Susan Isaacs's Critique of Ntozake Shange's Sassafrass, Cypress, and IndigoSusan Isaacs finds Ntozake Shange's first novel, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, to be moderately entertaining and enjoyable, but the his writing, "sometimes loses a thread and makes a mess" (395). Isaacs praises Shange's style, while finding fault with some of the techniques he employs. The main character who is introduced to readers in the Post Modern American Fiction excerpt from Shange's novel, Sassafrass Cypress, and Indigo, is Indigo, the youngest of Shange's three daughters. the story. Indigo's character borders on the mystical. She has dolls that she still talks to and a violin that Sister Mary Louise, a friend of Indigo, observes, "Too much of the Holy Spirit has gone out of Indigo and that violin" (Shange, 44). One of Isaacs' criticisms has to do with Indigo's use of magic. Indigo is an avid violin player, "she had mastered the hum of twilight, the crescendos of cicadas, the marshy swirls in light winds, the thunders at high tide, and the laughter of her mother down the hall" (Shange, 45). The technique of mixing magic and violin playing does not appeal to Isaacs, who states: "It is an intriguing idea, but it fails because, although the author tries to present Indigo as an innocent sage, a mystical power, a joyful embodiment of black wit, the rhetoric of her musings is earthy radical feminist, predictable, and silly..." Isaacs continues her criticism of the idea that Indigo has magical abilities and of the use of magic as a plot and as part of Indigo's character, saying: "And if Indigo's dark magic is real,... How can she and her people, a people with such powerful magic, tolerate the evils the author so movingly catalogs?" (396). Isaacs questions the reason for Indigo's magical and mystical qualities and continues on this track, wondering if the magic could be a metaphor, Indigo's fantasy, or Shange's representation of black folklore. Regardless of the intended portrayal of Indigo's magical qualities, Isaacs feels that it is "not presented with sufficient clarity. The reader remains mildly fond of Indigo – people who talk to dolls can be enchanting – but is still confused about her role in the novel" (394). Despite Isaacs' problems with the novel's structure and some of the devices and techniques that Shange used in developing her character, he praises Shange as a writer, comparing her art to weaving, a skill shared by both her mother and eldest daughter in Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo.