© Sauce*Box, Winter 1997-98. All
rights revert to author.
Book Review
Exquisite Corpse
Poppy Z. Brite
Simon-Schuster, New York, 240 pages
by Guillermo
Bosch
One of the most striking cultural ironies of America in the 90s is the total
irrelevance of our so called moral debate. While we argue about whether
we should have V-chips to block sexual content on cable television, pass
the Defense of Marriage Act or sell Penthouse in the local pharmacy, strip
clubs are more popular than ever, Fortune 500 corporations provide insurance
coverage to same sex couples and mainstream publishing houses bring out
books like Exquisite Corpse. We have become a society in which numerous
groups share the same physical space but exist on completely different levels
of consciousness, one never really speaking to the other or understanding
the other.
Which brings us to Exquisite Corpse, a recent novel by the New Orleans writer Poppy Z. Brite. (What in the air or the hot sauce draws writers like Brite and Anne Rice to New Orleans anyway? Whatever's cooking down there, Brite's previous on-the-edge works: Lost Souls, Drawing Blood and Wormwood, never quite achieved the power of this one.)
Exquisite Corpse is an extraordinary book, not because it is well written (although sometimes the writing is truly excellent), nor because it spins a good tale (although I often found the story very absorbing). Exquisite Corpse is extraordinary because it takes the reader into the mind of a man who murders young men and has sex with their dead bodies, who eventually joins up with another man who kills and eats the flesh of his victims, both of whom fall in love with a beautiful young Vietnamese immigrant who is love with an AIDS infected shock jock who tries to inject his lover with blood containing the virus. Whew! Yeah I know, but what will really get you is that, if you give the narrator a chance, there are times when you will feel, okay, perhaps not sympathetic with, but truly inside the characters, understanding that from their point of view their acts have an almost sacred aura, steeped in primal images of blood, flesh and unifying redemption. Trust me. It happens in spite of yourself.
If you're still with me, what to say about such a book? I liked Exquisite Corpse very much, but it is not a novel for everyone. If you read for a purely erotic or "romantic" experience, then definitely pass on this one. If you read for understanding and to experience what (I hope) you might not otherwise experience, then I think this will be a very moving story which will remain with you long after you've put the book down. But, more importantly, I believe Exquisite Corpse illustrates my arguments made in a previous review of Laura Kipnis' non-fiction study of pornography and fantasy in America, "Bound and Gagged:" That writing like Ms. Brite's has the ability to cut through our defenses and make us think the unthinkable and thus it performs a valuable social function. This literature must not be banned. I guarantee Exquisite Corpse will shock, disturb and leave you seeing the world a little differently. But you'll emerge from the experience just fine. I promise.
* * * * *
Your critique of this work is appreciated.
Please e-mail the author.