CAJUN SKETCHES From the Prairies of Southwest Louisiana<i> By Lawrence C. Post (Louisiana State University Press: $9.95, illustrated) </i>

After their expulsion from Nova Scotia by the British in 1755, most of the French colonists known as “Acadians” settled on the plains of Southwest Louisiana, where the name was corrupted into Cajun . Lawrence Post’s book, which reads like a series of lectures in a basic college course, covers virtually every aspect of Cajun life. The more interesting chapters offer insights into the status of African Americans in the Acadian communities, where people of different races apparently married with relative ease: Registries of old cattle brands reveal many “Free People of Color” there before the Civil War. But “Sketches” often seems unnecessarily dry, and quotes from diaries or interviews are needed to give a more personal dimension to the discussions of marriage, music, birth and death.