Noumenal Net

Food has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve recently moved into a new home after staying with family since Katrina. I always believed the first meal I would prepare for myself in my new kitchen would be gumbo or some other New Orleans staple, but after months of living off my mother’s hillbilly diet of salted fat in various (but not too various) forms, my cravings have been for simpler, lighter foods. The first meal I cooked in my own kitchen was grilled vegetables, prepared on the indoor grill my mother gave me (presumably because it might render her own cooking a little too healthy). I very much appreciate my mother’s kindness during these difficult times, but my arteries need a break.
    
    This was the head-space (and food-space) I was in when I picked up Prime by Poppy Z Brite, a book that caused me to crave foods I cannot afford.
    
    Many may remember Poppy Z Brite as the cute goth darling from New Orleans who delivered unto us such cult fare as Lost Souls and  Drawing Blood. These are good books, and Ms Brite is a talented and hard-working writer, but so many of her earlier works became a badge of gothdom, and a well-thumbed copy of Lost Souls became as necessary a fashion statement in certain circles as black lace and heavy eyeliner.
    
    One might wonder how Ms Brite’s younger fans view her change in writing direction but overall her new books seem to have gotten a warm reception from her readers. Her latest novels show a greater maturity of both themes and writing style, and if her readers are maturing with her, then it stands to reason they will enjoy her most recent offerings.
    
    I read Prime before reading its predecessor, Liquor but I was familiar with the main characters, Rickey and G-man, from some of Ms Brite’s previous short stories. Rickey and G-man are long-time lovers who co-own a restaurant  in mid-city New Orleans named Liquor.  When asked by a Texas restaurant-owner to come to Dallas for a high-paying, week-long consulting job, Rickey unwittingly stumbles into the midst of a conspiracy involving Liquor’s wealthy celebrity-chef backer Lenny and the enemies Lenny has made.
    
    The plot is interesting and solid, and unfolds slowly, though there is nothing slow about the book itself. That’s because the plot is nestled comfortably in a tangle of eccentric characters, tumultuous relationships, lively activities and restaurant intrigue.
    
    A lot of the more humourous situations were more so because I’ve experienced them recently. I can certainly sympathise with Rickey’s perplexities over certain Dallas customs, having myself recently attempted to buy liquor on a Sunday in the Bible Belt. The New Orleanian tends to forget that the rest of the US has certain days and times it can drink alcohol, times ordained, it seems, by Jehovah himself. Why he lets New Orleans slide on this is beyond me.
    
    The characters are impeccably written. Rickey and G-man  feel like old friends or next door neighbors. Its obvious Ms Brite has become intimate with her main characters and she manages to paint them with a throroughness and clarity one rarely sees in a work of fiction. The supporting cast are wonderfully weird but believeable, especially against the backdrop of my, up until recently, hometown of New Orleans..
    
      Ms Brite’s writing-style has become more relaxed, more straightforward, but no less sharp. She assails the reader with not just vivid imagery, but sounds, scents, tastes and textures. In Prime she has also become a fearless writer, unafraid of breaking a few rules. The primary “writer’s rule” of “show, don’t tell” gets broken a lot in Prime. Ms Brite tells, and she tells beautifully. Her lengthy descriptive lists of succulent dishes and ingredients are craving-inducing. I would linger over these expositive paragraphs, my mouth watering, wondering if there were a restaurant in my neighborhood that served roulade of venison with artichoke hearts and preserved lemon, or Hazelnut-crusted Wagyu beef filet with roasted garlic an kirsch glacage. Thankfully there isn’t, I’d be spending a fortune I definitely don’t have.
    
    Ms Brite is married to a chef and certainly knows her food, as well as the ins and outs of the restaurant world. My former co-habitational partner was a chef and I know how tough and crazy it can get in a kitchen, and Ms Brite captures the frustrations, the obsessions, the exhaustions and the enjoyment realistically, but in a thoroughly entertaining manner.
    

    Prime is an excellent read, well-written, fast paced, and it never flags.It shows the reader a side of New Orleans the tourist rarely gets to see, a city both rich and poor, big but never easy, a city thats wild about its food, as well as just plain wild.