Liquor

Poppy Z. Brite

I have once again committed the abomination of reading a series out of order. I read Prime earlier this year and enjoyed it a great deal, then needed to go back and rectify the error of not having previously read Liquor. I have now done so. I'm still trying to decide whether I should have read them in order or not.

Liquor is the story of two born-and-bred New Orleans chefs, John Rickey and Gary "G-Man" Stubbs, trying to open a restaurant. As if the day-to-day grind of opening a restaurant isn't enough, they have some questions about the character of their financial backer, a deranged enemy or two, and the possibility of the Bad Restaurant Curse falling over their heads. Sometimes it's hard to just get along when everything around you isn't.

As much as I liked Prime, Liquor is the (slightly) better novel. It's odd, because it's usually the other way around-- the book that does all the character and setting setup is normally slower, while the books after it pick right up and fly from page one. Here, however, Brite opens us with Rickey and G-Man sitting in a tree, lamenting the moron who recently fired them, and Rickey coming up with the idea for a restaurant. Bang, you're out of the gate. Forget this "stopping the action to build character" stuff, Brite knows how to do it right-- get your readers to know your characters by what they do, not what you tell them. And Rickey and G-Man, as well as the supporting cast here, are are very well-drawn, despite the pace not flagging for a second. It is a book that demands late-nights and skipped meals (though the last is something of a conundrum, because it will make you very, very hungry).

Insert your own stupid food pun here; I'm reviewing this a year and change late, so all the others got there before me with the stupid food puns. I'll just say it's brilliant. Supplants Exquisite Corpse as my favorite Brite novel.