Liquor Up Front

While I'm waiting for the publicist at Three Rivers Press to realize just how much I need and deserve a review copy of Poppy Z. Brite's new novel, Liquor, I'm biding my time with various reviews. David Winkler-Schmit gives good ink in Brite's hometown paper, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, praising her "insider's knowledge of the kitchen and its lingo." Meanwhile, at the WaPo, Bill Sheehan is equally enthusiastic, and recognizes that this novel is a major turning point for Brite:

It remains to be seen whether the horror fans who make up most of Brite's constituency follow her into this kinder, gentler fictional territory. If they choose not to, the loss will be theirs. As Liquor and its various siblings demonstrate, Brite is a smart, observant novelist with a natural storytelling voice. Her decision to abandon the dark, gothic materials that made her reputation, and to focus instead on the insular society of culinary obsessives, represents both a genuine creative risk and a necessary step in the evolution of a gifted, unpredictable writer.