[Gaines's] best writing is marked by what Ralph Ellison, describing the blues,
called near-tragic, near-comic lyricism.Newsweek

Catherine Carmier is a compelling love story set in a deceptively bucolic Louisiana countryside,
where blacks, Cajuns, and whites maintain an uneasy coexistence. After living in San Francisco for ten
years, Jackson returns home to his benefactor, Aunt Charlotte. Surrounded by family and old friends,
he discovers that his bonds to them have been irreparably rent by his absence. In the midst of his
alienation from those around him, he falls in love with Catherine Carmier, setting the stage for conflicts
and confrontations which are complex, tortuous, and universal in their implications.