows into a man and asks Celeste to marry him. They overcome initial opposition by Celeste's father and marry in the summer of 1941. The young couple's love is strained when Clovis wants to enlist in the Marines after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They survive that rough patch and manage to stay strong throughout Clovis's absences during the war.

 

Tragically, Celeste dies a few short weeks after delivering their son, Jacques. Celeste's dying wish is unusual and controversial in the 1940s rural south---she asks her black housekeeper, Tallulah, to care for her son until Clovis returns from the war. Tallulah and her daughter, Marion, care for Jacques, just as they promised until the war ends and Clovis returns home.

 

Upon arriving home, Clovis is distracted from being a father due to the loss of his wife, his workload at his business and his alcoholism brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a by-product of combat in the battle of Iwo Jima. Tallulah and Marion give Jacques the motherly love every child needs. He also receives and lessons and guidance from Dubuclet, the sage of Bayou Teche, and Jacques's and Marion's teacher.

 

Dubuclet is an intellectual from a wealthy family whose old sugar plantation is located just outside of New Orleans. He received an excellent education from universities in Europe and now spends his days in a small, cypress cottage on the banks of Bayou Teche. Dubuclet's dream was to teach, but the local school boards in Louisiana would not hire a black man despite his academic credentials and passion for teaching. Due to a strange turn of events, Dubuclet's dream of teaching in an integrated school becomes a reality but not without a clash with those who don't want an integrated school.

 

Jacques grows into a headstrong teenager who finds himself in several precarious situations. At his wit's end, Clovis asks Dubuclet for advice. Dubuclet recommends giving Jacques more substantial responsibilities. Clovis turns over the management of the family homestead, Bellevue, to Jacques who flourishes with the new responsibility.

 

Jacques's moral courage is tested when he goes to New Iberia to help his extended family bring in the rice harvest and help maintain the machinery at the rice mill. One of the employees, Karl, feels threatened by Jacques and bullies him. The bullying ends when Jacques witnesses Karl commit a heinous crime. Jacques tells his elder cousin what he witnessed between Karl and a homeless girl. Jacques's eye witness account is supported by an unlikely source, Karl's girlfriend, Monika.

 

A Cajun Life closes with Jacques's decision to attend college at Audubon University in New Orleans. During the trip to the bus station in Morgan City, Clovis realizes he was not open enough with Jacques over the years. This being the last opportunity, Clovis, with tears streaming down his fact, tells Jacques that he loves him.  

 

Cajun history, traditions, and culture are common threads throughout the book. Cajuns' began to settle in south Louisiana in the mid-1700s, after their expulsion by British forces from modern day Nova Scotia. A Cajun Life also provides insight to readers about Marine Corps culture through Clovis's war time experiences. The battle of Iwo Jima war scenes gives the reader a glimpse into the ravages of war and a small understanding of the battle that was a turning point in the war against the Japanese in the 1940's.