then I have sold out. If I write booksnthat whites feel comfortable with,nthen I have sold out.nAs a reader who is neither black nornfeminist, and certainly not lesbian, I cannattest that Walker has not “sold out” innthis novel. The most controversial of hernthemes develops as Celie begins to discovernher lesbian liberation. In answernto Freud’s question about what womennreally want. Walker’s novel suggests thatnthey have always had it right at hand, sonto speak.nBut The Color Purple is more than thensum of this drivel. If I call the novel a disappointment,nI intend to pay a compliment.nIt is disappointing because AlicenWalker can write, and some of the booknis very good. Walker’s ear for the rhythmsnand flavor of her black folk English cannbe astonishing. In Celie’s letters to Godnthere are moments of pathos that risenabove the soap opera of the plot. But thenpassion of the author does her in, and ultimatelynshe sacrifices truth for propaganda.nAlthough neither literary historynnor Walker’s public statements ofiernmuch assurance of it, the author’s obviousntalent gives reason to hope that hernart will grow and not contract.nJylarshland Brace, apparentiy a firstnbook by Chris Segura, a Louisiana journalistnwho has drawn two remarkablynfresh and readable novellas out of thenCajun traditions of the Louisiana swamps,nis a pleasant surprise. The Cajun culturenis one of the truly unique traditions preservednin America, and it is remarkablenthat more writers have not recognizednits literary potential. There must benothers, but the only previous treatmentnthat comes to mind is Longfellow’s 19thcenturynsentimental classic Evangeline,nwhich of course depicts the SouthernnAcadian origins and not the Cajun traditions.nIn Segura’s book the swamps—ornmarshes—of southwest Louisiana begetna world of violence, passion, and hope.nThe dark depths of the swamps becomena kind of heart of darkness where thencharacters discover their own strengthsnand resources and weaknesses. The firstnand lesser of the Brace, “Tranesse”n(“Marsh Passage”), is narrated by an oldntrapper who had once pursued into thenvery heart of the swamp an old acquaintancenwho had murdered his entire femily.n”Tranesse” is exciting and readablenthroughout, but Segura makes his claimnon our serious attention vwth the longernsecond work. “Les Perdues” (“The LostnOnes”) is the familiar initiation story innwhich a young boy must pass flrom theninnocence of schoolboy rivalries and romancesninto the mysteries and responsibilitiesnof manhood. The ritaal passagenoccurs suddenly when three generationsnof the protagonist’s femily, male andnfemale, make their aimual trapping expeditionn(of several weeks duration)ninto the depths of the marshes, and he isnentrusted for the first time to handle hisnown trapping, so important to the femily’snexistence. The family tensions, hiddennat first, surface quickly, and thenyoung man is drawn into the terriblensecret he must finally share with hisnmother, his fether, and his uncle.nSegura is almost completely successfulnin evoking a magical world withnwhich few readers will be femiliar. Thenphysical reality of the marshlands is almostnpalpable, and the depiction of thenCajun culture is even more striking. Thenstrong claims which family and regionnThe Music MasknWolfgang Hildesheimer: Mozart;nFarrar, Straus & Giroux; New York.nby Daniel Dickinsonnii^win1 here never was a good biographynof a good novelist,” F. Scott Fitzgeraldnonce wrote, “there couldn’t be. He is toonmany people if he’s any good.” The samenmight be said of composers, perhapsnespecially of composers. A novel, afternMr. Dickinson is director of the ProductivitynCommunication Center in Bostonnnnmake on the characters, their very intimatenbonds with a nature that bothngives and takes, and the wonderfialnpatois of Cajun speech are all renderednwith authority. For readers to whom thisnmusical American dialect is foreign, ansample should suffice;n’But you have to bathe, yes, Leland,’nhis mother said Today is Palm Sunday,nyes. And we all going to town, us, tonget the palms blessed, yes. You too,nand don’t you know it, you. Mais, youngoing to stink the whole big church,nyou.’nI can only suggest here Segura’s achievementnin accomplishing what the bestnSouthern writers have usually attempted.nThe author has vividly rendered the distinctivenflavor of a regional culture whilensimultaneously raising his story to thenuniversal and the timeless.nThe object lesson of these four worksnis about the problems of writing within anregional tradition when the regions arenhardly discernible. If the South seems tonbe the chief casualty of the Agrarians’ndoomsday prophecy, then the few remainingnpockets of autonomous cultarenshould be on guard. In the meantime,nwe should encourage writers like Seguranwho have taken the measure of theirnown littie “postage stamp” of Americannsoil. DnaU, is a form of verbal communication:nwithin it we can find hints of the author’snlife and experiences, pieces of a puzzlenthat may or may not fit. But what does ansymphony intimate about its author?nArchibald MacLeish wrote that “A poemnshould not mean/But be.” Isn’t this alsontrue of music?nIn Mozart, German playwright andnpainter Wolfgang Hildesheimer tries tonamifie the life of a genius who expressednhimself solely through his art “Our task,”nHerr Hildesheimer writes, “is to blot outnexisting ideas, but not to mediate be-nSiiiS5nJune 1983n