Ben Sandmel: Zydeco! (The University Press of Mississippi)
Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 23 August 1999
DEEP SOUTHERN places like Louisiana are packed with little mysteries. At least for us Yankees. We shiver in winter and enjoy a summer that's merely two months long. Folks in Louisiana simmer most of the year in equatorial splendor. We've got pine trees; they've got tropical plants. We have squirrels; they have alligators, for God's sake! And snakes that climb trees. And a peasant cuisine packed with goodies like jambalaya and gumbo and spicy boudin sausage that beats boiled dinners and salt cod any day – even if our crawfish are bigger than theirs and come from the sea.
Total word count of piece: 785