European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 5, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Books  author proud to be a half a Bubble off plumb by Verlyn Kunk Enborg los Angeles times it is part of the National character of american writers to take Pride in their eccentricity and to claim at the same time that they Are representative men and women. This does no to mean that America is a nation of eccentrics. It Means that american writers a those who work the grand vein of letters in this country a like to leave no terrain unclaimed. Walt Whitman wrote a the americans of All nations at any time upon the Earth have probably the fullest poetical  every nation every epoch has had its americans Whitman says you can Tell the writers among them by their encyclopedic souls even if they often look like Cranks. Whitman comes to mind while Reading pair Perth a deep map the new Book about Kansas by William least heat Moon author of the bestselling Blue highways. Melville and Emerson come to mind too. There is a spiritual transcendence and egotistical largesse not to mention uns tinted research in pair Perth that will seem familiar to readers at Home in mid-19th-Century american classics. But the writer among that tribe whom heat Moon most resembles is Thoreau. Not Thoreau of the journals or Walden not the naturalist or civic philosopher but Thoreau As he appeared in the eyes of his countrymen a half cracked solitary socially impracticable figure who found himself a Home in the Woods no doubt to the everlasting amusement of his neighbors. In pair Perth heat Moon quoting local Opin a William least heat Moon spent six years in Chase county kan., for pair Perth Ion Calls himself a half a Bubble off  he has a number of names for himself in this Book All self mocking and yet All slyly celebratory. He is a a two bit Mystic a an a inspector of the Ordinary a a a grousing  he takes some Pride in his capacity to mingle with the Plain spoken residents of Chase county Kansas a the place at the heart of pair Perth a and yet he is just As proud of Chase county a suspicion. To be half a Bubble off plumb by local reckoning is to be about dead level to William least heat Moon. Like Blue highways heat Moons Book about his wanderings around americans pair Perth is a Story about americans Side roads. But this time heat Moon stays within the Borders of a single county a county where predictably he finds plenty of dimensions invisible to Ordinary travellers. Chase county lies about Halfway Between Topeka and Wichita in the midst of the Flint Hills a Region of rolling Topography ranches and native Prairie grasses. From a National perspective a on the trivializing level of news that is a the most interesting thing that Ever happened there happened in 1931, when Knute Rockne died in a plane crash not far from the Little town of Bazaar. Chase county is the kind of place where when the wind Dies Down and the grasses fall still the silence seems to Echo overhead and a writer seated on the Prairie taking notes is Likely to write a Good god in a the Only thing happening  heat Moon spent six years happening in the county following his nose Hunting up the Small stories that Are the life of Rural living. They turn out in the end not to be so Small. The strength of pair Perth is that of the people the Reader sees sometimes clearly sometimes Only dimly through its pages. Some Are settlers some their descendants some worked on the Railroad some worked cattle one even ran a feminist town cafe in red meat country. Some of the people who appear in pair Perth belong to the Public history of Chase county and of America but most belong now to the private and largely vanished memory of individuals. They Are extraordinary people like the Young Man who wrote in 1839, Quot having sic nothing else to do i sit fire to the  pair Perth is a Rich and revealing work but it is also full of problems one of which is its Structure. Every chapter reads like a fresh beginning a reopening of the subject and in a Book As Long As this one a 622 pages that is a trial for the Reader. You can crack pair Perth at almost any Page and find something Worth Reading but it feels much less profitable to approach it As a thoroughfare Reader intent on getting somewhere. Six years the length of time heat Moon spent in Chase county would be about Long enough for Reading pair Perth. The stars and stripes Book department says pair Perth is available in its  Lack Black character by Deb Riechmann the associated press few whodunit have Black detectives a too few to suit Barbara Mertz a White mystery writer who has written dozens of novels under the pen names Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters. I he h4-year-old writer was astonished at what she saw several years ago while attending the International mystery writers convention in new York. A there i am at this convention. In a looking around and i did no to Sec anyone of color. Everyone was caucasoid a said Merle who lives near Frederick my. Quot there were one or two latinos in the group. There May have been a Black but 1 never Laid eyes on one. And i thought a what a narrow spectrum we  a while there Are Many Good Black women writers. There arc to the Best of my knowledge none writing mystery  a few years later the same thought rattled in her brain. She was chairwoman of a mystery writers of America committee Reading 280 mystery and suspense books to judge the year s Best novel. A again. I noticed that few characters were Black a Mertz said. A a in a a die hard feminist and i got to thinking we need some Black women mystery  she acted by giving s 100,000 to Hood College in Frederick to set up a scholarship fund to encourage minority students especially women to pursue a career in mystery writing. Mertz said women traditionally have been fairly Well represented among mystery and suspense novelists. She estimated that about 40 percent Are women. A women in the mystery business a we done to need to be introduced into the Field. They Are Well  she said. Quot but Black women a that a a Gap. I believe in affirmative action thank you very  . Rahn an associate professor of English at Hunter College in new York said there Are few minority mystery writers because there Are few minority writers. A a they be been on the losing end of education and Are not Well represented in any of the writing Fields a Rahn said. She said More minority authors were getting published As minorities generally made More strides into All Fields. Percy Spurlark Parker a 51 year old Black mystery writer from Chicago said a there Are Black mystery writers out there. They be been in the fiction for years but not circulated  Frankie y. Bailey a criminologist at the state University of new Yorkus school of criminal Justice in Albany said she knows of Only about 10 Black mystery writers. Bailey of Guilderland n.y., recently completed a Book titled our of the Wood pile Black characters in crime and detective fiction. She said that up through the 1920s and 1930s, most Blacks in mystery stories were depicted As slaves servants or minstrels. In the 1940s, Blacks were still servants but they began playing More prominent roles in the plots. In 1953, author Veronica Parker Johns character Webster Flagg a Black caretaker was the hero solving the mystery of who killed his Boss. In the 1960s and 1970s, authors wrote about Black policemen and detectives. Black women who up until then were typecast As prostitutes began being the wives and girlfriends of the detectives. White mystery writers often shy away from Black characters because they Are unfamiliar w Ith Black culture and lifestyles and Are afraid of creating stereotypes Bailey said and when they do use Black characters those characters tend lobe criminals because the writers fail to realize that Middle class or professional Blacks live much the same Way and have Many of the same values As Middle class and professional Whites. A a the White writers Are trying but i wish there were More Black writers out there because i think they can do it  she said. A sunday january 5, 1992