you can have solice, you can appreciate the fact that you have family. and want to preserve that at whatever the cost is. but i'm not sure that i would ever call that contentment. >> yeah. the relationship between narsis and fellamin's children were complicated. some of the kids called him papa. he had another family where he was the open father to them and lived as their father. i was surprised at the level of tenderness that was expressed between him and the kids and fellamin at times. it almost made him a more sympathetic character than one might imagine. how hard was that for you? >> very, very difficult. i believe that it's very -- it's living with those dualities is indicative of the self because you do have to live with contradictory notions. and that's what i believe that they were doing is living with those notions. >> before writing the book you went to "cane river" to louisiana, did a lot of research, what kind of reception did you get. what obstacles did you find? >> well. depends on which decade you are talking about. i did research starting