BOOK REVIEW: NOVEL : Where the Women Have Powers That Men Envy : VOODOO DREAMS: A Novel of Marie Laveau <i> by Jewell Parker Rhodes</i> , St. Martins Press, $22.95, 436 pages

Novelists get their inspirations in the funniest ways: For this impressive debut novel about the life of Marie Laveau, the legendary 19th-Century voodoo priestess, Jewell Parker Rhodes was inspired not by her New Orleans background (she was born in Pittsburgh), but by a Time-Life cookbook on Creole cuisine that happened to mention Laveau in one of the recipes.

Then as is so often the case, Parker Rhodes, once aware of Laveau, kept stumbling across references--or “signs”--that she had found a worthy subject. There are legions of stories about Laveau; they say she sucked poison from a snake, murdered two men, raised the dead and walked on water. It is on this watery foundation of myth and oral history that Parker Rhodes builds her highly detailed, intensely emotional novel.

The time is the early 1800s and we are in New Orleans, where white “aristos,” black Creoles and African slaves live and love, hate and fight: The aristos have the privilege of race and wealth; the Creoles and the slaves rely on their wits and the power of voodoo.

This particular story--Marie Laveau coming of age--”spirals from the center”; the novel, divided into three sections, begins in the middle of her tale, then for a while moves back in time. Having the middle first gives the reader a nice bit of back story, as well as setting up a mystery that will be solved in the conclusion.

Although the novel contains only one historical figure, Marie Laveau, Parker Rhodes creates an interesting matrilineal family structure: four generations of women all named Marie Laveau--Grandmere, the first Marie; Maman Marie, her daughter (who dies before the novel begins); Marie Laveau, the third Marie and our heroine, and her baby daughter.

This structure not only gives us an intimate look at one family where the art of voodoo is passed from generation to generation, but we also see that if there is more than one woman who calls herself Marie Laveau, the legend of such a woman might grow to astronomical proportions. The supporting characters are richly drawn and compelling. On the white side of town, there is Antoine--an aristo rogue who has earned and drank away an entire slave-trading fortune. There is Bridgette Delavier, his beautiful sister, a New Orleans lady at once elevated and entrapped by her Southern charms, and her husband, Louis Delavier, a Northerner who is in love with Marie Laveau and starts trouble with his abolitionist newspaper editorials.

On the black side of town, there is Nattie, a Haitian woman who both envies and worships the voodoo powers of the four Maries; John, the roadside shyster who seeks to make a fortune from the powers of Marie Laveau, and Ribaud, the stooped but kindhearted old man who plays the drums for Marie and becomes her friend, a Caliban of sorts.

We learn that the Maries have the power of voodoo because they are the “daughters” of Damballah, the snake god. It enrages John that Damballah will give the power of voodoo only to women.

It is an interesting twist on the Adam and Eve story--the snake god chooses a woman for power, not sin: “After all these years, I would’ve felt something, don’t you think? If Damballah was real, he would’ve come to me. Who says a woman is the key? Why should she be?” John rationalizes to himself.

Of course, what is most exciting in the book are the renditions of the voodoo sessions. The author not only captures the dazzle and showmanship of voodoo, but we also get the interior voice of Laveau: her pain at faking some of the voodoo when she is uninspired because she knows if she does not come through, John will beat her.

We also see Laveau’s innocence and shock when Damballah gives her abilities beyond the human scope. We see her age from 16 to 80, and we see her evolve from vibrant, beautiful young voodiene --voodoo priestess--to elderly widow who does charity for the Catholic church. It is an overwhelming journey and one that Parker Rhodes navigates with skill and imagination.