Books: Jambalaya

THE CAJUNS: FROM ACADIA TO LOUISIANA by William Faulkner Rushton Farrar, Straus & Giroux 342 pages; $15.95

Fans call him the "Ragin' Cajun" and "Louisiana Lightnin'." By any other name he is Ron Guidry, the best pitcher in baseball—and the best known of that group of 900,000 French-speaking Louisianians, descendants of French farmer-fishermen, who live in the bayou country south and west of New Orleans. Except for Guidry's left arm, Cajuns are known mostly by hearsay. They are reputed to play strange-sounding accordion music, make a mean gumbo, and generally be as colorful as...