cover image The Temple of My Familiar

The Temple of My Familiar

Alice Walker. Pocket Books, $7.99 (416pp) ISBN 978-0-671-68399-3

Part love story, part fable, part feminist manifesto, part political statement, Walker's novel follows a cast of interrelated characters, most of them black. and each representing a differ ent ethnic strain that contributes to the black experience in America. Marred by didacticism, theorizing and pontificating, ``the book never achieves the narrative power of The Color Purple ,'' noted PW . (May)