Antediluvian Tales [Hardcover]

Since late 2005 I have maintained that the greatest failure (among many) of the George W. Bush administration is not the loss of life in Iraq but the loss of a complete American city, and a special one at that: New Orleans. Among others, Chicago and San Francisco experienced great natural disasters but came back stronger and better than ever. In this collection of short stories, Poppy Z. Brite, one of The Big Easy's most prolific chroniclers, and one of the city's biggest fans, makes clear that that is not happening in New Orleans. In the foreward she refers to her "ruined" house and to how her work has "changed forever." She states that New Orleans will "never exist [as it was] again." In the final story, the title says it all: "The Last Good Day of My Life." All in all, lots of poignancy interspersed with the eclectic writing for which Poppy is well-known. Generally, I am not a great fan of short stories, by this or any other author. I much prefer Poppy's full-length "Liquor" series novels. (Even D*U*C*K, her latest, has been downgraded to a $35 "novella.") Still, the stories that comprise "Tales", especially those featuring the members of the Stubbs family, are beautifully written and most satisfying, if all too short. Poppy being Poppy, the stories about Dr. Brite, either an alter-ego or doppleganger (who knows?), are downright weird. Poppy provides two sets of instructions on the order in which to read these stories, which is not necessarily from front to back. In a larger sense, my advice is to not read "Antediluvian Tales" until you have read other samples of her work; otherwise, "Tales" will make no sense. And, as we have for over two years, we eagerly await her post-deluvian tales, especially concerning Rickey and G-man.

The stories in the book are short and the entire set can easily be digested on a lazy Saturday sipping sweet spearmint tea in ones backyard hammock(which is precisely what I did).

The stories are snapshots into the lives of the Stubbs family and to a lesser extent into the author's alter ego Dr. Brite a character as transgendered and special as any Second Life avatar. Each one is also a snapshot into the life of the city from the 60's and 70's until right before Katrina.

The best to me is "Four Flies and a Swatter". I vividly remember staying up all night in the French Quarter following an Ole Miss/LSU or Ole Miss/Tulane football game trying to make our way back to the hotel without being ravaged as bartenders hosed downed the sidewalks in front of their establishments. The story takes place in a bourbon street bar early one morning and reads like the telling of an Urban Legend. Its very enjoyable and ends like an M. Night Shalayman movie.

The stories about the Stubbs-Bonnanos remind me of my own family down in New Orleans. My Big Daddy's big Italian Catholic family on my Mother's side (he was her step dad) and my Dad's own Irish/French family. The New Orleans of the 70's in these stories is the New Orleans I most vividly remember from visits to my Grandmere's shotgun duplex on Frenchman's Street and to my Aunts' homes in Kenner and River Ridge. Brite accurately describes how the neighborhoods deteriorated over the years.

Some of the stories have a supernatural content just like the city itself. I used to get a chill as a child going into certain areas of the city. I don't know if there were really spirits lurking about or if it was leftovers from the stories of Marie Laveau my sisters, my cousins, and I would tell in the dark at sleepovers.

Brite's epilogue on her last visit overseas before the storm is very touching. Her visit to Australia seems so humdrum until you realize how much suffering she and her family will soon endure. You completely understand her reluctance to be so far away again.

It's very touching for me as my friend Rondo lives down in the Garden District and survived Katrina and her fiance EC who I adopted as my sister is from Gold Coast Australia. Rondo is about 15 years younger than me and it seemed like everytime I mentioned a thing or a place I liked, she'd say they don't make that anymore (Dixie Beer) or they went out of Business (Antoine's). I've come to realize my New Orleans is that of Tennessee Williams, John Kennedy Toole, and William Faulkner; Rondo's is that of John Grisham, Anne Rice, and Poppy Z. Brite. Mine is gone forever.

This new collection of short stories by PZB is truly among her best. Most of the stories focus on the Stubbs family (some of these previously unpublished, only released in chapbooks or online), while others focus on Brite's alter-ego Dr. Brite. This is a must for readers of the Liquor series or Brite fans in general.

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